Political Quotes

“there is a very good reason why we do not have an energy bill: the only bill this House can consider, this one, is a sorry piece of legislation. The only energy bill that we have is one that relies on the energy of generous campaign fund-raising and high-powered lobbying. It encourages pollution and it discourages conservation. Instead of securing our energy independence, it ensures our continued overdependence on countries as volatile as the oil they possess. This bill pays some pretense to supporting renewable energy, but the focus is definitely not on conservation or sustainable energy. The real focus is on subsidizing the same high-pollution industries that we have always relied on, with $32.5 billion in tax incentives and loan guarantees. One of the best examples of the energy scams that are in this bill is the so-called synthetic fuels tax credit, the ``synfuels'' credit, and my, is it a ``sin''. Starch or pine tar is poured on coal, and when that is done, the coal does not burn any more efficiently and it does not burn with any less pollution, but it does decrease taxes. If you take the costly synfuels provision in this bill that these folks have tried to peddle once again as a retread energy bill and pile the dollar bills up past the ceiling of this building and burn them, you will generate more energy than they do with the money that they have wasted from the public treasury.”