[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 105 (Thursday, July 28, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H6943-H6948]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WAIVING POINTS OF ORDER AGAINST CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 6, ENERGY
POLICY ACT OF 2005
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the
Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 394 and ask for its
immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 394
Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be
in order to consider the
[[Page H6944]]
conference report to accompany the bill (H.R. 6) to ensure
jobs for our future with secure, affordable, and reliable
energy. All points of order against the conference report and
against its consideration are waived. The conference report
shall be considered as read.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings)
is recognized for 1 hour.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate
only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), pending which I yield myself such time as
I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time
yielded is for the purpose of debate only.
(Mr. HASTINGS of Washington asked and was given permission to revise
and extend his remarks.)
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 394 waives
all points of order against the conference report and against its
consideration. The resolution also provides that the conference report
shall be considered as read.
Mr. Speaker, there are few matters that we will consider this year as
important as this comprehensive energy plan. As we are all know too
well, our Nation badly needs an updated energy strategy. High oil and
natural gas prices are causing stress on our economy by raising the
price of energy on almost all consumer products, driving up costs for
American families, and on job-creating businesses.
Every industry from agriculture to tourism to manufacturing is
negatively affected by high energy costs. We need to update our laws to
reflect the changing global energy market, encourage conservation and
energy efficiency, and to foster the advance of new technologies that
make traditional fuels cleaner and make emerging energy sources more
reliable and competitive.
This conference report will do just that. This legislation reflects
the fact the energy challenges we face today are complex, that no
single approach is going to solve all of the problems. This
comprehensive energy strategy takes a balanced approach. It includes
incentives related to oil, natural gas, and nuclear energy, but also
emphasizes conservation, energy efficiency and renewables.
The energy plan updates and enhances the Energy Star Program,
promotes the use of clean coal technology, clarifies the process for
siting liquified natural gas terminals, encourages development of
hydrogen-powered cars, and extends tax incentives for the production of
renewable energy from wind, biomass and other resources.
With respect to electrical power issues, this legislation includes
consensus language providing for mandatory reliability standards for
electric transmission to help prevent blackouts like we saw in the
Northeast in 2003. It also encourages investment in transmission lines
to eliminate bottlenecks in the electric grid. There are also important
provisions providing for enhanced consumer protection against the kind
of market manipulation we experienced in the west coast electricity
market 4 years ago.
Mr. Speaker, I want to point out a couple of areas that are
particularly of interest to my part of the country, the Pacific
Northwest. We depend on clean, renewable hydropower for much of our
electricity consumed in our region; however, the relicensing process
that non-Federal dams must go through is too cumbersome and needs to be
reformed. It currently takes an average of 10 years to get through the
relicensing, but often that can take longer. This energy bill provides
for a much needed overhaul of this lengthy dam relicensing process,
potentially saving ratepayers millions of dollars while ensuring
protections for other river interests to remain in place.
License applicants will now have the ability to propose alternative
license conditions to those made by Federal source agencies. These more
cost-effective alternatives will then be accepted, provided they are
shown to provide the same level of environmental protection.
This conference report also preserves regional flexibility in
achieving certain national electric marketing and transmission goals.
This reflects the reality of what works in many areas of the country,
but may not work in other areas that have a hydropower-based system.
This legislation strikes the proper balance on these and many other
complex energy issues. I commend the gentleman from Texas (Chairman
Barton )and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), the ranking
member, and the gentleman from California (Chairman Thomas) and the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel), the ranking member, for their
perseverance and leadership in crafting this conference report.
Mr. Speaker, it is time to take action to combat high energy costs
and reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. Let us pass this
balanced and bipartisan energy plan.
I urge my colleagues to support the rule and the underlying
conference report.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr.
Hastings) for yielding me the customary 30 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, after passage of this rule, the House will consider the
conference report for the energy bill. And before I explain why I
strongly oppose this conference report, let me congratulate the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), the chairman of the Energy and
Commerce Committee, for presiding over a full and open conference
committee. Last Congress Democrats were shut out of the conference
committee. Republicans wrote that bill in the dark of night and behind
closed doors. This time the chairman opened the process. He consulted
frequently with the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) and held
public hearings.
