Joe Barton: “I have great respect for Mississippi, and when I am told that their network... has almost all been spent and it is…”

I can't tell you how excited I am to have this hearing. It's really exciting for me.

I am a little bit skeptical if we are doing this simply because we don't like natural gas power, we don't like coal power, we don't like nuclear power, because that would be an added cost that somebody's got to bear.

We are just trying to adopt the SPR to the modern situation.

I don't want to speak for the Department of Energy, but the draft legislation allows, without going through the appropriation process, funds generated by using this facility for private purposes to be used for maintenance of the facility.