mr. chairman , yes , we have an energy crisis , and the sad thing is that it did not start this year , but neither did this bill which started more than 4 years ago . 
maybe with gas prices hovering near $ 2.50 a gallon , we can finally get this bill to the president 's desk . 
i was glad to see that my bipartisan amendment extending daylight saving time for 2 months was included in this bill . 
estimates show that it will save more than 100 , 000 barrels of oil for every day that we extend daylight saving time . 
i want to remind my colleagues that 2 years ago , we had a blackout , an electric blackout through much of the midwest . 
in this bill we finally impose reliability standards on the electric industry so that , hopefully , that will not happen again . 
i want to say , too , as the cochair of the auto caucus , it was important for the chairman to agree to add $ 200 million for hybrid and alternative fuel cell vehicles . 
we hope that the senate legislation will even go more in terms of incentives so that private consumers going to the showroom are going to be able to take advantage of those incentives to purchase those vehicles so that we can get those on the road . 
