[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 87 (Thursday, June 21, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H3438]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                CONGRESS NEEDS TO PASS BUSH ENERGY PLAN

  (Mrs. BIGGERT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. BIGGERT. Mr. Speaker, we have been hearing a lot about how big 
oil and big energy companies are picking on California. We are told 
they are gouging their citizens and only price controls can stop this. 
Has anyone asked the question, Why California? Why are the big oil and 
energy companies not picking on Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio or New 
York?
  Maybe it is because they are not picking on anyone at all. Energy 
costs are high across the country, but energy prices are higher in 
California because that State has prevented through burdensome 
regulations the construction of new power plants for the last 10 years. 
The prices that the rest of the country is paying are high because we 
are trying to meet today's needs with yesterday's energy 
infrastructure, and it is not working.
  Our energy demands have increased 47 percent over the past 30 years, 
and yet we have half as many oil refineries, static pipeline capacity 
and 20 times as many mandated gasoline blends.
  Low prices throughout the 1980s and 1990s have lulled American 
consumers and producers into a belief that low prices will always be 
here. But we know now that is not true.
  President Bush has proposed the first comprehensive energy plan in a 
decade that will increase efficiency, improve how our energy is 
delivered, diversify our energy sources, protect the environment and 
assist low-income Americans through these current price increases.
  I suggest we get off the rhetorical high horse and get to work 
passing this energy plan.

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