[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 76 (Thursday, June 9, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6244-S6245]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I do wish to comment just a bit further on 
energy, really as a prelude to what we will be spending a lot of time 
on beginning hopefully Monday and then spending the course of that week 
into the next week, and that is the issue surrounding gasoline prices, 
natural gas prices, concerns that individuals think about every single 
day as they turn on the lights in their home, as they go to work, on 
the way filling up the gas tank of their automobile with gasoline, as 
they use energy sources over the course of the day in the activity of 
their small business, and that is the energy challenges that are before 
us, have been before us. Now is the time to address them, and that we 
will.
  With gasoline now averaging over $2 a gallon, anyone who has gone to 
the pump lately feels that impact, they feel that squeeze of higher 
energy prices. It is costing families who have driven to work this 
morning more and more just to get to work, over the last several years 
costing them more to go pick up their kids from school in the 
afternoon, or as many people prepare for summer vacations costing them 
more because of this increase in energy prices. It is not just the 
gasoline prices that are climbing. We have rising natural gas prices 
that have been driving up electric bills in the last 4 months, higher 
electric bills for everybody, especially families and small businesses.
  As energy costs take a bigger and bigger bite in the family budgets, 
families are able to spend less on other necessities in their lives, 
whether it is food or shelter or health care. As electric bills consume 
more and more of the small companies' assets or their bottom lines, 
they invest less, they invest less in inventory or in capital 
expenditures, or they invest less in how much they can pay employees 
working for that small business. In order to keep our economy strong, 
and it does translate down into jobs, making others' lives more 
fulfilling every day, we must rely on a reliable and affordable and 
secure supply of energy, reliable, affordable, and secure. That is the 
purpose of the Energy bill that will be brought to the floor of the 
Senate early next week.
  Right now, we face enormous challenges, huge challenges. We have not 
had a comprehensive national energy policy or energy strategy, cohesive 
strategy in over 10 years. This has contributed to the higher prices. 
It has threatened our ability to maintain a reliable, affordable, and 
secure supply of energy for the future. The fact is that--and it is 
probably the easiest thing to remember when you start talking about 
energy other than the impact it has on everybody in everyday life--we 
are too dependent on foreign sources of energy. We have to look to a 
more diverse energy series of sources. We have to look to new 
technologies here at home. Yes, absolutely we need to conserve more, 
and we also need to produce more in order to enhance our energy 
independence and to enhance our energy security.
  One of the primary energy challenges we face is this reliance on 
foreign oil. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the United States produced 
almost as much oil as we consumed, and during that period of time 
imports were very small. In 1972, however, U.S. oil production began to 
decline, and that production has been declining steadily ever since. 
The U.S. consumption of oil has been steadily increasing. So we have 
declining production and increasing consumption.
  As a result, our reliance--this I would say irresponsible reliance 
that we have today on foreign oil, on imported oil--is growing. Ten 
years ago, in 1995, we were 47 percent dependent on foreign sources of 
oil. Today, that 47 percent has grown to a 56-percent dependence on 
foreign sources of oil. If you project that out, by 2025, if we do 
nothing, we will be 68-percent dependent on foreign oil; much of it, as 
we all know, coming from countries that do not necessarily have our 
best interests at heart.

  Today we import most of our oil from Canada, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, 
and Mexico. However, as we look forward, the Department of Energy's 
Energy Information Administration did project more and more of the oil 
we need will come from the OPEC countries in the Middle East.
  We must take steps to reduce our dependence on foreign countries and 
enhance our energy security at home. When we rely on other nations for 
more than half of our oil supply, we simply put ourselves at greater 
risk.
  While there is no silver bullet that can make us 100-percent energy 
independent in the near future, there is a lot we can do right now to 
reduce our dependence and enhance our security. Much of it will be 
addressed on the floor in the next 2 weeks.
  Everything should be on the table, including increasing conservation, 
enhancing energy efficiency, investing in new technologies that will 
allow us to both use energy more wisely and tap new sources of energy, 
and finally, increasing domestic production of energy sources at home. 
The transportation sector is a prime example. Nearly 70 percent of the 
oil we use goes to power the cars and trucks we drive every day. If we 
are serious about reducing our dependence on foreign oil, we must look 
for new ways to fuel our vehicles. We are already doing this with the 
hybrid cars--they are becoming more and more popular, as we all know--
and with alternative fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel.
  We must continue to move in this direction by continuing to invest in 
hydrogen fuel cell research. President Bush has stressed this again and 
again, and he has said his goal is that today's

[[Page S6245]]

children will take their driver's test in a zero-emission vehicle. That 
would go a long way toward helping to reduce our dependence and enhance 
our security.
  Natural gas is another energy source we depend on heavily and is 
another area in which we are, unfortunately, becoming increasingly 
reliant on foreign imports. Because natural gas is clean burning and 
relatively cheap, it has been the fuel of choice for new electric power 
generation in recent years. Sixty percent of American homes are now 
heated and cooled with natural gas. But while that demand has been 
growing, domestic supply has remained essentially flat. In 2003, we 
imported 15 percent of the gas we used. By 2025, that number will 
nearly double.
  We simply cannot continue on this path, and that is why we are 
bringing this bill to the floor next week. We need to take bold action 
in the Senate. It is what the American people expect; it is what they 
deserve. This is exactly what we will do. We will take that action in 
the Senate to address these energy challenges head on.
  The bill that was reported out of the Energy Committee last month was 
done so on a bipartisan basis, and it is a step in the right direction. 
It likely will be amended and improved on the floor of the Senate next 
week. I, again, thank Chairman Domenici and Senator Bingaman for their 
tremendous work and for the cooperative spirit with which they 
approached these issues. I hope that same bipartisan spirit will 
prevail on the floor and that we can get this important legislation to 
the President as quickly as possible.
  Several of us had the opportunity to meet with the President 
yesterday, and this was at the very top of his list of issues that he 
expects us to address. Our goal is to get that legislation to his desk 
for his signature as soon as we possibly can.
  America needs a policy that keeps our families safe, strong, and 
secure, a policy that keeps America moving forward.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Martinez). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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