Katherine Kennedy Quotations

Builders and environmentalists say don't mess with these programs.

The fact that this was the only significant veto left untouched yesterday shows the success of New York's energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. We're hopeful that we've now closed the chapter on this debate and that we can move forward with the legislature and the Governor on an ambitious agenda to build and strengthen clean energy efforts in New York.

Project 7th Grade is making a positive difference in the lives of kids. The recent Arizona State University study found that 75 percent of participating parents felt that the program likely improved their family's communication about the harmful effects of drugs, and nearly 75 percent of the parents surveyed felt the program likely helped deter their children from using them. Adding the prescription drug element into this program will further enhance its reach and benefit to parents and teenagers.

Projects like Cape Wind would help put America on the path toward energy independence. This amendment emerges from nowhere, from the back door, from closed rooms.

This is a critical government program that is in complete shambles. We are talking about simple, common- sense responsibility to shield American consumers from rising energy prices. Performance standards are the most successful tool we have to ease the burden on consumers and protect our increasingly fragile energy supply system, but the feds are asleep at the switch.

At a time when high energy prices are wreaking havoc on consumers, the Department of Energy should be making energy efficiency a top priority. Instead, the federal governments efficiency program is in shambles. This litigation should provide the necessary prod to get these efficiency standards back on track.

Governor Pataki, Senate Minority Leader David Paterson and the other state leaders on both sides of the aisle who are fighting to protect these valuable initiatives deserve great credit. The veto is the right thing to do, and we urge lawmakers to let it stand.

The Department of Energy is a big bureaucracy.... Energy efficiency hasn't been an agency priority, it hasn't been a political priority, and so the issue has been neglected,