My recollection is that a number of months ago there was a vote here on the floor of the Senate regarding the repeal of the estate tax. My understanding is that vote to repeal a significant part of the estate tax would have benefited, as I…

I say to my good friend, the Senator from Tennessee, he is a good friend as is the Senator from Kentucky. I like the Senator from Kentucky. I know he is honest. He is sincere. He is not hiding. He is here. I respect that. We disagree very…

We need discrete and dedicated federal funding available for combating White-Nose Syndrome and containing its spread.

I think all across this country people are wondering about what is going on in Congress and, specifically, what is going on in the Senate. People are using the expression that government is broken and that we seem to be a dysfunctional…

I am strongly supportive of the proposed budget's $5 million for the Community Wood Energy Program.

We have the potential to create millions of good paying jobs in energy efficiency.

I would urge you to do everything that you can to help us clean up our air and prevent our kids from getting asthma and other very serious diseases.

There is something absurd about bringing into this country $350 billion worth of foreign oil every single year.

I applaud that because the time is long overdue that we end the insanity of spending $350 billion every single year supporting Saudi Arabia, getting involved in wars for oil rather than moving to energy independence.

By giving them the flexibility of paying it off through a few dollars more in property taxes, while they are saving money on their electric bill, is very clearly, I think, a win-win situation.

We do not have to worry about burying waste from solar energy. Is that not right?

I have a concern, in fact, that we are perhaps getting into a very dangerous area by adding another $36 billion in loan guarantees for new nuclear plants.

I think all of that is exactly the right thing to do.

In a little while we are going to be casting votes on an issue of enormous consequence, and that is whether we reappoint Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Fed. I am here to argue that would be a very bad decision; that we should reject this…

this is, in fact, an enormously important issue. The reality is that all over our country, hard-working, decent people have lost their jobs. They have lost homes, their savings. They have lost their ability to go to college. We are…

What he is saying that over a period of time we can produce 30 percent of the electricity that homes in America need from solar.

Not only is it not just for the Southwest, it is going to work in New England as well.

Senator Boxer, who has been a long-time champion of sustainable energy, and she wants to make a brief statement.

In my view, we are on the cusp of an energy revolution, a revolution which ends the absurdity of the United States importing some $350 billion of foreign oil every single year.

If there is one point that I hope is made clear as a result of today's hearing, solar energy is no longer a fringe idea, it is mainstream.

I am familiar with it; it is a tremendous bill.

We are, with Senator Lautenberg and others, going to be introducing legislation which would call for incentives and tax credits for 10 million rooftops in this country to be able to have solar.

If States like New Jersey are acting, then the Federal Government must act, too.

Yes. That is how laws are made usually. Congress passes them.

I did not vote for the Wall Street bailout of $700 billion, and, in fact, I brought forth an amendment which said that if you were right, if the Bush administration was right, let us pay for it.