[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9225]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  THE TIME IS NOT FOR PARTISAN SNIPING

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, liberal extremists in Washington want to 
adopt the California approach on energy and make it national policy. 
That is kind of a head-in-the-sand approach. They do not like coal, 
they do not like oil, they do not like nuclear power. They want 
everybody to be driving cars that have windmills on top of them or 
something like that. I am not exactly sure where their reality lands.
  But the reality is, in California, demand for energy exploded over 30 
percent, and yet they would not allow new power plants to be built. As 
a result, they had the same pollution-causing, outdated power plants 
now owned by the government. Well, does that not make us feel 
comfortable?
  Mr. Speaker, the time is not for partisan sniping. The time is to 
say, gee whiz, maybe California did make some mistakes. It is probably 
not good to model national policy after them. Let us be realistic. We 
do need alternative energy sources. We do need research. We do need 
conservation. But guess what? We cannot get off of oil tomorrow. We 
have to keep refineries open.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope that the Democrats will join the Bush 
administration in looking for a solution.

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