Quote of the Week: Break Up the Big Oil Companies

“There were five words missing from the president's speech today: Get tough on big oil. The president refuses to do that....

The president doesn't touch his friends at the big oil companies. It's nice that the president is finally talking about gas prices, but talk is cheap and gas isn't.....So we need to do three things....

First, we have to dramatically increase conservation. We're not doing any of that. The fact that China has higher mileage standards than we do should make us weep. And China is not a country caring about the environment -- they're doing it just to keep their economic strength.

We need to develop new energy sources -- a crash program for alternatives, a Manhattan Project.

And we also have to reexamine whether having only a handful of giant oil companies can coexist with the needs of the American consumer and a rational energy policy in this country -- I do not believe it does. And so I'll be offering an amendment to the supplemental that will require a complete examination as to whether or not we should break up the big oil companies.

Enough is enough."

--- Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), April 25, 2006 on the floor of the United States Senate
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