Pelosi Statement on Signing Energy Bill and Sending It to the President

December 18, 2007

Washington, D.C. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and senior House and Senate Democrats joined together in the Capitol this afternoon at an enrollment ceremony for the Energy Security and Independence Act, in which the Speaker signed the bill that will be sent to the President for his signature tomorrow. Below are the Speaker's opening remarks:

''Good afternoon. Today we are delivering on a promise that we made to the people of America at the beginning of this session of Congress.

'With a stroke of the pen, both here and then tomorrow when the President signs the bill, we will set America on a path to save more than 4 million barrels of oil per day by 2030. That's twice the amount of oil we import from the Persian Gulf alone.

'With one stroke of the pen, America can be on a path to cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 25 percent of what we need to do to save the planet. With one stroke of the pen, we set America on a path to produce $22 billion in annual savings to our consumers. With one stroke of the pen, we take America down a path to create hundreds of thousands of new green jobs and train 3 million workers for new green jobs.

'I'm so excited to be here as Speaker of the House and as a grandmother, because as I sign this bill, it is a personal honor for me, as well as an official one, to sign a bill that establishes a New Direction for Energy Security and Independence for America.'