Maria Cantwell: “Both Senators from New Mexico have played an incredible leadership role in energy, and the 2005 Energy bill was a…”

“Both Senators from New Mexico have played an incredible leadership role in energy, and the 2005 Energy bill was a bipartisan effort. I certainly know what it is like to take half a loaf. That was not the bill I would have written myself, but I voted for that legislation. I think it started us on a course of making investments in renewable energy technology that was beneficial. In particular I happen to disagree that the 2005 tax provisions, as they related to more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, have been a big benefit for us. We even had an executive of an oil company say they did not think they were going to have much impact. So now consumers in my State are paying over $3 at the pump, and home heating oil prices are up 35 percent. So I do not think those subsidies to the oil industry have had any kind of magnificent impact that my colleague from Texas was saying. What we do know is the investment we started in the 2005 bill in renewable energy is having an incredible impact.”