Ed Markey Quotes

While I may not agree with all of President Obama's energy policies, I strongly supported his successful effort to double fuel economy standards for cars and trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

A number of us had conversations with the Kerry campaign about what he was going to say about CAFE. What he told us was that he did not want to sacrifice jobs and that he wanted to work with the auto industry to achieve that goal.

I stopped - just killed - President Obama's $10-a-barrel gas tax.

So the only way we're going to improve fuel economy or appliance efficiency swiftly and to the maximum extent practicable is if the government requires it.

I don't see a groundswell of people willing to raise gas taxes right now. That leaves fuel economy standards as the only effective tool we have as a nation to make a dent in our dangerous and ever growing consumption of oil.

Unlike fuel-economy standards, the most common method of reducing demand for oil over the past thirty years, a gas tax doesn't tell people what kind of car to drive. It simply raises the price of gasoline and lets people adjust their behavior accordingly.

Over time, the federal government should move the nation to a single standard, clean-burning gasoline.

I think a lot about the Department of Energy. If I were the head of it, I would close it down.

So we in Congress have a very clear choice. We can take largely symbolic action and sit back and fiddle while Americans burn more gasoline. Or we can pass concrete, effective legislation that will save consumers money while significantly reducing U.S. oil consumption.

Boone Pickens should be commended for his leadership on American energy security, and for bringing Ted Turner along on some sensible approaches to enhancing it.

Stable energy prices and enhanced national security will only come when we increase domestic energy resources, which was accomplished today with the opening of ANWR.

We as a nation have no choice but to conserve fuel to the best of our abilities or be prepared for harsh measures like steep price increase, if the need so arises.

President Obama is riding the wrong horse on energy.

While some sit on the sidelines and fail to offer any practical solutions to address high gas prices now, the House is once again taking action to meet the energy needs of the American people.

I was distressed by the poor quality of the debate surrounding energy. I was also noticing so much green wash from politicians and big business. I was tired of the debate - the extremism, the nimbyism, the hair shirt. We need a constructive conversation about energy, not a Punch and Judy show. I just wanted to try to reboot the whole debate.

First, we should not be opening our coasts, all of our coasts, to oil drilling when we have not taken the first step, not the first step, to conserve oil.

While there are many influences on gas prices in America, I believe the passage of a national energy bill will help relieve this burden on our country.

In any crass political calculation, drilling for oil will always win more votes than putting a price on carbon. But if I recall what I was taught in fifth-grade American government class, we elect presidents to do more than crass political calculations.

But we must take other steps, such as increasing conservation, developing an ethanol industry, and increasing CAFE standards if we are to make our country safer by cutting our reliance on foreign oil.

I think Gov. Romney and Congressman Ryan are living in a fairly tale land on their energy policy.

We need to do more to conserve fuel or face tougher choices such as steep price increase or even quantitative restrictions.

Automobile efficiency is the ballgame of energy security of the country.

Not only have individual politicians and celebrities personally condemned your automobiles for being too messy, noisy, and harmful to the common good, but they've tried to affect the natural market through taxes on larger vehicles along with incentives and quotas for 'greener' cars.

We need to block dirty diesels getting public money - no question there.

Having one national standard for mpg and CO2 is extremely important.