The energy bill is an important piece of legislation that deserves to
be debated out in the open, and while I do not support the final
product, I want to commend the chairman for attempting to restore some
bipartisanship to this Chamber, and I hope others will follow his
example.
The gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) deserves to be singled out
as well. His long and distinguished career has produced some of the
most important laws that govern our Nation. The gentleman from Texas
(Chairman Barton) said it best last night in the Rules Committee when
you talked about trying to discern the intent of one provision that
would change current law. The chairman told the Rules Committees that
as he was trying to explain the intent of the law, the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Dingell) leaned across the table and talked about what he
intended when he wrote that provision years ago.
And so I want to commend the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell)
for his work on this conference committee.
With that being said, Mr. Speaker, let me comment on the substance of
the energy bill. I must say that I agree with the editorial in this
morning's Washington Post which says, and I quote, ``The nicest thing
we can say about the comprehensive energy bill is that it could have
been a lot worse.''
We all know that our Nation is facing a severe energy crisis. The
President knows it, the House knows it, and, most importantly, our
constituents know it. As we stand here today, the average retail price
for gasoline is $2.32, up 40 cents just this year. For a family of four
this amounts to nearly $3,000 spent annually on gasoline. That is a tax
increase courtesy of the Bush administration and the Republican-led
Congress, and the oil companies that are reaping the rewards of record
profits.
Yet the conference report that we have before us today does nothing,
absolutely nothing, to lower energy prices for consumers. It fails to
reduce our Nation's dependency on foreign oil. It makes no real
commitment to the development of renewable energy sources.
In all, the oil and gas industries will receive a multibillion-dollar
package of tax breaks, and if that was not for the dedicated leadership
of the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps), these same companies
would have also been shielded from liability claims for their role in
polluting our Nation's water supply with MTBE.
But let us be clear: Though a few concessions have been made, this
bill is nowhere near what it should be. In fact, this bill is chock-
full of giveaways
[[Page H6945]]
to the oil and gas industry at the expense of public health and
environmental safety.
If enacted, nearly 30,000 new oil and gas projects developed each
year will be exempted from clean water requirements which aim to
control erosion and run-off into rivers and streams. These same
companies, including the administration's friends at Halliburton, would
also be permitted to inject fluid laced with toxic chemicals into oil
and gas wells. This provision alone poses an enormous threat to the
safety of our Nation's drinking water sources, and if that was not bad
enough, this bill extends the reach of the Federal Government into what
should be local energy decisions.
Local communities like the City of Fall River, Massachusetts, in my
district would have virtually no say in the construction, expansion and
operation of liquid natural gas facilitates. Permits granted by State
agencies would no longer be subject to review by State courts. Rather
Federal appeals courts, which are far from experts on individual State
laws, would have exclusive jurisdiction. This provision undermines the
ability of State and local officials to protect their communities from
dangers surrounding LNG.
Mr. Speaker, the bill that we have before us today is not a
comprehensive approach. It does not solve our Nation's energy crisis.
And I cannot say it any more simply than this: The Energy Policy Act
will harm the environment, reward special interests at the expense of
consumers and taxpayers, and limit States rights.
Mr. Speaker, I think we could have done much, much better, and I
believe that it should be defeated.
Mr. Speaker, at this time I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert.)
Mrs. BIGGERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me
time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the rule and the
conference report to H.R. 6, the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
After a series of fits and starts over the past 4 years, Congress now
stands ready to approve the first comprehensive national energy policy
in well over a decade.
I want to congratulate the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), the
chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and the gentleman from
New York (Mr. Dingell), the ranking member, on a job well done. As
chairman of the Science Subcommittee on Energy, I am honored to have
helped develop this legislation. In particular I want to thank the
members and staff of the Energy Subcommittee and the full Science
Committee, as well as our colleagues in the other Chamber for all of
their hard work in crafting the research and development title of this
act.
This bill makes a much-needed and sustained investment in basic
science and applied energy research that will lead to advanced energy
technologies and future energy solutions.
