Political Quotes

“But I do wish to refer to the future. As noted earlier, the President has made his announcement this morning. But I would like to welcome him to this decisionmaking now to go to offshore drilling. I want to go back over the history of this Senator, working with many others, on this issue of drilling offshore. First, during the debate on the Energy Policy Act of 2005, H.R. 6, I attempted to offer an amendment that sought to allow States to opt out of the Federal moratorium on offshore drilling. I was joined by Senators Alexander and Voinovich in that effort. Unfortunately, due to opposition to my proposal and the threat that my amendment would or could doom the whole bill, I withdrew the amendment, out of recognition of the hard work done by the managers. But at that time, I warned my colleagues, and I said, standing at this very seat: I regret to predict this, but I see nothing but danger signs with regard to worldwide energy consumption and the predicament facing the United States of America. That was over 2 rac{1}{2} years ago that I so stated my concerns and also indicated that I wanted to support the move toward offshore drilling. So I regret that prediction of some years ago is now coming true.”