we have the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of childhood poverty.

one of my real frustrations with the Bush administration, well before the immediate financial crisis, is their refusal to address the reality that even before the crisis, the middle class in this country was in serious decline.

I have every reason to believe, or at least strong reason to believe that Yucca Mountain as a repository for nuclear waste will never going to happen.

we have to get it right today.

public safety must be job No. 1 when it comes to nuclear power.

Do you think, then, we can have a representative there?

Am I correct in understanding that a new nuclear power plant could cost as much as $20 billion? Is that within the ball park?

Fair enough. But it is our business, $20 billion or $10 billion is a heck of a lot of money.

I think they would be very surprised that a mishap of this scope ends up with no fine at all

There was no fine at all.

Clearly, that was not the original intention. The original intention was not to have dozens of locations around this Country where we are storing very lethal waste with a half-life of thousands of years.

Critical times at nuclear plants call for special inspections, both to ensure the public safety but also to boost public confidence.

It seems to me inexplicable that there are no fines attached to this lack of oversight.

What was the fine that Entergy paid for this mishap? How many millions of dollars was that?

Do you know what, Senator Craig? When people see this, and they find out that a company like Energy gets zero fine, confidence is not terribly high.

You want confidence? Then these guys are going to have to have the power to assure the American people that these plants are absolutely safe.

Can I have your commitment that you will send a representative to Montpelier tomorrow?

I do know that we are grossly underestimating the significance of energy efficiency and renewable energy as we attempt to deal with the energy crisis that we currently face.

on Tuesday, I introduced S. 3186, the Warm in Winter and Cool in Summer Act. This bill would provide $2.53 billion in emergency funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, commonly known as LIHEAP. I take this opportunity to…

Yes. I wish to raise an issue. And it is my intention at the appropriate time to offer an amendment which I hope we can get a vote on because this is an amendment of huge consequence; that is, with the price of heating fuel soaring, if we…

every American understands that we now have a national crisis in terms of the outrageously high price that we are paying for energy. In Vermont and all over this country, workers are wondering how they can afford to fill their gas tanks…

OK. I think this vote is long overdue, and it is something the American people want to see.

a few months ago I asked my constituents in the State of Vermont, and it turns out people around the country, a very simple question. We sent out an e-mail and said: Tell me, what does the decline of the middle class mean to you…

Dear Friend, As gas and oil prices soared and as the nation slipped into recession, I made a request to Vermonters on my e-mail list. I asked them to tell me what was going on in their lives economically. That was it. Frankly, I expected a…

today we are discussing two issues which, in fact, are related to each other. No. 1 is the outrageously high cost of oil and gas. The second is the planetary crisis we face as a result of global warming. There are some people who think we…