Ron Wyden: “It is the hope of the bipartisan group of Senators that have followed this issue that this program, run by the Minerals…”

“It is the hope of the bipartisan group of Senators that have followed this issue that this program, run by the Minerals Management Service, can be corrected. These are costly, costly mistakes involving billions of dollars. The Presiding Officer, the Senator from North Carolina, has been a great advocate of renewable energy. For example, think what you could do if you took just a fraction of the money that is being wasted on royalty relief and moved it to the renewable energy field. You could help stimulate renewable energy production and reduce the deficit simultaneously. So that is what the bipartisan group of Senators want to do on this key issue. Since I talked at some length about this a few weeks ago, I think I will move on to the other pocketbook issue. But I do hope, with hundreds of bills having been introduced in the Senate in both the energy and health care areas, that as we go into these last days of the session, the focus can be on those pieces of legislation that have significant bipartisan support. That is true in the case of oil royalty relief and cutting those needless subsidies. It is also true with respect to prescription drugs, and I will wrap up with a few comments in that regard. Mr. President, on the prescription drug issue, we saw, just a few days ago, two reports issued, one by AARP and the other by Families USA, indicating we have seen a very significant increase in the cost of prescription medicine since the beginning of this year.…”