{time} 1045
Not only will this balanced portfolio of research help expand and
diversify our energy supply while reducing energy demands; it will also
educate and train the scientific and technical talent necessary for our
Nation to remain competitive and secure.
In recognition of the fundamental role that science places in the
development of advanced energy technologies and in fulfilling DOE's
mission, this bill also elevates science within the Department by
creating an Under Secretary of Science. It also puts an Assistant
Secretary at the helm of the Department's nuclear energy research
programs. Leadership at this level is needed if we are to use research
and technology to reduce the volume and toxicity of nuclear waste and
capitalize on the many benefits of safe, emissions-free nuclear energy.
I urge my colleagues to support the rule and the conference report
which use science and technology to put America on the path towards a
more secure and energy-efficient future.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), the chairman of the Committee on
Energy and Commerce, an individual that has worked extremely hard on
this legislation along with the ranking member, the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Dingell), and deserves a great amount of credit for
bringing this legislation forward.
(Mr. BARTON of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and
extend his remarks.)
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished member of
the Committee on Rules for yielding me time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise, first of all, in strong support of the rule that
the Committee on Rules has put forward on this significant piece of
legislation. I think it is a very fair rule, and my guess would be that
it is going to be passed by voice vote.
I really want to talk about the underlying bill because this
afternoon, since this is a conference report, there is only going to be
an hour of debate evenly divided on each side. So I want to talk a
little bit about the policies in the bill right now.
Our Nation was founded on the principle that people had freedom and
this freedom entailed the opportunity to make choices. As we begin to
industrialize that principle of freedom, we begin to be encapsulated in
our, for lack of a better term, industrial policies; and part of that
policy has been our energy policy.
Now, there are some people and there are some countries around the
world that think an energy policy for a country should mean the command
and control policy where the government dictates, the government owns,
the government decides; but that is not what we in America believe. And
in the bill that is going to be before us this afternoon, the Domenici-
Barton Policy Act of 2005, we decided that ``energy policy'' means
government setting the frame work, government deciding the parameters
and the ground rules; but fundamentally we still believe in freedom of
choice and freedom of opportunity. We believe in private property. We
believe in economic choices.
So the bill before us does not dictate to the American people or to
the corporations and to the interest groups that make up America
exactly how we should develop our energy resources. It sets the ground
rules.
I want to divide the energy sector into two components, stationary
energy and mobile energy. On the stationary side, this is the best bill
that has ever been before the Congress of the United States of America.
It is going to fundamentally transform the way we develop our energy
resources to generate electricity, whether it is in our coal area where
there is great, great work on clean coal technology; in the nuclear
area where we really revitalize nuclear power; or whether it is in the
way we do the transmission grids; whether it is the way we site new
transmission lines; whether it is the way that we determine what the
reliability of our system has to be, has to be maintained.
This is an excellent bill.
Now, on the mobile source, which is primarily oil which we refine
into gasoline, this is a good bill. But I cannot tell the American
people that it is a great bill in the sense that it is going to reduce
your gasoline prices next week if the House passes it and the Senate
passes it and the President signs it.
Here is the fundamental problem we face on our mobile energy sources.
We consume 21 million barrels of oil every day in this country, and we
only produce 8. You subtract the 8 out of 21 and you get 13. So we are
importing about 13 million barrels of oil a day. On our best day, the
United States of America did not produce more than 10 million barrels
of oil a day, on our best day. There is nothing we can do that is going
to generate another 13 million barrels of oil produced in the confines
of the United States of America. It cannot be done.
Now, we can produce more and we have an inventory and the OCS has
been under moratory that will at least allow us to see what might be
out there. When we come back in September in reconciliation, we are
going to pass a provision that allows us to drill up in ANWR and maybe
produce as much as 2 million barrels of oil today. And we have a
component of this bill that will continue research on the hydrogen
economy so that perhaps we can come up with an alternative to
[[Page H6946]]
the internal combustion engine. And we have incentives in this bill to
help our automobile manufacturers develop the hybrid technology so that
we can get it more cost effective. We have some credits for people in
this bill that could purchase hybrid vehicles.
