[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 83 (Thursday, June 14, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H3155]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    REPUBLICANS LOSE IN THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION ON ENERGY ISSUES

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, after pushing through President Bush's 
budget cuts cutting energy conservation by 21 percent and renewable 
energy by 35 percent, fighting tooth and nail against reasonable 
controls and Federal regulation of price gouging and market 
manipulation in the western U.S., offering a so-called energy plan that 
James Watt wholeheartedly supported, saying, hey, 20 years later, it 
looks like they dusted off our old work.
  Well, it might play well in the board rooms of my Republican friends' 
campaign contributors, with the energy conglomerates, but they know 
they are losing in the court of public opinion.

                              {time}  1015

  So somehow they are going to try a new tack, and I quote: 
``Congressional Republican leaders have issued dire, albeit private, 
warnings to the energy industry that they may not be able to block 
legislation imposing caps on prices or other measures designed to give 
the Federal Government a greater role in setting rates for wholesale 
energy, oil or natural gas.''
  So the response is spin and advertising. We are offering a real 
alternative, an alternative that will give relief to the people in the 
western U.S. from price gouging and market manipulation, an alternative 
that will give the American people a sustainable, renewable energy 
future with conservation and renewable resources.
  This is a stark choice for the American people: hot air or a real 
energy policy that benefits consumers.

                          ____________________