[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 17 (Tuesday, February 26, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S1196]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             ENERGY POLICY

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, later this week I hope we will move on to 
our energy bill on which all of us have worked for so long, certainly 
recognizing that energy policy is one of the most important issues we 
will consider this year. Although we have the pressure of other bills--
campaign reform and so on--I hope we move, as was promised, to energy 
later on this week so that we can move forward.
  We need this policy out there. The President has put forth a policy. 
The House has passed a policy. We need to deal with the situation with 
regard to oil and gas, and of course the opportunity to increase our 
production domestically so we are not as reliant as we have become on 
foreign imports. We need to look, obviously, to a balanced bill and 
different energy sources such as renewables. We need to do more 
research in terms of coal, and clean coal, and using those resources 
which we have in abundance.
  We haven't yet really, it seems to me, defined where we want to go, 
particularly with the electric component of energy, but I have to tell 
you that I think it is very important. People are certainly touched as 
much by electric energy as any other source. The issue to a large 
extent is transmission and transportation.
  As we develop more and more opportunities to generate electricity, it 
has to be moved where the market is. Of course, selfishly, in my State, 
an energy-producing State, the problem is being able to move that 
energy to where the markets are.
  I hope we will try to get together to act. I am afraid we are going 
to get all wrapped up in Enron, and so on, which has very little to do, 
frankly, with the energy aspect of it. But we can take a long look at 
that and take action that will help us more efficiently use those 
energies that are available.

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