So we are trying to narrow the gap; but as long as we are consuming
21 million barrels and we are only producing 8, we are going to be
importing a fair amount of our oil. So we need to find a way to use
that oil more effectively and this bill does that.
It also makes it possible, perhaps, to build some new oil refineries
in our great Nation. We have not built a new oil refinery in the United
States of America in 35 years. This bill for the first time begins to
take some modest steps to make that possible.
I hope when the time comes, we vote for the rule this afternoon. I
hope on a bipartisan basis we overwhelmingly vote for the bill.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentlewoman from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito), a member of the Committee
on Rules.
Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from the Committee on
Rules for yielding me time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the rule and the Domenici-
Barton Energy Conference Report because it is the national energy
strategy that our Nation has waited on for decades. This legislation
will ensure adequate energy supply for consumers, help to drive down
energy costs, and provide jobs in the energy industry.
I would like to highlight one facet of it as particular importance to
me and my State. Coal provides thousands of jobs in West Virginia and
produces the energy needed by customers across the country. This bill
contains a number of provisions to support clean coal technology that
will allow coal to continue to provide for the Nation's energy needs
while also protecting our environment.
First, I am pleased that the conference report includes a 20 percent
tax credit for new Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle facilities.
IGCC facilities are on the cutting edge of new energy technology. Other
tax credits for Industrial Gasification and Advanced Combustion will
also further the use of clean coal. The bill also allows for power
plants to amortize the cost of air pollution controls over 7 years, an
important step towards cleaning up existing coal-fired facilities.
The Clean Coal Power Initiative, a 9 year, $1.8 billion program to
demonstrate advanced coal technologies, created by this bill, will
allow us to develop the next generation of clean, efficient coal use.
The Energy Policy Act is good for West Virginia coal, West Virginia
jobs, and great for our Nation's economy and energy security. I hope my
colleagues will join me in support of the rule and the underlying bill.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Washington for the time.
Mr. Speaker, I have enormous respect for the gentleman from Texas
(Mr. Barton) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), the ranking
member. They have worked in a bipartisan way in this conference
committee to produce this bill.
Mr. Speaker, the following is an editorial that appeared in The
Washington Post today entitled ``Energy Deficient'' and the editorial
that appeared in today's New York Times entitled ``Energy Shortage.''
[From the New York Times, July 28, 2005]
Energy Shortage
The energy bill that has been six years in the making and
is nearing the president's desk is not the unrelieved
disaster some environmentalists make it out to be. But to
say, as President Bush undoubtedly will, that it will swiftly
move this country to a cleaner, more secure energy future is
nonsense. The bill, approved by a House-Senate conference
early Tuesday morning, does not take the bold steps necessary
to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil, and it also
fails to address the looming problem of global warming.
These shortcomings are chiefly the fault of the White House
and its retainers in the House. To be sure, the Senate showed
no more courage than the House in its refusal to increase
fuel-economy standards for cars and trucks, even though
higher standards, by common consent, are the easiest,
quickest and most technologically feasible way to reduce oil
demand and cut foreign imports.
But the Senate did approve a renewable fuels provision
requiring power plants to produce 10 percent of their
electricity from nontraditional sources, like wind power, by
2010. It also approved a provision that would ask the
president to reduce domestic oil consumption by one million
barrels a day by whatever means he chose. The House conferees
rejected both proposals.
Meanwhile, both houses conspired in some spectacular
giveaways. One would ease environmental restrictions on oil
and gas companies drilling on public lands. The other would
shower billions in undeserved tax breaks on the same
companies, even as they wallow in the windfall profits
produced by $60-a-barrel oil.
The bill's most useful provisions may take years to realize
their promise. Again thanks largely to the Senate, the tax
provisions are far more hospitable to energy efficiency and
renewable fuels than earlier versions of the bill, and
include substantial incentives for buyers of fuel-efficient
hybrid cars.
