Janice got back tonight from accompanying the Secretary on a trip to Florida to speak in front of the Farm to Fuel Summit. At the event, which Janice was staffing, he was asked why the U.S. is so dependent on foreign oil.
His answer was simple: Congress is nuts! That's a direct quote and, yes, it did get picked up by the Associated Press. Here's the beginning of the article:
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer had a simple explanation Thursday for why the country is so reliant on foreign oil: Congress is nuts.
"The reason we can't get Congress to move on the need to open up the exploration and extraction of energy sources that are in the boundaries of this country is because they're nuts. They don't get it. They're wrapped up in the political structure, they're worried about their re-election," he said, adding that congressmen are also afraid to anger environmentalists.
As a fellow communications professional, I can sympathize with this situation. I appreciate when public figures just tell it like it is, as long I'm not the one responsible for exactly what they say. So when she told me about this, I didn't know whether to laugh or cringe. Since this did not happen to me, I laughed. I'm still laughing, actually.
No comments:
Post a Comment