Leadership Quote by Pete Domenici

The line reads like a policy complaint, but it’s really a warning shot about regional power, delivered in the accountant’s language of “stabilize,” “diversify,” and “subsidize.” Domenici frames his expectation of an “energy bill” as commonsense technocracy: broaden supply, calm volatility, lower costs. Then he pivots to the phrase that does the political work: “in one part of the country” versus “another region.” That geographic vagueness isn’t a weakness; it’s a shield. It invites listeners to map their own resentments onto the country’s grid, turning a legislative dispute into a pocketbook grievance with a built-in villain.

The intent is to pre-empt a particular kind of compromise Washington loves: a national package that spreads costs unevenly to satisfy competing blocs. Domenici, a longtime senator from an energy-producing state, is defending a regional economic model - and a political coalition - that benefits from cheap extraction and favorable federal rules. Under the surface, the quote argues that “national” energy policy often functions as cross-subsidy: ratepayers, industries, and states with certain resources or infrastructure footing the bill for those without.

It’s also a subtle rebuke of climate-era bargaining before the phrase had fully crystallized. If an energy bill prices carbon, tightens regulations, or shifts incentives toward renewables, someone’s costs rise first. Domenici labels that distributional reality as unfairness, not transition. By using “subsidize,” he turns policy design into moral charge: you’re not modernizing the grid; you’re picking winners, and my region is the loser.