More important in the long run, however, may be two
provisions, buried deep in the bill, that are aimed at
developing new energy technologies. One provision would
encourage the development and commercial application of
biofuels from agricultural products that, much like corn-
based ethanol, might someday be used as a substitute for
gasoline. The other provision is aimed at developing new
clean-coal technologies to turn coal into a gas and, more
important, capture emissions of carbon dioxide, a major
contributor to global warming.
These could be powerful new tools in any future effort to
reshape the way Americans produce and use energy. But the
success of both will depend on the willingness of the
government to put money into them. That, in turn, will
require a deeper commitment to a more adventurous energy
policy than this administration has so far displayed.
[From the Wasington Post, July 28, 2005]
Energy Deficient
Here's the nicest thing that we can say about the
comprehensive energy bill that the House and Senate are due
to take up, and will probably pass, before they leave town at
the end of this week: It could have been a lot worse. Unlike
the energy bill that the Senate filibustered in 2003, and in
contrast to some earlier versions, this genuinely bipartisan
bill contains fewer egregious pro-pollution measures and less
pork. It will jump-start the commercial use of new clean
coal, ethanol and biomass fuel technologies; promote energy
efficiency standards; encourage investment in the electricity
sector; and reinforce electricity reliability at last. It is
less expensive than previous bills: The $11 billion net cost
of the tax package plus the $2 billion direct spending comes
to a relatively modest (for an energy bill) $13 billion over
10 years, with further costs depending on future
appropriations.
Nevertheless, this is a bill that leaves most of the hard
questions for later. Aside from a few tax breaks for
purchasers of fuel-efficient cars, it makes no significant
attempt to reduce the enormous automobile fuel demand that
makes this country so dependent on imported oil. While it
provides incentives for the construction of a new generation
of nuclear power plants, it doesn't deal with the unresolved
long-term problem of nuclear waste. It leaves out the whole
question of mandatory controls on the greenhouse gases that
cause climate change, thereby costing both an opportunity to
raise revenue and create a market mechanism that might have
accelerated the development of cleaner, more efficient
technologies. It also perpetuates distortions in the energy
market, providing needless subsidies for oil drilling
offshore and on federal lands, and for marginal oil wells.
And, by the way, don't believe the spin: This bill will not
lower fuel prices anytime soon.
Given how long Congress labored over this legislation, and
how much negotiation was required to get it to this stage,
it's hard not to be disappointed by a bill that in effect
preserves the status quo. It's also hard not to wonder
whether the era of comprehensive, 1,700-page energy bills
designed to appeal to multiple constituencies has passed.
Clearly, some of the missing pieces--especially climate
change and automotive fuel efficiency--will have to be dealt
with separately in the future.
But it's also true that some of the less controversial
pieces of this bill, such as the electricity reliability
provisions and the efficiency standards for appliances, could
have been passed years-ago. Now that this process is over,
congressional leaders should step back, focus on the nation's
most urgent long-term energy needs and get to work on more
carefully targeted legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr.
Blumenauer).
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy in
permitting me to speak on the rule on the energy bill.
One is just struck by the rhetoric surrounding this because only
people who are captive inside the beltway bubble would believe the
rhetoric about this being a positive development for our country.
People do not have to take the word of politicians for this. Any person
can deal with reputable
[[Page H6947]]
independent analysis from academics, from scientists, even looking at
conservative think tanks to find out that the arguments are not
sustainable.
This is, unfortunately, serious business. It is not just a list of
special tax breaks and dodging hard issues. This is serious business
for our country because our addiction to huge amounts of foreign oil
that come from unstable parts of the world dooms us to costly
dependency and means that we will continue to finance both sides of
what they used to call the ``war on terror.''
This bill has no vision of a sustainable energy future for renewables
and meaningful conservation, not window dressing but meaningful
conservation. People are lining up in this country to buy energy-
efficient vehicles that are only available by a handful of producers,
and there is an opportunity lost to change that in terms of fuel
efficiency. Ten percent of the world's supply of oil is dealt with in
our addiction to inefficient energy transportation.
