Thomas Daschle: “I share his view that we ought to do all we can to address the question of energy policy in this country. I certainly…”

“I share his view that we ought to do all we can to address the question of energy policy in this country. I certainly recognize its priority as we consider all of the competing issues we have to address. I have indicated to him on several occasions that I was very concerned about the decision he has made to limit the amount of debate on the Energy bill to a matter of a couple of days. We will start on Monday and obviously the scheduled recess is to begin on Friday. We have a lot of amendments. If I recall, it is over 320 amendments pending. Frankly, I don't know how one can accommodate the amendments contemplated in that brief period of time. In the last Congress, we voted 88 to 11 to pass a comprehensive Energy bill, but it took 144 amendments and 8 weeks of floor debate to reach that accomplishment. We spent significantly less time debating the Energy bill this year. In total, we have spent about 9 days, with 24 amendments, and only 12 rollcall votes. We have not addressed the many issues remaining. I am told not 320 amendments but 382 amendments are currently pending, including a renewable portfolio standard to require utilities to generate 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by the year 2020.”