Hillary "Energizes" Her Crowd

Despite postponing her trip a week, Senator Hillary Clinton’s return to New Hampshire at Concord High School this past weekend drew a large and enthusiastic audience. The visit to NH highlighted once again New Hampshire’s citizens’ commitment to sound energy policy. During Senator Sylvia Larsen’s introduction, her mention of Hillary’s work to end dependence on Middle East oil got as big an applause as, if not bigger than, her cry to “restore sanity to our national security policy.” Throughout the rest of the well-attended and well-planned event, Senator Clinton was interrupted several times for applause for any mention of new energy policy.
The NY Senator said that she was “convinced we can have a new energy future. Our security is at risk because we depend on foreign oil. Our environment and planet are at risk. I want to convince people that doing the right thing for our energy and our environment is the right thing to do for our economy.” Several times the former first lady criticized President Bush for not calling on the American people to sacrifice. If elected, she explained to the crowd, she would ask them to sacrifice by conserving energy and being more efficient. “We can make up a lot of the energy money we’re spending overseas just by turning off the lights and changing the bulbs.” The best policy to pursue in a post 9/11 world, she said, is a new energy policy.
The crowd seemed particularly appreciative of her focus on conservation and alternative energy supplies. Senator Clinton is convinced that American ingenuity can find solutions to energy problems. Until a technological breakthrough, however, we can become more energy independent by putting the tax subsidies given to oil companies into a strategic energy fund, along with increased conservation, sacrifice, and use of alternatives. The limits of the crowd’s enthusiasm for energy independence was tested however, when a member of the high school’s marching band asked her why she would not consider drilling in Alaska to decrease dependence on the Mid East. She responded amid jeers directed at the young student that “everyone is entitled to their opinion, but not to their own facts,” a quote from her predecessor Daniel Patrick Moynihan. According to Clinton, it would take 10 years for oil from ANWR to hit the market, which does not make the project worth it to the Senator.