We are even falling behind not just the developed countries like
Germany and Japan who have much more efficient use of energy; we are
falling behind emerging countries. People on the floor are apoplectic
about China buying an oil company, Unocal. Well, China at least is
getting its energy house in order. As an emerging country, it has
officially committed to a much more dramatic and aggressive program for
renewables than the United States.
This bill is not an energy policy. It is a list of tax breaks and
special interest favors that does not by any stretch of the imagination
translate into a cohesive approach which global reality today demands
for this country, demands for any country. It spends over $7 billion in
subsidies to oil companies, the most profitable sector of our economy
already flush with cash. I will not detail the harmful provisions that
are going to come forward that are unnecessary exemptions for the oil
and gas industries for compliance with the Clean Air Act, the backdoor
immunity to MTBE producers and distributors that unfairly and
inappropriatly denies injured parties.
{time} 1100
That will be discussed, I think, further here in the course of the
debate.
But the point that I want to make is that instead of being a
milestone for energy policy in this country, people will look back at
what Congress does--because I have no doubt that the rule will pass and
the bill will pass--but it will be inexcusable, inexcusable, as people
are asked by our interns in the future, by our constituents, by our
children, how could we be so wrong-headed? What should have been a
milestone for energy policy at this critical time will instead be a
tombstone, a monument to an energy policy of previous decades that we
will enact to the detriment of our economy, the environment, and our
children for years to come.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Lee).
Ms. LEE. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time and for his
very diligent and hard work on the Rules Committee, but also his hard
work in terms of addressing the issues relating to this energy
conference report.
Once again, and I want to talk a little bit about the substance, this
administration and the Republican leadership, I believe, quite frankly,
have put the profits of their friends in the energy industry ahead of
the needs of the American people, ahead of the needs of our economy and
our environment. Instead of reducing high gas prices, and I know in
California we have some of the highest gas prices, and these gas prices
are squeezing businesses and consumers at the pump. This bill,
unfortunately, provides over $12.8 billion in giveaways to the oil and
gas industries who are now making excessive profits and squeezing our
consumers in terms of gas and oil prices.
Instead of encouraging the development of renewable energy and
putting the United States economy at the forefront of the green
revolution, this shortsighted bill, and that is what I say it is, it is
very shortsighted, it will only increase our dependence on foreign oil.
It will further subsidize corrupt and oppressive regimes throughout the
world. It also puts our troops on the front lines, quite frankly, of
our energy policy.
Instead of protecting our environment and our health by taking modest
steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions and increase vehicle gas
mileage, this bill would allow oil and gas companies to further pollute
our skies, our water and our environment without paying the
consequences. The health of the American people, I believe, is quite at
risk as a result of this bill.
We need a comprehensive energy bill with a vision for the future that
embraces ingenuity, reduces our chronic addiction to fossil fuels,
fights global warming, which we all recognize is a huge problem. Just
look at the weather changes this year. Last year. We have got to
address global warming. This bill could do that. It could help us
address pollution. It could help us protect our planet. But it puts our
economy unfortunately on the wrong path rather than on the path to
long-term sustainability.
While I want to commend our ranking member for at least making this
bill much better than what it was, from what we remember when it left
this body, it is still a bill that I believe forces us to rely on
foreign energy sources rather than move us toward energy independence.
I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for the time. Unfortunately, I
am going to have to vote against this bill.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3
additional minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), chairman
of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
(Mr. BARTON of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and
extend his remarks.)
Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I want to try to set the record
straight about this bill and add some comments that I did not make in
my previous statement. The Senate had 14 conferees on the bill, 8
Republicans and 6 Democrats. Thirteen of those conferees signed the
conference report. We had all the Republicans in the Senate and five of
the six Democrats sign this conference report. In the House, a majority
of the House Democrat conferees have signed the report, a majority. Of
the Energy and Commerce Committee conferees that were general
conferees, a majority of those conferees signed the conference report,
including the distinguished former chairman of the committee, John
Dingell of Michigan.
