[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 82 (Monday, June 26, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5778-S5779]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 ENERGY

  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, I want to talk about the issue of energy 
supplies and the debate over energy. I noticed today a number of 
Senators came to the floor of the Senate, and they waved their arms and 
raised their voices a bit and railed about energy: Lord, we should know 
what is going on here, they say. We have the OPEC cartel, yes, but we 
also have an administration that does not have an energy policy, and 
woe is us.

  This is not brain surgery. This is not complicated at all. We have a 
cartel called OPEC that controls a substantial amount of the oil that 
is exported to this country, and they decided to decrease production. 
When they did, prices began to go up.
  More than that, we also have the largest oil companies in this 
country and around the world merging. Exxon, Amoco, BP, are all 
merging. We have larger oil companies and a circumstance of a cartel 
supplier, and now people who go to the gas pumps are paying higher and 
higher energy prices.
  I do not hear any discussion about whether the energy companies may 
have played a role in this. Does anybody understand how, when you get 
larger, you also have the opportunity to manipulate prices? I think you 
do.
  Is a major part of this problem the OPEC cartel? You bet your life it 
is. But I think another part of this problem is we do not understand 
pricing policies of energy companies that have become larger and 
larger. We need to know that. That is why I fully support the Federal 
Trade Commission's investigation, and why I believe the Justice 
Department ought to be part of the same investigation.
  I find it interesting, as the oil companies become larger and 
continue to oppose ethanol production, Congress has still not done 
nearly enough to promote the kind of energy supplies that are 
renewable--wind energy and others. We ought to get, in my judgment, a 
wake-up call from these oil prices that we are held hostage by the OPEC 
cartel. We are a growing economy and

[[Page S5779]]

produce and use a substantial amount of energy, but we are far too 
dependent on OPEC countries.
  If one looks at production of energy, it does not matter who is in 
the White House--a Republican or Democratic administration--we see that 
same line, and the line is not going up, it is marginally going down. 
We need an energy policy that is a Republican and Democratic energy 
policy, not one about which one side continues to wave and rail about 
the other side. We need a bipartisan energy strategy that recognizes 
this country should not be beholden to an OPEC cartel for its energy 
supplies. Not to do so means we put ourselves at risk, we put our 
economies at risk, and put the American people at risk when, in some 
cases, they cannot purchase the energy they need.

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