[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 65 (Tuesday, May 17, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5292-S5295]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             ENERGY POLICY

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, this is shaping up to be an auspicious 
time for an Energy Bill, as we begin a year long celebration of 
Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday. Benjamin Franklin was the 
embodiment of a ``renaissance man.'' He was a small business owner, a 
diplomat, an accomplished author, a scientist, and one of our Nation's 
greatest Founding Fathers. It is his role as a scientist that I want to 
focus on today and suggest that the best birthday present we could give 
him would be to honor his work and pass a balanced, forward-looking and 
scientifically-based Energy bill this year.
  Americans learn from childhood the story of Franklin and his 
breakthrough experiment with a kite and lightening. In today's world, 
it is hard to imagine that a politician as accomplished as Benjamin 
Franklin would also make such a profound contribution to science. But, 
he did. Franklin's contribution to science was profound because his 
experiment with a kite and lightning proved that electricity was a 
naturally occurring phenomenon.
  Before that, superstition governed man's interaction with 
electricity. It used to be that people believed the devil hurled 
electric bolts from the sky. So when a lightening storm was brewing, 
churches sent people to ring the bells to ward them off. Tragically, 
this same superstition seems to often guide our policies today.
  Franklin's pioneering work with electricity is so instructive because 
it reminds us that we need to put reason and science before 
superstition and myth. Electricity was once a dangerous force in the 
world that, thanks to Franklin and Edison, we have now harnessed to 
provide power and light, life and hope, and the greatest prosperity the 
world has ever known. This remains our challenge today. If we want to 
continue to generate power for future generations, we must harness 
powerful forces--solar rays, geothermal steam, nuclear fusion, wave 
energy and new generations of fossil fuel technology.
  To do so, we must abandon superstition, misinformation and fear.
  The area of sharpest interest to the People of Louisiana in this 
bill, is also surely one of the areas most in need of reason over 
superstition--oil and gas production, both on shore and on the Outer 
Continental Shelf. As we are all aware, the United States has an 
abundant demand for fossil fuels, but also a great need to use them 
wisely.

[[Page S5293]]

