[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 27, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1606-S1607]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  NATIONAL ENERGY SECURITY ACT OF 2001

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise to congratulate my colleague, 
Senator Murkowski, for his efforts in developing the National Energy 
Security Act of 2001. This act represents a collection of critically 
important actions; actions that can move the Nation beyond the almost 
perpetual energy crises that we've experienced in the last few years.
  Our Nation has not followed or even developed a comprehensive energy 
strategy for far too long. We've all paid the price for that omission. 
Major changes in energy availability and prices are devastating the 
lives of many of our citizens.
  We have seen oil prices gyrate in the last two years by over three 
times. At one extreme, we destroyed much of our ability to develop new 
oil and gas wells. At the other extreme, we impacted the Nation's 
economy. And throughout the last few years. we have prohibited 
exploration and utilization of public lands that could have been 
impacting some of our most critical shortages.
  Natural gas prices have more than tripled just this year in many 
parts of the country. The impact on millions of our citizens has 
created another major crisis.
  We have seen the economy of California, the sixth largest economy 
when compared to all the nations of the world, brought to its knees by 
the recent energy shortages. Blackouts have struck in unpredictable 
patterns, disrupting lives. Unfortunately, California is only the first 
of many areas that are likely to be impacted by the lack of past 
coherent policy.
  It has been terribly frustrating to me to recognize that most of 
these problems were caused by our own actions, or lack of actions. We 
have had help falling into these traps, of course, from OPEC for 
example. But much of these problems are completely predictable. Actions 
could and absolutely should have been taken to drastically mitigate the 
severity of the impacts.
  I appreciate that Senator Murkowski has taken care in his bill to 
recognize and emphasize that there is no one ``silver bullet'' to solve 
our nation's energy problems. His bill creates opportunities for all of 
the major energy sources to maximize their contribution to our nation's 
energy needs; that's the only credible approach to the severity of the 
current issues.
  His bill recognizes that no single energy source represents a vast 
untapped resource, ready for immediate exploitation. It recognizes that 
solutions have to include options that impact our needs in the near 
term, like more natural gas and safe pipelines, as well as approaches 
that have much longer lead times, like nuclear power and renewables. 
And while natural gas enables relatively near term impacts with only 
modest pollution concerns, it is a finite resource and any credible 
national energy policy has to address a future without readily obtained 
supplies of natural gas.

  Solutions have to build on our existing major national energy 
providers, like the coal and nuclear plants that provide more than 70 
percent of our electricity today. And where these large providers have 
risk areas, like air emissions from coal and a credible national 
strategy for spent nuclear fuel, we must work diligently to address the

[[Page S1607]]

risk areas. Where the past administration argued that these risks meant 
we should minimize the contribution from these sources, we should 
instead face the reality that these sources represent some of our major 
national strengths and end biases against their success.
  The days of arguing for massive research and incentives only for one 
single source of energy and only for improved efficiency, as if they 
alone can solve our nation's long term energy needs, must be put far 
behind us. They need to be recognized for what they are, important 
components of a coherent national energy strategy, and absolutely not a 
``silver bullet.''
  This National Energy Security Act addresses virtually all of these 
widely divergent, but critically important, areas of national policy. I 
enthusiastically support the act as a vitally necessary step in 
achieving the energy stability that our citizens demand.
  In selected areas, like coal and nuclear, additional bills may prove 
useful to target actions on these specific sources. I'm working on such 
a bill for nuclear energy, and Senator Byrd has a legislative thrust 
for clean coal. These bills can build on the National Energy Security 
Act and strengthen it in some key areas.
  I salute the efforts of the chairman of the Energy and Natural 
Resources Committee for his untiring efforts to advance this bill. It's 
not easy to include in one package a set of initiatives that impact all 
of the major sources of our Nation's energy. From new incentives for 
oil and gas exploration, to improved pipeline safety, to creation of 
vitally needed new domestic oil fields, to major expansion of our 
current woefully inadequate clean coal programs, to strong support for 
renewables, and to measures to ensure that nuclear energy remains a 
viable and strong option for our Nation's energy needs--this bill 
covers the whole range.
  I'm proud to join Senator Murkowski as a cosponsor of his National 
Energy Security Act of 2001 and urge my colleagues to join in 
supporting this key initiative.

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