[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 185 (Wednesday, December 5, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H14160-H14161]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                           NEW ENERGY POLICY

  (Mr. CONAWAY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CONAWAY. Madam Speaker, the previous speaker mentioned that the 
current energy policy was crafted in the dark. I would have to agree 
that the current energy policy that's being proposed has certainly kept 
the Republicans in the dark because we have yet to see the language on 
the policy that we will be asked to vote on over the next couple of 
days. In all likelihood, it will require mandates. Mandates are good 
ideas that I've come up with that you have to pay for.
  There will be a lot of talk on this floor, there will be a lot of 
good arguments made, but to cut to the chase, if

[[Page H14161]]

it were cheaper to produce electricity today by using solar and wind 
and other alternatives, we would be doing it. That's the American way. 
That's the commerce of the circumstances, but it is not. And so, as we 
look at these proposals that will require how we go about providing 
America with the electricity and energy we need over the next decades, 
let's don't forget that there is a cost associated with it. We ought to 
know that cost. We ought to know the cost to consumers and to the 
businesses that have to use that energy.
  There's an old saying, ``If you don't like the high cost of eggs, 
then why would you kill chickens?'' Let's be careful that with this new 
energy policy that's being proposed, that we don't, in fact, kill the 
chickens that produce the eggs that generate the electricity and the 
energy that we need.

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