The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources organized a Bipartisan Energy Summit Friday morning. Numerous Senators and experts showed up, as did a standing-room-only crowd of hundreds.
During the hearing, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D) of Rhode Island asked a question:
Whitehouse: Gentlemen, we're in the middle of a near total mortgage system meltdown in this country. We have a health care system that burns 16 percent of our GDP, in which the Medicare liability alone has been estimated at $34 trillion. We're burning $10 billion a month in Iraq.
This administration has run up $7.7 trillion in national debt, by our calculation. And there is worsening evidence every day of global warming, with worsening environmental and national security ramifications. In light of those conditions, do any of you seriously contend that drilling for more oil is the number one issue facing the American people today?
(Long silent pause during which nobody answers)
Whitehouse: No, it doesn't seem so.
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