Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I am so pleased that finally we are going to address an energy policy for our country. It has been a long time coming. I…”

“I am so pleased that finally we are going to address an energy policy for our country. It has been a long time coming. I thought, even since before I came to the Senate, we were not looking forward enough to address the future energy needs of our country. September 11, 2001, turned an energy policy from a possible economic, far-reaching element that we should put into our policy think-tanks to a national security issue. The fact is, if we do not have energy supplies within our own country, under the control of our own country, we are not going to be a country that is economically self-sufficient, strong, and stable. And we most certainly cannot prosecute this war on terrorism if we do not have a strong and stable economy. The fact is, today we import 60 percent of our oil for national consumption. If we had a sudden closing of Middle East oil to our country, it would have a profound impact on the stability of our economy. What we cannot take, as we are looking at a fragile recovery in our economy, is another hit. We have the chance to do what is right, to plan for the future, and to stabilize our self-sufficiency. What we need is a balanced energy policy. We need a policy that addresses conservation, that says to Americans: You can do certain things and cut back on your consumption, and that will save millions of barrels of oil that we would need to import or millions of feet of natural gas or electricity or whatever.…”