[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 73 (Friday, May 21, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S6252]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             ENERGY POLICY

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, first I want to say I will be very 
brief. I have told the Senate, as best I could, that I would try to 
take the floor every day and say something about America's energy 
crisis. So today I want to speak again for a couple of minutes.
  A week ago, some of my colleagues from the other side of the aisle 
were down here on the Senate floor complaining because they wanted the 
administration to persuade OPEC to increase its production. They acted 
and spoke as if our President was not doing anything about it, and that 
they were going to have to direct him to do it.
  Instead of passing an energy bill, Senators on the other side 
continue to blame the President for the high price of gasoline. This 
administration has been part of an announcement today which I think 
indicates the President is doing his job well. Saudi Arabia has 
announced it will ask OPEC to increase its production by 2 million 
barrels a day.
  That is the first solid good news we have had in a long time. If it 
happens, if they can, I think it is obvious part of that will be due to 
the good relations between our President and the Saudis. In a sense, 
the President is working hard with the tools he has to help us through 
this energy crisis.
  But the American people are still waiting for this Senate to deliver 
an energy bill. I have been trying to pass the Energy bill for more 
than a year. Some of the same Senators who wanted the administration to 
persuade OPEC to increase production, as if the President were doing 
nothing, are the very Senators who have blocked the Energy bill for 
more than a year. Each of them seems to have one other reason that they 
will or will not vote for this energy bill. I am telling these 
Senators, the administration is doing everything it can to address oil 
prices, and they have asked us repeatedly to produce an energy bill.
  If you don't like the President's suggestions, let's do something 
else. The Energy bill we produced was not exclusively the President's, 
though some on the other side continue to say they didn't like the 
President's and we have the President's bill here. That is not the 
case.
  I again ask that the other side of the aisle seriously consider the 
proposition of sitting down with our side of the aisle and working 
through the Energy bill to see if we can't get together on an 
overwhelming portion of it so if the OPEC cartel reduces oil prices and 
we get some good news that it will not be temporary, it will not be a 
one-time event, but we can send a message to the world we are trying to 
solve our problem by bringing alternatives to the market in America.
  If we told the world we were moving on natural gas and moving on coal 
and moving on nuclear and moving on wind energy and we are doing 
something for our electricity grid that is important and long term, 
they would react first in disbelief, because they wouldn't believe we 
could do it, and then, when it was done, there would be great relief in 
the world that America is doing something to help itself out of this 
crisis.
  I commend to my colleagues an article from the June 2004 issue of the 
National Geographic, at page 84.
  You wouldn't expect that to be the great source of this information, 
but it has the best article I have seen on oil today and oil in the 
future. It is called ``The End Of Cheap Oil.'' It tells us what a 
problem we have in America if we do not solve our energy crisis.
  Let me close by saying most of us think our oil and its related 
products all go to automobiles and transportation. If you read this 
article you will find only half goes to that. Half of America's use 
goes to a myriad of products, from plastics to all kinds of related 
products, including many in the semiconducting industry. That comes 
from oil. Fifty percent of our use is for products, for agriculture, 
and all kinds of things.
  I suggest we ought to get on with it. Maybe we learned our lesson and 
we don't have to come down here and try to blame the President and make 
this a political issue with reference to the White House, when, if the 
President wanted to go to the public every day, he could make sure they 
understood the truth. That is, it is our fault, not his.
  I yield the floor.

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