Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I want to address the energy issue. I heard Senators on the floor earlier today talking about the high price of…”

“I want to address the energy issue. I heard Senators on the floor earlier today talking about the high price of gasoline, as if it is the President's fault. I would remind everyone we have an energy bill we are two votes short of having cloture to pass. We passed it in the Senate. We passed it in the House. We have 58 votes to move it forward and we can't get the 60 votes it takes to break a filibuster. I ask the Senators who are concerned about high energy prices if they would consider voting to get the energy conference report agreed to so the President can sign it because it is a bill that will provide incentives for exploring, incentives for creating new energy resources, incentives for bringing Alaska gas down--which will be a huge help toward self-sufficiency in our country. It has incentives for renewable fuel, for the kind of fuel that will be burning clean, such as nuclear powerplants, and to have clean coal-burning and other new technologies. There is so much in the Energy bill that would bring our country into self-sufficiency and we can't get the Energy bill passed. I think Congress should take the responsibility to see this bill goes through. We have tried to pass an energy bill for 10 years and we need to do it. We need to take control ourselves. It is time for us to do this for the American people. The high price of gasoline is set at our feet, and we can do something about it.”