  We comprise about 5 percent of the world's population, but we consume 
more than 25 percent of the world's oil production--roughly 20 million 
barrels per day. Some projections have the country's oil consumption 
hitting 29 million barrels a day by 2025--nearly a 30 percent increase. 
With the price of oil hovering around $50 a barrel, this is a chilling 
proposition.
  And for our own purposes today, it should also be a motivating 
proposition.
  The global picture is even more difficult. China, with its rapidly 
growing economy, 1.3 billion people, and millions of new cars, has just 
passed Japan to become the second largest consumer of oil after the 
U.S. In 2003, China consumed more than 5 million barrels per day, of 
which more than 35 percent was imported. By 2030 it is estimated that 
China will need 12 million barrels per day. India, with its 1 billion 
people and surging economy, also has a growing need for a reliable 
energy supply.
  Despite this impending crisis, is the United States trying to secure 
its future by maximizing its own domestic production of natural sources 
of renewable energy? Absolutely not. Instead, like medieval villagers, 
we are running up to the bell towers when lightening is striking.
  We have young American soldiers securing Iraq. I support democracy 
for Iraq; I support democracy for all people of the world. But what 
separates Iraq from brutal dictatorships in other places? The answer is 
obvious--the second largest oil reserve in the world.
  So young American men and women are sacrificing their lives every day 
to cover for our superstitions and political gridlock in Washington.
  We have lost 1,622 Americans in Iraq--that's more than 2 American 
soldiers per day of occupation. We have to play the cards that we are 
dealt, but just because we got a tough hand doesn't mean that we 
should, in good conscience, pass an energy bill that does not diminish 
our dependence on Middle Eastern oil.
  That is why it is so important that we write an energy bill that 
provides smart, efficient incentives for the United States to maximize 
its own domestic energy production, using all the avenues that are 
available to us to diversify our supply and to encourage competition 
that would drive down and stabilize prices.
  Vitally for my State, this must include a recognition of the 
contribution that coastal states, particularly states along the Gulf 
Coast, make to energy production now.
  The coast of Louisiana is not a regular coast. In supporting the 
production and transportation of 80 percent of our Nation's offshore 
oil supply, it is truly America's Wetland--and with its loss, America 
faces a national emergency. In the past 50 years alone, Louisiana's 
size has been reduced by an area larger than that of Rhode Island, and 
continues to wear away at the rate of one football field every half 
hour.
  If the Rocky Mountains were to shrink by 10 feet every year, we would 
act. If a foreign army were to advance a hundred yards up our shore 
every 38 minutes, we would act.
  Because of the vast array of energy resources Louisiana and other 
coastal States supply and protect, coastal erosion in our States 
presents a direct threat to our national security and the global 
economy.
  We must act--and while the waves eat away our shores, the solution 
may lie just beneath their surface.
  In the early days of this Nation, Benjamin Franklin and his 
colleagues looked to the western frontier for its rich resources and 
the promise of new economic and military security, just as their 
ancestors had looked to the seas with the same thoughts in mind.
  Today, our oceans have reemerged as a great frontier capable of 
helping build a stronger, more secure and more economically stable 
Nation. We have learned that through new technologies, when managed 
well and wisely, the ocean frontier holds tremendous resources that may 
be put to work for America.
  Harnessed beneath the surface of this great frontier lies the energy 
to light our homes, power our public infrastructure and give birth to 
even greater achievements.
  Little more than a century ago, what we'd call ``Ocean Energy 
Industry'' was simply one of whaling ships and harpoons. But today, the 
Outer Continental Shelf, or OCS, provides American consumers with 25 
percent of the natural gas, and 30 percent of the oil, produced in the 
country each year.
  It also rewards the U.S. Treasury with more than $5 billion 
annually--$145 billion since production began in 1953. That is the 
second biggest contributor of revenue to our Federal Treasury after 
taxes.
  But it has costs, and it is perfectly reasonable for States to want 
assistance with those costs.
  The Mineral Lands Leasing Act shares with interior States 50 percent 
of the revenues generated on Federal land within their borders. In 
serving as the platforms that support a vital component of our national 
energy supply, coastal States deserve the same treatment. And so, last 
week, I introduced the Stewardship for our Coasts and Opportunities for 
Reliable Energy Act--or SCORE--which does just that . . . It gives 
coastal States the same 50 percent share of the oil and gas revenues 
for their work that interior States receive for their efforts to 
support production.
  This is more than just sound economic and energy policy--it is a 
simple demonstration of fairness.
  The OCS supplies more oil to our Nation than any foreign power--
including Saudi Arabia--and it is estimated that 60 percent of our 
Nation's undiscovered oil and gas will be found on the shelf. And so, 
as we take to the seas again, we are not hunting the elusive Moby Dick 
of lore. . . We know where the bulk of this oil may be found.
  But just as the Western frontier once represented a great unknown to 
our Nation's policymakers, the impact and reality of the OCS seems lost 
in a time warp. We exist on outdated policies, and while our production 
has increased somewhat, we haven't even built a new refinery in a 
decade.
  We also have yet to adequately answer the question, ``Why should a 
State contribute to our energy independence?'' and have failed to take 
the necessary steps to encourage them to do so.
  Last year, we commemorated the 200th Anniversary of Lewis and Clark's 
adventure into the frontier. It is a prominent historical event for 
Louisiana, because it marks the culmination of the promise of the 
Louisiana purchase. Thirty-eight soldiers and scouts set out with Lewis 
and Clark, and they called themselves the Corps of Discovery.
  Hopefully, our body can take up their mantle and emulate their 
exploring spirit in the passing of this bill.
  Today, we are exploring only 43 million of the 1.67 billion acres of 
the Outer Continental Shelf--less than 2.6 percent! If Lewis and Clark 
had taken this same timid tactic, they would have stopped just short of 
Cincinnati, and the history of our country would have been vastly 
different. Instead, Lewis and Clark ventured on for another 8,000 miles 
and helped to open our western frontier. Let us do the same!
  Thomas Jefferson, who commissioned the adventure, was eager to have a 
full understanding of the economic potential of his great bargain. This 
was an act of political will--for no sooner did the trip commence, than 
Congress began complaining about its expense. Thus, even Lewis and 
Clark's voyages were seemingly subject to the mindless penny pinching 
of ``302(b)'' allocations.
  What they were trying to discover was the economic potential and 
natural resources of this great country. It was a fundamental exercise 
of reason over myth. Jefferson sought new trading relationships with 
the native tribes, sought an overland route to the Pacific for nascent 
trade with China, and wanted to know of the quality of land for 
agriculture.
  What he did not do was let ignorance and fear govern policy.
  Yet when it comes to the Outer Continental Shelf, we are doing just 
that. Not only do we not know the full riches that lie off our coasts, 
policymakers around here don't want to go, don't want to see, and don't 
want to know.
  While the OCS contains more than 60 percent of the Nation's remaining 
undiscovered oil and natural gas resources, 85 percent of the OCS in 
the lower 48 States remains untouchable . . . blocked by Congressional 
moratoria and administrative withdrawal.

