[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 38 (Thursday, March 30, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H1626]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        AMERICA'S ENERGY POLICY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I was amazed at the end of the business day 
today when there was a discussion on the floor as to whether or not the 
failure to extend the law that authorizes the strategic oil reserve, 
and the concerns that many Members have about the Energy Department, 
somehow means that the Congress of the United States is responsible for 
the failure to have an energy policy for the last 7 years. It is 
exactly the kind of wrongheaded thinking that has allowed us to lull 
ourselves as a Nation into where we are today with gasoline prices, 
with heating oil prices.
  Certainly nobody is going to release the strategic oil reserve if 
that authorization is not extended for a few days. I think there is a 
very legitimate question as to who should control the strategic oil 
reserve. Should it be the Department of Energy or should it be the 
Department of Defense? What is the purpose of a strategic oil reserve? 
Is it militarily strategic, or is it strategic in some other way?
  In fact, what has happened for the last 7 years is that on all three 
fronts that we needed to have an energy policy, we have not had an 
effective energy policy. We have not dealt with the oil-producing 
nations that we have come to rely too much on for oil and gasoline. We 
have done everything we could to discourage domestic production. We 
have not done anything to encourage alternative sources of energy, and 
in fact, the Secretary of Energy on February 16 said that we were 
caught napping at the Department of Energy. The administration really 
did not expect to see these oil prices go up.
  That is the same Department of Energy that there were Members on this 
floor just a few minutes ago saying should unquestionably be given an 
extended ability to manage the energy policy of the United States. It 
is part of the same administration that, for 7 years, has really 
managed to perform the governmental hat trick of looking at the three 
areas that we ought to be thinking about for more energy independence 
and doing everything possible to insure that we would have more energy 
dependence.
  We saw the Secretary of Energy in the last few days and weeks going 
to those oil-producing nations that in the past have been our 
dependable allies, certainly we have been their dependable ally, and 
acting as if it was a huge deal to have a small concession of increased 
production from those countries.
  Whenever those countries, some of those countries, came to us and 
said, we would like young American men and women to come over and 
defend our country, we did not have the response that, well, we will 
see if we can do a little something, and we will do it, and we will let 
you know when it might happen. It will be out there sometime.
  That was not our response. Now to assume that that is an acceptable 
response, something is wrong. Either something is wrong with our 
relationship with those countries, or something has been wrong in 
maintaining that relationship.
  In terms of alternative sources, the Secretary of Energy just a 
couple of Sundays ago said maybe the answer is wind power. Well, the 
answer may not be wind power, the answer may be brain power. The answer 
may be looking at what we can do to ensure that we are not caught in 
this same situation 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 years from now, to become 
increasingly dependent on foreign oil, to do nothing to encourage 
alternative energy sources in this country, to do everything to 
discourage domestic supply.
  To do everything to really put the internal combustion engine at risk 
without coming up with any alternatives is an economic travesty. Our 
economy has some jeopardy right now because of a failure of policy.
  For our colleagues to stand up here and say that the Department of 
Energy needs to be congratulated for what they have done in energy, or 
the Department of Energy needs to be extended into the future without 
any question, or that if this Congress questions the Department of 
Energy, somehow the Congress becomes automatically responsible for the 
failures of that department and this administration for the last 7 
years in this area, does not really meet the test of credibility on 
this floor or in the country.
  I think we need to look very carefully at where we are, how we got 
here, and what the Department of Energy has had to do with those 
results that are likely to lead to $2 gas prices and significant 
challenges to our economy this summer.

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