[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 53 (Wednesday, April 25, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H1601-H1602]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 FIRST 100 DAYS OF BUSH ADMINISTRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, we have come to the floor today to offer a 
critique of the President's first 100 days in office. I think it is 
only fair that before we offer some of our valid criticisms, that we 
recognize where praise is due. I think before you give a new person on 
the job a critique, you always start with something positive. I want to 
start with something positive for the President. President Bush's FEMA 
director, Joe Albaugh, has done a good job responding to the Seattle 
earthquake, Mr. Speaker. We had this earthquake out in Seattle. He sent 
Mr. Albaugh out there and they have done a crackerjack job responding 
to my constituents' problems and we have appreciated it out there in 
Puget Sound country.
  But, Mr. Speaker, there has been another earthquake of longer 
ramifications in my State and that is the earthquake of these 
incredibly high energy prices, electrical rates that are going up 30, 
50, 100 percent, people who are charging wholesale electrical rates 
five, 10, 20 times higher than were just charged last year. Wholesale 
electrical generators, many of whom happen to be from the President's 
home State, who were charging $20 a megawatt-hour last year are now 
charging $250, $500 a megawatt-hour, 10 to 20 times what they charged 
last year.
  Mr. Speaker, you can imagine what that is doing to the economy of my 
State. We have had 400 people laid off from a pulp and paper mill that 
has shut down. We have got small business

[[Page H1602]]

owners that are curtailing hours. We have got the prospect of 40,000 
jobs lost as a result of these incredible price hikes.
  What has this President offered the people of the West Coast, 
Washington, Oregon and California, in the face of this crisis? Nothing. 
We have come to this President and offered meaningful price mitigation 
legislation. We have asked him to urge FERC to ask for a meeting in the 
next hour or so to potentially consider a response to do something 
about these incredibly obscene prices that are not justified by cost, 
not justified by new generating capability but are only occurring due 
to folks who are gaming the system.
  What has he said? ``Let them eat cake.'' He said this is just a 
California problem. It is a Marie Antoinette energy policy and my 
constituents are suffering because of it. We are continuing to urge 
this President to give up this sort of mantra that this is just a 
California problem. California is still attached to the rest of the 
country. The earthquake has not caused it to be separated. My 
constituents in the State of Washington are suffering just as badly as 
the constituents, if not worse, in California. We need this President 
to recognize he is the President for all the people, not just those in 
Texas, not just for the generators in Texas but he has got a 
responsibility to the people I represent. We need him to work with us 
to design a price mitigation strategy. If he will do that, he will win 
the applause of the folks on the West Coast. Until that happens, Mr. 
Speaker, he is getting a D-inus when it comes to this energy crisis on 
the West Coast. We need his help and we are here to ask for it.
  The second issue, Mr. Speaker, is on the environment. The President's 
first days, first 100 days, have been tremendously inspirational. They 
are inspiring people to come up to me in bus stops, in grocery stores, 
on the ferry boat and they are saying, Jay, can you stop him? Can you 
fight him? Can you fight him when he is trying to cut the Hanford 
nuclear cleanup budget? Can you fight him when he is trying to loosen 
arsenic rules? Can you fight him when he is trying to allow drilling in 
the Arctic refuge? Can you fight him when he wants to loosen the 
roadless area policies so that they can do clear-cutting in our 
roadless areas, the last remaining nonclear-cutted areas in the 
country? He has been an inspirational figure. He has inspired people 
who have never before lifted a political finger to get out there and 
get active to try to resist this environmental jihad that is going on 
right now.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that when the votes come up on the floor of 
this House, those inspirational messages will be heard and we will 
defeat this President in his effort to drill in the Arctic and we will 
have an opportunity to defeat this attack on the roadless area policy, 
because what my constituents are telling me, Mr. Speaker, is that in 
the first 100 days of this President's administration, his 
environmental message has been, ``Leave no special interest behind.'' 
We are going to continue this fight.

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