[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 138 (Monday, September 30, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1860-E1861]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        AMERICA'S ENERGY FUTURE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DAN SCHAEFER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Saturday, September 28, 1996

  Mr. SCHAEFER. Mr. Speaker, I am extremely unhappy to see that today's 
budget deal again sells oil from the strategic petroleum reserve to 
meet short-term budgetary goals. This is the third sale in 2 years and 
there appears to be no end in sight.
  This year we got a wake-up call about the state of U.S. energy 
security. Troops stationed in Saudi Arabia to protect United States 
interest in the region came under attack from forces hostile to the 
United States. Saddam Hussien is again on the move. Tensions in other 
parts of the Middle East continue to mount. At the same time, U.S. 
dependence on foreign oil, including oil from the Middle East, grew to 
unprecedented levels. And oil markets are reflecting this instability 
through their volatility.

[[Page E1861]]

  Yet, despite all these signs, the administration and the House and 
Senate budget negotiators continue to give U.S. energy security the 
lowest priority. Last week, a witness testifying before the Senate 
Armed Services Committee stated that ``* * * our national energy policy 
seems to be based, largely, on the policy of prayer.'' While I don't 
believe that it is true yet, this country certainly seems headed in 
that direction.
  In the 1970's energy crisis became a term every American understood. 
In the years after the Arab oil embargo this Nation took several steps 
to increase our energy security. We created and filled a strategic 
petroleum reserve, we encouraged environmentally benign development of 
domestic energy resources, we encouraged fuel diversification and 
greater use of alternative fuels, we encouraged research and 
development of renewable energy resources, and we encouraged 
conservation and energy efficiency in all areas.
  However, in recent years we seem to have forgotten the lessons we 
learned from the gas lines and energy shortages of the 1970's. Our 
current policies discourage development of domestic energy resources. 
We have placed large tracts of oil and gas bearing lands off-limits to 
exploration and development. We have to fight vigorously every year to 
keep renewable energy research budgets from being slashed.
  And new we are selling oil from our strategic petroleum reserve just 
as fast as we can. Clearly, there are those who have forgotten that the 
SPR is America's first line of defense from those who would hold us 
hostage through our high level of dependence on imported oil. These oil 
sales are occurring not because of any energy shortage, but because the 
administration and the appropriators see an opportunity to use this oil 
reserve as a cash reserve.
  However, when the reserve is used in this manner everyone loses. The 
American people paid over $200 billion to build and fill the strategic 
petroleum reserve. It costs approximately $35 to buy and store a barrel 
of oil in the reserve. When oil was sold from the reserve last year 
to help balance the budget, the Department of Energy received 
approximately $18 a barrel. It doesn't take an economics professor to 
tell you that you can't balance the budget by buying high and selling 
low.

  In addition, when oil is sold from the reserve in a nonemergency 
situation it gives those who want to intervene in free markets, 
including our President, the ability to do so. This past April, even 
though there was no oil shortage, the President announced he would use 
authority he had to draw down the reserve in order to lower rising 
gasoline prices. Again, think to the 1970's if you have doubts about 
whether the Government should intervene in the free marketplace. I 
fully expect the President to use the authority we are granting him 
today to intervene in the marketplace again this winter.
  Finally, when we sell the strategic petroleum reserve during anything 
less than an energy emergency the American people aren't just losing 
money, they are losing something more important: their energy security. 
At the rate we are selling oil from the reserve, in 2015 when the U.S. 
depends on foreign suppliers for as much as 68 percent of its daily oil 
consumption we will have less than 100 million barrels of oil left in 
the reserve. That scares me and I hope it scares everyone else.
  America needs to pay more attention to securing its energy future. 
And we need to begin by stopping the fire sale being conducted at our 
Nation energy security reserve. If we don't stop these trends, the term 
``energy crisis'' will again be part of the vocabulary of every 
American.

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