[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 27 (Monday, March 13, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H924]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE HIGH COST OF OIL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, gasoline is nearing $2 a gallon across the 
United States. Diesel is up 50 percent. Home heating oil at one point 
spiked over 100 percent increase from last year. Aviation fuel is on 
the rise.
  Now we have got the Federal Reserve saying they are worried about 
inflation so they are going to jack up interest rates. Of course, we 
have got the oil companies at OPEC fixing prices and curtailing 
production, causing inflation. I say the likelihood of an economic 
disaster or recession or a dramatic slowdown is pretty great.
  Now, what is the response? Well, the response of the Clinton 
administration and the Republican leadership in Congress to the 
artificial shortages and the run up in prices is pathetic.
  The administration sounds like a bunch of corporate Republicans, let 
the free market work. Well, guess what? There is no free market in the 
production and distribution of oil.
  The OPEC cartels have met and decided to hold down production and 
drive up prices to profit themselves and the multi-national oil 
companies with whom they work hand in glove. Free market? Sure.
  Now, the Republican response is equally pathetic, cut taxes, cut 
taxes. That seems to be the only solution to anything around here. How 
much? 4.3 cents. They are going to cut gasoline taxes by 4.3 cents. 
That will solve the problem.
  Well, guess what? The taxes were the same level last year when gas 
was a dollar a gallon. Now it is going to be $2 a gallon. And that 4.3 
cents, the oil companies will suck that up in less than an hour. That 
is a pathetic response.
  They do have another response. Drill the Alaskan National Wildlife 
Refuge. Ninety-five percent of the north slope is available for oil 
exploitation.
  There is one little tiny bit left. Let us go and punch holes in 
there. For what? To destroy that pristine area, for what? For 6 months' 
supply if the optimists are right. More likely, for a few pathetic 
months' supply. Ruin that area for all time.
  And ironically, the same party, the Republicans, jammed legislation 
through this House 5 years ago demanding that the United States export 
the oil currently being produced in Alaska.
  Now, that is kind of strange. They want to go up and destroy the 
Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge to produce more oil that they will 
then export. Why are they doing that? Well, because the big oil 
companies wanted that, and they are beholding to the big oil companies. 
This is a predictable and pathetic response to a national crisis.
  There is an alternative. Take on the big oil companies. Well, there 
are not too many around here that want to do that. But, guess what? 
There is a way we can do it. The President is all for rules-based 
trade. The Republican majority says they are the greatest defenders of 
the World Trade Organization. They provided the majority of votes to 
create it, and they defend it day in and day out in this body.
  Article 11 of the Charter of the World Trade Organization, of which 
six OPEC countries are full members, prohibits, prohibits restrictions 
on the productions of materials for export.
  It is pretty simple. Here we have an organization the U.S. has 
created, the Clinton administration and the Republican majority backs a 
hundred percent, they say they want rules-based trade. Well, let us use 
those rules.
  Now, they filed a complaint for a guy who grows bananas. Now, we do 
not grow bananas in the United States. But he is a big campaign 
contributor, so the U.S. used its clout in that organization for 
bananas, used it for hormone-laced beef. But somehow it seems that we 
cannot use our clout in that organization to file a complaint against 
OPEC and the largest multi-national oil companies in the world.
  It is time to stand tall as a Nation to those oil companies and their 
partners, the OPEC nations. Use the rules we have. That is a good 
beginning. There is more that needs to be done.
  I am introducing legislation today to ask the President, to strongly 
urge the President to file that complaint. I hope he does not need that 
legislation to move forward.
  We also need to begin dealing with all the subsidies we provide to 
those countries, the foreign aid, the military subsidies and the 
others.
  Burden sharing. Kuwait is one of the countries dragging its feet for 
additional oil production. Did we not save Kuwait?
  Now, Kuwait says they are not going to lift a finger. In fact, they 
want to keep prices down because nobody in Kuwait has to work because 
the prices are so high. They import workers in Kuwait. Maybe a little 
burden sharing is in order for some of these countries that we are 
protecting and extending billions of dollars or our defense umbrella to 
every year.
  And then finally, let us get serious about conservation and 
renewables and energy independence in this country. If anything poses a 
threat to this Nation in the next century, it is the fact that we have 
not gotten serious about concentration and renewables and now we are 
importing 60 percent of our oil.
  This is a threat to the future security of this country. This 
Congress should not sit on its hands, nor should the President downtown 
just because some of the largest campaign contributors in the world do 
not want to do anything about the higher prices for oil. We can do 
something. It is in our power. Let us act.




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