[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 61 (Wednesday, May 5, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S4857]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S4857]]
                               OIL PRICES

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I rise to discuss oil prices, another 
problem vexing America. Everywhere I go in my State, people are just 
amazed that gasoline prices are through the roof. It is hurting 
everybody. There was a report last week that people were buying a 
little less food. You know you are getting down to the bare bones. 
Costs of everything could go up. Inflation, thankfully, has stayed low, 
but if energy prices stay this high for this long, they are going to 
get higher. What is so troubling is that we have the tools to bring the 
prices back down. The administration is fiddling while high-priced 
gasoline burns, if you will.
  The No. 1 culprit is not the lack of refineries. Let me make clear: 
We do have a shortage of refineries. We have had a shortage for 15 
years. The price has not been this high for 15 years. The price was a 
lot lower a year ago with the same number of refineries.
  The problem is OPEC. OPEC has gotten together, led by the Saudis, and 
decided that the old ceiling of $28 a barrel is no longer the ceiling. 
It is approaching $40 a barrel. That is danger for our people, our 
economy. Senator Corzine mentioned before, you see the great economic 
numbers and then you talk to average folks and they are having as much 
trouble paying the bills and making ends meet as they ever did before. 
My view of my role as Senator is to help those folks with their daily 
lives, not to just look at numbers in the newspaper and say, the 
numbers are good but, rather, to talk to average people and say: How 
are you doing? When I ask that, they say: Well, I would be doing a lot 
better if gasoline prices were lower.
  We have a weapon. We have the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The 
Strategic Petroleum Reserve's first and foremost purpose is to be there 
in an emergency. But we changed the law. I helped change it. It can be 
used when gasoline prices are too high as a temporary way of bringing 
them down. That is what we should be doing.
  The bottom line is, instead of actually putting more oil on the 
market to lower the price, we are increasing the reserve as we speak, 
raising the price even further, even though the reserve is over 90 
percent full.
  I have a resolution I hope to introduce on some bill soon enough that 
asks the President to confront OPEC, not to play footsie with them, not 
to just tell the Saudis we understand.
  I understand there has been a close relationship between many in this 
administration and the Saudis and the oil companies. It is sort of a 
Bermuda Triangle into which oil prices just go. But enough is enough. 
We should be putting a million barrels of oil out into the market for 
30 or 60 days and watch, the price will come down.
  I don't regard this as a partisan activity. I pushed President 
Clinton to do this for 8 months. He did it in October of 2002. The 
price went down and stayed down. Do you know why it stayed down? Not 
just the new oil on the market, although oil prices are decided at the 
margin, but because OPEC knew they couldn't play around with us. When 
Spence Abraham, the Secretary of Energy, says we are not using the SPR, 
it gives a green light to OPEC that says: Raise prices as high as you 
want.
  Is that leadership? Is that what the average American needs? Again, 
the average American is not looking at the newspaper and saying: Gee, 
the economy is great. They are sitting down at the dinner table Friday 
night and tearing out their hair about how they are going to pay their 
bills. The high price of gasoline makes it much worse. We have a way to 
combat it, to tell the Saudis and OPEC, the heck with you. And we are 
sitting there. This administration just sits and twiddles its thumbs as 
the price goes up and up and up. In fact, we send them little signals 
that it is perfectly OK.
  The resolution I will be drafting--and I know my colleagues from 
California and Oregon are interested because we have talked about 
this--asks that we immediately, for 30 days, and then with the option 
for another 30 days, put a million barrels of oil out there. The price 
will come down.
  I ask my fellow New Yorkers and Americans, don't think there is 
nothing we can do about high oil prices. As my good colleague from 
Oregon who led this debate said and as my colleague from New Jersey 
said, if we would simply use the SPR to reduce prices instead of now 
having it raise prices, the price would come down.
  Again, our job as Senator is not to just look at these 
macrostatistics--that is part of the job--it is to figure out what the 
average family needs. And they need lower prices.
  We can do it. I urge the administration, I urge this body to stop 
ignoring this problem, to get working on this problem, and bring those 
prices down in a variety of ways. What I have been pushing is the SPR, 
release some oil from the SPR. Prices will come down. It happened when 
President Clinton did it.
  I hope this body will act quickly. Just because there is big oil, 
because there are Saudis, does not mean we should have to roll over. 
The President should be standing up for the average American, not 
standing up for the oil companies and not patting the Saudis on the 
back.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority leader.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, how much time remains on the Democratic 
side?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Four minutes 45 seconds.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I will use part or all of that time. I 
know Senator Breaux was planning to come to the floor but has now 
changed his plans.

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