[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 86 (Friday, June 24, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7376-S7377]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ENERGY POLICY ACT

  (At the request of Mr. Reid, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)
 Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I support what Senator Durbin is 
trying to achieve with this amendment regarding CAFE standards. Over 
the past few years, I have looked closely at this issue and believe 
strongly that we need a consensus path forward. I do not believe, 
however, that Senator Durbin's amendment or Senator Bond's amendment 
will achieve that goal. I have followed closely the information 
available from the National Academy of Sciences and have spoken with 
labor groups, automobile manufacturers, and environmental groups. We 
can, and must, significantly increase the efficiency of our automobile 
fleet, but we cannot do it without creating new incentives for 
automobile manufacturers to retool plants to produce advanced 
technology, more efficient vehicles, and lead the way toward an energy-
independent America.
  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I want to thank the bill managers, 
Senator Bingaman and Senator Domenici, for accepting my amendment 
calling for an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission into 
gasoline price manipulation and anticompetitive practices by oil 
companies and refineries. I also want to thank Senator Dorgan and 
Senator Boxer for their hard work on this issue.
  We are living in a time when the average American family has no 
assurance from week to week that they will be able to afford to fill 
their vehicle with gas.
  Over the past year, gasoline prices have increased by 23 percent. And 
since December the average price for oil has climbed 40 cents per 
gallon. To make matters even worse, prices fluctuate wildly from week 
to week and month to month, making it impossible for families to budget 
for the cost of gasoline. In fact, I heard from a constituent in 
Lansing on Monday that gasoline was $2.10 a gallon at 7:30 in the 
morning and by 9:30 it had jumped over 12 percent to $2.35 a gallon. 
Gas prices in the Upper Peninsula range from $2.19 to $2.24 a gallon. 
People in Detroit are paying the highest prices in the State at $2.40 a 
gallon.
  Furthermore, the Energy Information Administration estimates that 
pump prices for the summer will average about $2.17 per gallon, which 
is 26 cents per gallon above the price from last year. So what does 
this mean for the average American family? Using the AAA Trip 
Calculator I discovered that a family driving their Ford station wagon 
from Grand Rapids, MI to Washington, DC, would spend $89.82 on gas. 
These high prices may mean the difference between a family trip to 
visit grandparents and extended family and staying home. So you see we 
are talking about real impacts to working families.
  At the same time that our families are struggling to find room for 
the cost of gasoline in their household budgets and canceling their 
summer vacations, oil companies are chalking up record-breaking profits 
for the first quarter of this year.
  Families are worried about whether or not they can afford the gas to 
get to work, while oil companies are raking in billions of dollars.
  I think my colleagues must agree with me that there is something 
seriously wrong when American families are struggling to make ends meet 
and the world's top five petroleum companies are reporting more than 
$230 billion in profits since 2001.
  Furthermore, when we consider that the cost of crude oil makes up 
less than 50 percent of the total cost of gasoline, there can be no 
doubt that oil companies and refineries are making their profits off 
the backs of hardworking Americans.
  In a recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, 78 percent of people surveyed 
said that gasoline prices are not fair.
  I agree with them.

[[Page S7377]]

  There are two ways we can start to lower gasoline prices. One way is 
to release oil from our National Strategic Petroleum Reserves, which 
will lower prices by increasing supply while sending a clear signal to 
OPEC that we are not going to sit back and take whatever they decide to 
deal. The second is to make sure that no anticompetitive practices are 
taking place among the big oil companies and oil refineries here in our 
own country.
  My amendment gets to this second point. I have called for an 
investigation by the Federal Trade Commission into gasoline price 
manipulation. We need to make sure that American families are not being 
unfairly taken advantage of by oil companies and refineries.
  Should the FTC's investigation find that illegal practices are taking 
place, they have a couple of options. First, the FTC can pursue a civil 
action and fine companies breaking the law. Or, if they find evidence 
of criminal behavior, the FTC can then notify the Department of 
Justice, which would then pursue criminal action.
  We have seen the devastating effects that market manipulation can 
have when energy companies withheld power from California's power grid 
in 2000 and 2001 in order to drive up the price of electricity. The 
result was 38 days of blackouts, rolling brownouts, service 
interruptions, and ultimately over $11 billion from the California 
State Treasury. A later report by the California Public Utilities 
Commission stated that the vast majority of the power failures could 
have been prevented.
  We need to make sure the same kind of intentional market manipulation 
and preventable economic losses do not happen to American consumers 
when they buy gasoline.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for part of this 
week and want to indicate how I would have voted if I had been present.
  If present, I would have voted in the following ways: ``no'' on the 
Nelson (FL) amendment, rollcall vote No. 143; ``yes'' on the Hagel 
amendment, roll call vote No. 144; ``yes'' on the Voinovich amendment, 
rollcall vote No. 145; ``no'' on the McCain-Lieberman amendment, 
rollcall vote No. 148; ``yes'' on the motion to table the Bingaman 
amendment, rollcall No. 149; ``no'' on the Alexander amendment, 
rollcall vote No. 150; ``yes'' on the Kerry amendment, rollcall vote 
No. 151; ``yes'' to invoke cloture on the energy bill; rollcall vote 
No. 152; and ``yes'' to waive the budget point of order on the 
Domenici-Landrieu amendment, rollcall No. 153.

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