OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Energy

Floor Speech

Date: July 26, 2008
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Energy Natural Resources


ENERGY -- (Senate - July 26, 2008)

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Mr. BARRASSO. I have heard it time and time again. We are ready to vote and to offer amendments. Clearly, we need to deal with this issue of supply and demand. We need to find more and use less. The people of Wyoming get it. The people of my neighbors to the east in South Dakota know it. The people from Utah understand it completely. The people at home get it.

There is a story in the Wall Street Journal from Thursday, ``Want to See Inflation Pressures? Try Wyoming.'' People drive great distances in these Western States, but they are also paying not just the price at the pump but also at the grocery store when they have to buy things shipped in because of transportation costs. They say: Hey, you are sending all of this money overseas to foreign countries, people who are not our friends. We need to be energy self-sufficient. We need to do it at home, which is exactly what we are trying to do with these seven amendments. Wyoming is an energy State--oil, natural gas, uranium for nuclear, and coal. The technology now with coal is there for clean coal technology, coal to liquids. That is energy that can be used for our military airplanes.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Is it not true that one of the leading environmental groups has said that if we can find a way to capture carbon from coal plants, that is the best long-term solution to climate change?

Mr. BARRASSO. They have said that because it is the most available, affordable, secure, reliable source of energy we have. We have enough coal to last this country hundreds of years. We have ways to capture the carbon and pump it into the ground of old oil wells and get more oil and leave some of the carbon down below.

Mr. ALEXANDER. I assume that during the last 8 days, instead of just debating or speaking in languages that we don't seem to understand from each side, we could have actually considered an amendment to have aggressive research in carbon capture to accelerate the possibility that we could deal with climate change, clean air, energy independence, and have plenty more electricity for plug-in cars and trucks that everyone seems to favor.

Mr. BARRASSO. And we could do it all with an environmental safety net. The opportunity has been blocked step by step.

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