Joe Barton: “If this is the energy amendment of the decade, what happened to the Markey-Boehlert amendment on CAFE in the last…”

“If this is the energy amendment of the decade, what happened to the Markey-Boehlert amendment on CAFE in the last Congress, or the pending Markey amendment on CAFE in this Congress, or the amendment on ANWR in the last Congress, or the pending amendments we are going to have on the climate change bill that is going to come out later this fall, or the vote on the Energy Policy Act conference report, which is the most comprehensive energy bill in the last 40 years that has been adopted? If this is now the energy amendment of the decade, my friends on the majority are not planning on doing much on energy in the next decade. It is a worthy amendment. It is good to have a bipartisan debate. Renewable Portfolio Standards are obviously something that need to be debated and discussed and continually developed. But I do not believe this is the energy amendment vote of the decade.”