- 09.10.2008
Tester to Senate: ‘We can’t blow this one, folks’
With 1978 Montana Energy Almanac, Senator asks Congress not to repeat history on energy policy
(
his 30-year old Montana Energy
Almanac to send a message on the floor of the U.S. Senate: Congress
can’t afford to repeat history when it comes to creating a common sense energy
policy.
The State of
last major energy crisis. The book proposes short-term and long-term solutions
for the nation’s energy crisis, including the use of fossil fuels, wind, solar,
and even geothermal power.
“This book could have been written in 2008,” Tester said
during his speech today. But after oil prices went back down 30 years ago, he
added, the book was “put on the shelf and never looked at
again.”
“We had the ability to develop a long-term energy plan
for this country and it didn’t happen,” Tester said. “A generation ago it
didn’t happen. We need to make it happen this
fall.”
The Senate next week will begin work on a variety of new
measures addressing the current energy crisis. Tester, a member of the Senate
Energy Committee, outlined his plan extensively
last month while traveling
across
Today Tester said he will push for more investment in
alternative energy and conservation. He also said he will fight for more
transmission lines, new energy technology, clean coal technology and more
drilling.
“Drilling is part of the plan,” Tester said. But he
reminded his colleagues that “it would be difficult to find a rig in the
States
they’re already doing it.”
Tester asked other members of Congress to put
partisanship aside and work together to find common ground on an energy plan
now, saying it’s a matter of national and economic
security.
“Thirty years from now, I don’t want to see a Senator
standing up on this floor—holding this book up—that says, ‘In 2008 we had this
same problem and we need to deal with it today,’” Tester said. “We need to deal
with it now. In 2008. This fall. We can’t blow this one,
folks.”