  While 98 percent of our current OCS production comes from a very 
concentrated area--the western half of the

[[Page S5294]]

Gulf of Mexico, offshore Louisiana and Texas--most of the Pacific Coast 
remains off limits. Most of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico . . . off 
limits. And the entire Atlantic seaboard . . . off limits.
  At the same time, our demand for, and supply of, oil and gas are 
moving in opposite directions. Over the next 20 years, our consumption 
is expected to increase by 50 percent, but production is only expected 
to increase by less than half that amount.
  Imagine explaining that circumstance to someone like Jefferson or 
Franklin, Lewis or Clark. They understood the essential fact of 
progress--you can't discover if you don't look.
  It is time for a full accounting of the resources of the OCS. 
Technology has provided us with a modern Corps of Discovery that will 
be no more intrusive than the 40 men in the wilderness 200 years ago. 
With scientific data in hand, then we can have a meaningful argument 
about the efficacy of what to do with our natural resources.
  For example, through the effective use of technology, we have 
produced three times as many resources as we thought existed 30 years 
ago--and have produced them in an environmentally friendly way . . . 
The Minerals Management Service estimates that from 1985 to 2001, OCS 
offshore facilities and pipelines accounted for only 2 percent of the 
oil released into U.S. waters. In fact, 97 percent of OCS spills are 
one barrel or less in volume. Obviously, just a little technology can 
go a long way.
  What is disappointing to me is that the mythology around oil and gas 
production--its potential hazards and challenges--stems from stories 
nearly 50 years old. We live in an information driven economy, but many 
in the environmental community have a very industrial age approach to 
these challenges.
  We ban; we prohibit; we restrict. Instead we should research, 
innovate and improve.
  Several nights ago, I was up late watching an odd documentary. It was 
about the history of bringing hot water to our homes at the turn of the 
century. It's something we all take for granted now, but if you 
contemplate it, it was a difficult engineering problem years ago. Like 
all new technologies, water heaters were once a lot less reliable than 
they are now. In fact, when they first started to be installed in 
people's homes, they frequently blew sky high. That was tragic, and we 
are all relieved that we've moved beyond that stage in technology.
  But, the lesson is that even though tragic injuries occurred, when 
there was great societal benefit to be had, technology kept on leading 
the way. That is what has already occurred in oil and gas. There is 
clearly more that can be done.
  I invite any Member of the Senate to join me on an offshore platform. 
You will see something that looks a lot less like an industrial plant 
and more like a spaceship . . . A spaceship for which our coastal 
producing States provide the launch pads.
  More can be done, but you will be amazed at what has already been 
accomplished.
  The SCORE Act helps motivate States to consider the potential that 
lies on the frontier off their coasts, and hopes to inspire a new era 
of technological advancement and energy invention. As we begin to 
comprehend the Ocean Frontier, we need to partner with industry to 
develop the necessary science.
  Safety and environmental sensitivity should be the watchwords of our 
stewardship. It is a lesson that we take with us from our collective 
experience. To ensure this remains a priority for industry, we need to 
reinvest some of the resources that we are collecting. That is the way 
forward--not ignorance and fear, but reason and stewardship.
  No one understood the importance of stewardship more than Theodore 
Roosevelt, whose memorial I visited yesterday with the Senator from 
Tennessee, Mr. Alexander. Two of Roosevelt's greatest legacies--the 
Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge and Breton Island National 
Wildlife Refuge--lie just off Louisiana's coast. They were the first 
refuges he created, but as we know, they were not the last . . . and 
the lives of generations of Americans continue to be enriched by these 
gifts to us.
  In his only trip to one of the refuges he created, Roosevelt visited 
Louisiana's barrier islands in 1915 . . . but much of the landscape he 
visited no longer exists, having been washed away by coastal erosion. 
Reflecting on the visit, he wrote in his autobiography, A Book Lover's 
Holidays in the Open:

       To lose the chance to see frigate-birds soaring in circles 
     above the storm, or a file of pelicans winging their way 
     homeward across the crimson afterglow of the sunset, or 
     myriad terns flashing in the bright light of midday as they 
     hover in a shifting maze above the beach--why, the loss is 
     like the loss of a gallery of the masterpieces of the artists 
     of old time.

