[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 37 (Tuesday, April 9, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H1134]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   URGING SUPPORT FOR RESOLUTION TO INFLUENCE MEXICO TO REJECT OPEC 
                              AFFILIATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Gekas) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, soon after the tragic attacks on our 
institutions on September 11, as everyone knows, our economy began to 
sink, to plummet to depths that we could not have foreseen. While we 
were struggling to right our ship, as it were, the OPEC nations 
decided, before the end of the year, before the end of 2001, to cut oil 
production, which would have the natural consequence of rising prices 
at the gas pump here in the United States and elsewhere. This was an 
insult added to injury to have our former allies, like Saudi Arabia and 
Kuwait who are part of OPEC, to make certain that prices would rise at 
the gas pump in the midst of an economy that was being severely hurt by 
what had happened at the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon and in 
Pennsylvania.
  Imagine my surprise then when, we all know that OPEC has to depend on 
the non-OPEC nations to go along with their guidelines, their decisions 
on oil production and pricing, et cetera; imagine my surprise, my 
pleasant surprise when I learned that Mexico, for instance, was not 
going to join with OPEC in this drastic decision that they made.
  Well, that was good news for the United States on two fronts: one, 
that Mexico, our neighbor to the south, was sticking with the United 
States in its hour of economic peril and, in effect saying to OPEC, no 
thank you, they will not go along with the price-setting and oil 
production cuts that OPEC proclaimed. Imagine my next round of 
surprises when not too long after that, Mexico, in a meeting with 
Venezuela, decided to jump back into the OPEC pool and there again 
indicate to the world that they were going to join OPEC in the cutting 
of oil production, thereby having the effect of rising prices at the 
gas pump.
  Now, this is the same Mexico that said that they would not join with 
OPEC. Now they have decided to stick with OPEC; and in doing so, they 
slapped us right in the face, because the cut in production of 100,000 
barrels per day, or cut of availability to the United States of that 
100,000 barrels a day, was an ingredient that caused the rise of prices 
that we saw in March of 15 to 17, and some places higher than that, 17 
to 20 cents a gallon over a short period of time, and more to come, 
because the normal period for rising prices, the summer season, is 
already upon us.
  Well, I have introduced a resolution just today which would call upon 
the President and the administration to again approach our OPEC allies, 
as they were, they were allies, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia; as a matter of 
fact, we came to their aid, we came to their side against an aggression 
by Iraq. We are asking the administration to convince or to try to 
convince those allies of ours whom we saved in that particular period 
of time to produce what is needed for the consumption in the world 
without regard to setting prices and to cutting production to 
artificially raise prices while, at the same time, the resolution calls 
for extra efforts to convince our neighbor to the south, Mexico, not to 
join with OPEC.
  Mr. Speaker, the Mexican economy and the Mexican-American border 
which we share, all of that depend on a strong American economy. The 
Mexican economy itself depends on the American economy. Can my 
colleagues imagine that they would take steps to cause rises in the 
prices at gas pumps? We must convince them that they should renounce 
joining with OPEC now and forever and to remain with the United States 
in a hemispheric system to become an economic engine of its own. We do 
not need OPEC if Mexico would simply deal with the United States in oil 
production.
  So this resolution calls for an important foray into Mexican-American 
relations, strictly with respect to the OPEC cartel and the insistence 
of Mexico to go along with OPEC. We cannot tolerate that.
  So whatever comes by way of oil production, if the United States and 
Mexico can cooperate one on one in the production of oil and in the 
market, sale and pricing of oil, the American economy will be better 
off and, therefore, so will the Mexican economy. I ask for Members to 
join in this resolution.

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