Political Quotes

“I thank Senator Boxer very much, not only for her words but for her leadership on the Environment and Public Works Committee. I wish to reiterate a very important point Senator Boxer made. She reminds us of great moments in the history of this country. This country, with great difficulty but persistence, built a railroad ahead of the rest of the world that went from the east coast to the west coast. It was not easy. This country led the world in putting a man on the Moon. It was not easy, at great expense, difficulties, but we did it. Does anybody not think this country can lead the world in transforming our energy system away from polluting fossil fuels to energy efficiency, to sustainable energies such as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, other technologies? Can we not lead the world in making our own country more energy efficient, making our air cleaner but also in creating large numbers of jobs as we weatherize our buildings, as we build the solar panels we need to build the wind turbines, as we put more engineers and scientists to work to help us in this energy transformation. I wish to pick up on a point Senator Whitehouse made a moment ago, which is that while we talk about energy transformation, while we all understand that over a period of years, the oil industry, for example, has received billions and billions of dollars of permanent tax breaks, what we are fighting for right now is to see that the 1603 renewable energy grant program is renewed.…”