Nick Lampson: “we in this House are working hard on energy legislation to provide the tools that will help the Nation transition to…”

“we in this House are working hard on energy legislation to provide the tools that will help the Nation transition to clean domestic energy resources and more efficient use of those resources. We are making progress, but we must not lose sight of the scale of this challenge. We are concerned that by deferring funding for this program in 2008 in this Interior appropriations bill, the work of the program will be jeopardized, the anticipated increases in domestic natural gas and oil production will not be realized, and we will become even more dependent on foreign sources of energy while we are transitioning our Nation's energy infrastructure for the future. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment that will resolve this problem in the bill. However, in the spirit of comity, I will not move that amendment if I can have the commitment of the chairman to work to resolve this issue in conference so that this important program can move forward as it is authorized in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.”