'Hope and wishes will not change reality'

US Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alas.), ranking minority member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, at a March 12 hearing on the nomination of David Hayes to be deputy US secretary of the Interior, on a bias she perceives in the Obama administration's proposed budget against the oil and gas industry:

"We should take every reasonable measure to promote clean, alternative sources of energy. We can hope that these measures will bear fruit. However, hope and wishes will not change the reality that the vast majority of Americans will run their cars on petroleum for the foreseeable future.

"Punishing the domestic oil and gas industry will not bring on the 'age of renewable energy' any faster. It will increase our dependence on foreign oil, and further threaten our energy and economic security.

"The president's budget proposals would have this nation turn its back on workers in the petroleum industry, raise prices for American consumers, and increase the export of American dollars, all in one fell swoop. Particularly at this point in time, our nation can't afford any one of these, much less all."

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