Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendments to H.R. 6, Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF SENATE AMENDMENTS TO H.R. 6, ENERGY INDEPENDENCE AND SECURITY ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - December 06, 2007)

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Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, most folks think of ``CAFE'' as a place to eat. Well, our cars and our trucks have been eating too much energy and emitting too much pollution for far too long, while our planet and our pocketbooks take a beating. Fuel efficiency standards have not been increased since 1975 when Paul Simon began singing ``Still Crazy After All These Years.''

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Well, it is still crazy that 32 years later fuel economy standards have not been increased and we cannot get more miles per gallon despite both our dangerous overdependence on foreign oil and the growing threat of global warming. We need 21st-century fuel economy standards for 21st-century vehicles. And thanks to this bill, many of those vehicles will be fuel-efficient, plug-in hybrids, following the lead that we have taken with the Plug-in Partners campaign in Austin, Texas.

Texans alone will save $2 billion at the pump when these standards become fully effective. And consumers across America will save billions more from the requirement in this bill that utilities generate at least 15 percent of their energy from renewable energy. Keep in mind that even Governor Bush signed a renewable energy portfolio in Texas, and Texas is currently ahead of the country on this issue.

A green light for green energy encourages a new generation of job-creating innovation that we can export to the world--reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and, maybe even more importantly, fossilized thinking that we have heard so much of here this morning.

This bill will reduce the threat of both global war and global warming.

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