  Unfortunately, even with the efforts of conservation visionaries like 
Roosevelt, the story of the past 100 years has been one of continued 
coastal and wildlife losses. Consider that Battledore Island, the 
`gallery of masterpiece' of which he wrote, is no more. Today, 
fishermen know it as Battledore Reef.
  It is too late for Battledore Island, but it is not too late to save 
countless other natural treasures around our Nation. While President 
Roosevelt's vision is still alive, there is much work left to be done . 
. . and today we have an opportunity to carry on his legacy of 
conservation and write a different ending to the story he began so long 
ago.
  The Americans Outdoors Act, which I have introduced with Senator 
Alexander, is a significant start. In our Government today, you will be 
hard pressed to find a closer embodiment of Roosevelt's legacy than in 
Senator Alexander, and I am so very proud to be working with him in 
this effort.
  AOA would mark our Government's greatest commitment of resources to 
conservation ever, and would directly benefit all 50 States and 
hundreds of local communities through its landmark, multiyear 
commitment to coastal restoration and other conservation programs like 
the state side of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. It, like SCORE, 
would also set forward a crucial first step to restoring America's 
vital wetlands and the billions of dollars in energy investments they 
protect.
  When Hurricane Ivan struck back in September, it should have been a 
wake-up call to us all. Although the storm did not hit Louisiana 
directly, its impact on the price and supply of oil and gas in this 
country could still be felt 4 months later. One can only imagine what 
the impact would have been had Ivan cut a more western path in the 
gulf. How many more hurricane seasons are we going to spend playing 
Russian roulette with our oil and gas supply?
  But the diversity of our energy supply is just as important as the 
increased production of it. And our atmosphere protects us much in the 
same way as our coasts. We have an obligation to serve as responsible 
stewards of both.
  Mr. President, it will come as no surprise to you that fear, rather 
than science, also seems to dominate our policy with respect to nuclear 
energy. There are some startling facts that most Americans probably do 
not know today. Nuclear energy--today--despite not having licensed a 
new plant in 27 years--provides 20 percent of America's electricity. 
Most importantly, it does so without any emissions.
  This is a resource that is produced 100 percent domestically. No one 
has to bring in a new LNG plant for nuclear energy, no one has to 
defend critical supply lines for nuclear energy, no one has to cap and 
trade emissions for nuclear energy. Yet a policy driven by fear and 
superstition keep the United States in a technological backwater. 
Between our fear of oil and gas production, our near hysteria toward 
nuclear power, and our rejection of clean coal options, the United 
States is living in a kind of energy technology dark ages.
  Rather than harnessing powerful forces that could bring light and 
energy to this Nation. We are being ruled by superstition and fear, and 
we have to bring these attitudes to an end. The alternative is even 
more bleak. While the U.S. ignores nuclear power, our economic rivals 
in Japan and France are pulling away from us. More menacing still, the 
Chinese are threatening to leap-frog U.S. technology in this arena. 
Spencer Reiss wrote in a recent article entitled Let a Thousand 
Reactors Bloom:

       The Future of Nuclear Power, a 2003 study by a blue-ribbon 
     commission headed by

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     former CIA director John Deutch, concludes that by 2050 the 
     PRC could require the equivalent of 200 full-scale nuke 
     plants. A team of Chinese scientists advising the Beijing 
     leadership puts the figure even higher: 300 gigawatts of 
     nuclear output, not much less than the 350 gigawatts produced 
     worldwide today.
       To meet that growing demand, China's leaders are pursuing 
     two strategies. They're turning to established nuke plant 
     makers like AECL, Framatome, Mitsubishi, and Westinghouse, 
     which supplied key technology for China's nine existing 
     atomic power facilities. But they're also pursuing a second, 
     more audacious course. Physicists and engineers at Beijing's 
     Tsinghua University have made the first great leap forward in 
     a quarter century, building a new nuclear power facility that 
     promises to be a better way to harness the atom: a pebble-bed 
     reactor. A reactor small enough to be assembled from mass-
     produced parts and cheap enough for customers without 
     billion-dollar bank accounts. A reactor whose safety is a 
     matter of physics, not operator skill or reinforced concrete. 
     And, for a bona fide fairy-tale ending, the pot of gold at 
     the end of the rainbow is labeled hydrogen.

