Statement of Senator Hillary Clinton on Passage of Energy Bill

December 13, 2007 -- “Today the Senate passed an energy bill that is an important step towards increasing our energy independence and fighting global warming. The bill will raise fuel auto fuel-economy standards for the first time in over 30 years, to 35 miles per gallon by 2020.

It will raise the production of biofuels to 36 billion gallons by 2022. And it will help consumers save money by improving the energy efficiency of appliances. In addition, the bill includes provisions to push the federal government to become more energy efficient that I co-authored.

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It also includes a provision that I worked on with Senator Sanders to create a program to train workers to join the growing energy efficiency and renewable energy fields.

Unfortunately, President Bush and Senate Republicans stopped this from being an even better bill. They blocked our efforts to include a provision to require utilities to generate 15 percent of our electricity from wind, solar and other renewable sources by 2020. Republicans also chose to stand with oil companies and against American consumers. They blocked our efforts to begin to fix our broken energy tax system by repealing tax breaks for big oil companies and putting those funds towards clean energy.

So while this bill is a big step forward, we still have work to do, and I will continue to fight for a clean energy future."

Source: Senator Hillary Clinton