DORGAN TALKS ECONOMY, ENERGY AT VALLEY CITY TOWN HALL
Senator seeks more regulation for financial firms, 'moon shot' approach to solve energy problems
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
CONTACT: Justin Kitsch
or Brenden Timpe
PHONE: 202-224-2551
(VALLEY CITY, N.D.) – U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) today held a town hall meeting here to discuss the national economy, energy issues and other challenges facing the country. He provided an update on his work in Congress, including his efforts to grow North Dakota’s research and energy industries, and answered questions from area residents.
Dorgan said North Dakota’s agriculture and energy industries have helped the state avoid many of the economic problems that have hurt the nation.
“North Dakota has been able to dodge the national trend of a downward spiraling economy,” Dorgan said. “And I’ve been making sure that Congress hears about our responsible way of doing business.”
He said the entire nation will have to come together to overcome an economic crisis that has been fueled by a substantial amount of greed on Wall Street, as well as deregulation that has steered some of America’s largest financial institutions into a binge of speculation.
“The deregulation of our financial markets and a carnival of greed on Wall Street have caused significant damage to our economy,” Dorgan said. “We need to restore meaningful regulation to some of these risky enterprises like hedge funds and derivative trading. But America has seen challenges like these before. I’m confident that our country will pull together to put our economy back on track.”
Dorgan also spoke about challenges in America’s energy sector.
“I believe we need a ‘moon shot’ approach that calls for drilling more oil, production of more renewable energy and much more conservation,” Dorgan said. “All of these efforts will help end America’s dangerous dependence on foreign sources of energy.”
The Senator spent the day traveling to Valley City and other communities in southeastern North Dakota.
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