  With this sort of news, one begins to wonder if there is any set of 
circumstances that will dissuade the Congress from its wrong-headed 
policies. We cannot afford to keep waiting. I call on my colleagues to 
resolve once and for all the issues of where to store the byproducts of 
our nuclear generation.
  Technology also harbors other exciting new promises for clean energy. 
Coal provides 50 percent of our Nation's electrical supply, and now we 
can use it in a better way. Coal gasification plants--or ``clean coal'' 
strip out the pollutants that would otherwise be released into the air, 
allowing us to continue to draw on this abundant natural resource while 
also respecting our roles as stewards of the environment.
  Liquified natural gas also has a significant role in satisfying our 
clean energy goals while helping to solve our Nation's supply and 
demand imbalance. But we cannot allow the Gulf of Mexico to simply 
become a ``thruway'' for LNG without recognizing the role of coastal 
States that host the terminals and sustain its importation. To this 
end, terminal siting is not only a Federal concern but a local one as 
well.
  And finally, we simply cannot ignore the promise of hydrogen 
technology. Senator Dorgan has been one of the Senate's foremost 
leaders in this regard. I was proud to support his efforts throughout 
all of the iterations of the Senate Energy bill, and am very pleased to 
understand that many of them have been incorporated into the Energy 
chairman's mark.

  Beyond these, there are countless alternative resources we have yet 
to fully explore--resources such as wind, solar and even wave energy--
all of which can also be produced on the OCS with the encouragement 
SCORE provides.
  Let me make clear: Increased domestic production and supply diversity 
are of paramount importance to our energy needs and national security, 
but no serious energy policy can ignore the equally important need for 
energy conservation.
  Benjamin Franklin was eminently quotable, but one of his more 
relevant quips is ``When a well's dry, we know the worth of water.'' So 
it is with America's environment. The cost of global warming will be 
truly staggering when compared to conservation measures today.
  There are a number of points to be raised in that regard.
  First, I believe that the U.S. Government should use its power of 
economies of scale, and large purchasing power to set the best example. 
Energy efficiency should be a consideration in the design and 
retrofitting of U.S. Government buildings. Energy savings should be a 
factor in the enormous fleet of government vehicles.
  I have also supported a provision, now included in the Energy 
chairman's mark, which would call for a reduction in our Nation's oil 
consumption by 1 million barrels per day over the next 10 years. We 
currently consume 20 million barrels. With research and technology, 
these are very attainable goals.
  Similarly, the Senate will be best off with a smart Renewable 
Portfolio Standard--RPS--that it can pass. RPS is a lynchpin that will 
make alternative technologies commercially viable. It is a vital and 
logical step in our efforts toward energy independence.
  And even as we address the production side of the equation, we need 
to make sure the energy we produce reaches consumers affordably and 
reliably. In our handling of OCS revenues, we ask our coastal producing 
States to give and give with little in return. Equally unfair are our 
Nation's electrical transmission policies, which expect Louisiana 
consumers to foot the bill for electricity consumed in other States.
  For these reasons, Senator Burr and I earlier this year introduced 
the Interstate Transmission Act, which seeks to protect local rate 
payers and make electric reliability standards mandatory.
  Today we make new history. It may not be as exciting as Franklin's 
discoveries about electricity, or require the endurance of the Corps of 
Discovery. But it may hold the key to America's economic future.
  My Ocean Energy Initiative, which includes the Americans Outdoors and 
SCORE Acts, as well as a series of technology proposals still to come, 
creates a strong four-step framework for protecting our national 
economic, military and energy security by increasing, diversifying, and 
cleaning up our energy production and supply.
  We must look for new ideas and new frontiers to support increased, 
diverse, and clean energy. The Ocean Frontier today presents the most 
immediate opportunities, but who knows what lies on the next horizon? 
Space, perhaps?
  We must explore these new frontiers and develop the innovative new 
technologies to do so more effectively and responsibly.
  We must share the shelf and other frontiers, so our states aren't 
left shouldering the burden.
  And we must invest in our environment and return to our coasts, 
forests and green-spaces the respect and recognition befitting what 
they have given us by way of natural resources. We give back some of 
what we take.
  Through a responsible balance of conservation and innovation, this 
Ocean Energy Initiative recognizes that the goals of energy security 
and environmental stewardship need not be mutually exclusive.
  Mr. President, we follow in the footsteps of great pioneers: Benjamin 
Franklin, who put science before superstition; Thomas Jefferson, who 
opened the American frontier; Lewis and Clark, who journeyed into this 
frontier and found its rich promise; and Theodore Roosevelt, who saw 
that a great nation bears a responsibility of stewardship to the ground 
it is built upon.
  If we follow their example, and continue down the path these pioneers 
blazed to the new frontier, we will have a bill that we can all look 
back on with pride.

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