Joseph R. Biden Jr. Quotes

You know, we can't keep talking about our dependence on foreign oil, and the need to deal with global warming, and the challenge that it poses to our climate and to God's creation, and just let business as usual go on. And that means something has to be taken away from some people.

On almost every environmental issue I care about, in fact, I've been wrong at one point or another. I used to think that climate change was no big deal, that most environmental problems were massive exaggerations, that oil reserves were effectively unlimited, and more.

What we're trying to do is address something I saw in Congress that was a major problem, which is to say that energy is arguably the most fundamental issue confronting our country.

Mercury pollution from power plants is a national problem that requires a national response.

Offshore drilling is not the answer, it is not going to get us anything.

The fact that this is what John McCain is suggesting - more offshore drilling and more nuclear power plants? I don't think so. Not even close. Not even in the ballpark of what we need.

Society's dependence on fossil fuels is jeopardising social and economic progress.

One problem is that we are heavily dependent upon fossil fuels. And that's where the greenhouse gases come from, by and large, some deforestation, as well. But we have not yet come to grips with how to change that. So that's where we are right now.

Trees and clean energy [are] the long-run solution but we have no time to wait for the long run. We need a short-run solution now, and one that encourages and facilitates the transition to the long-run solution.

Here's what we should be doing. We've got to get off fossil fuels.

We can't just drill our way out of the energy and climate challenge that we face.

The North Sea was supposed to run out in the 1980s. Then in the 1990s. And now production is still on-line.

Low-cost, high-grade coal, oil and natural gas - the backbone of the Industrial Revolution - will be a distant memory by 2050. Much higher-cost remnants will still be available, but they will not be able to drive our growth, our population and, most critically, our food supply as before.

We need to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy.

I will work for energy policies that recognize oil won't last forever.

When it comes to climate and energy, Gates is a radical consumerist. In his view, energy consumption is good - it just needs to be clean energy.

Americans are paying for our lack of an energy policy with their jobs and out of their pocketbooks.

We need to face it, as a nation we have a reliance on petroleum.

I found the source of global warming is coming from the hot air coming out of Washington.

Instead of going to the ends of the Earth - and plumbing the depths of the oceans - to squeeze out every last drop of oil, we need, instead, to do everything we can to reduce the risks of offshore oil and gas production.

For far too long, America has been without a comprehensive energy plan, and today consumers are paying the price - literally - at the pump and in their heating bills.

Our current energy policy is bankrupt.

Today's energy mix is the result of yesterday's consumer habits, considerable investment, and various political decisions. The potential of renewable energies, now a well-established fact, is undeniable if given the time to arrive at the technical and economic maturity that will free them from subsidization policies.

Much of the U.S. Midwest is already running on bitumen. Do we want to extend this addiction? And at what cost? Or should we set other goals and say one to two million barrels of oil a day from the tar sands is all we really need to make the transition?

Coal boosters like to tout coal as cheap and plentiful - well, not anymore. At least not in China.