We have a bipartisan bill that has come before the House. As I
enunciated earlier, if your vision of an energy policy is a policy
where the government tells you what you can do and when you can do it
and how you can use your energy, this is not your bill. But if your
vision of America is a vision of America that says it is okay to let
the private sector, with the appropriate environmental guidelines and
open market transparency rules and regulations, develop its resources
for the good of all the people, this is your bill.
In terms of incentives for alternative energy, this bill has got more
incentives at the individual level and at the general industrial level
than any other energy bill that has ever been before this Congress.
Whatever your energy source of choice is, there is something in this
bill to help you decide if you want to maximize that choice. What this
bill does not do is say every American has to drive a vehicle that gets
50 miles to the gallon whether they want to or not. Those vehicles are
available right now in the marketplace, and Americans have the right to
choose. This bill does not dictate that choice.
This bill also makes it possible, again without repealing or
fundamentally changing any existing environmental law, to do some at
least exploration and in some cases development of our onshore and
offshore energy resources. As I said earlier, it fundamentally
revitalizes the clean coal technology industry in this country and the
nuclear power industry in this country.
This is a good bill. It is a bipartisan bill. A majority of the House
Democrat conferees and every Republican conferee signed the conference
report. Last night when we were before the Rules Committee, the
gentleman from Michigan and I were both unanimous in that this should
come to the floor under a rule that both sides could support. I want to
commend the distinguished Rules Committee, in the gentleman from
Washington's view, presenting the best rule that has ever been
presented on the floor of the House of Representatives.
[[Page H6948]]
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I do not mean to belabor this. I have
great respect for the skills, the great skills, of the chair of the
Energy and Commerce Committee. But it is just laughable to suggest that
this is not your bill if you think you ought to dictate to the American
public that you have to drive a car that gets 55 miles to the gallon,
as if that were the only choice. A meaningful choice to raise CAFE
standards the way other countries have done to their great advantage.
That would have made more choices available to the American public and
is something that is within our power, that we could do. It has nothing
to do with forcing Americans to drive a car that gets 55 miles to the
gallon. But the lack of a meaningful policy dealing with vehicle
efficiency means that it is very difficult. There is a huge waiting
list. It took me 6 months to get a hybrid SUV.
We are dropping the ball here. As to the notion that this is the best
opportunity in terms of renewable energy, talk to the people in the
industry who are ready, willing and able. Ask them if it is the best
bill ever. That is not what I hear from people in this industry. I
respectfully disagree.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Let me just say in conclusion that I have great respect for Chairman
Barton and Ranking Member Dingell. They have worked very hard on this
bill. I think it is a better bill that is before us than the one that
we passed here in the House. As Chairman Barton pointed out, Ranking
Member Dingell supports this bill. There was virtually a love fest in
the Rules Committee last night, in part a tribute to the process during
these last several weeks.
Having said that, some of us obviously have some philosophical
differences, and some of us feel compelled to vote against this bill. I
have no doubt that this bill will pass with strong bipartisan support,
but as I said at the beginning of my remarks, I feel compelled to
oppose the bill as well. I am concerned about some of what I consider
are giveaways in this bill that I think were unnecessary. One would
ease environmental restrictions on oil and gas companies drilling on
public lands. The other would give billions of dollars in, I think,
undeserved tax breaks to companies that, quite frankly, right now are
gouging Americans. Oil companies right now, I think, are gouging
Americans who are paying the highest gas prices in recent memory.
I think this bill could have been a better bill. Again, there are
philosophical differences here. There will be a debate on the
conference report. I have no objection to the rule. Again, let me close
by expressing my respect and admiration for Chairman Barton and Ranking
Member Dingell, notwithstanding the fact that I oppose their final
product.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance
of my time.
Mr. Speaker, 4\1/2\ years ago, President George W. Bush stood in this
Chamber during his first State of the Union Address and said, ``We have
a serious energy problem that demands a national energy policy. Our
energy demands outstrip our supply. We can produce more energy at home
while protecting our environment, and we must. We can produce more
electricity to meet demand, and we must. We can promote alternative
energy sources and conservation, and we must. America must become more
energy independent, and we will.''
Today, Mr. Speaker, this rule brings before the House a
comprehensive, bipartisan energy plan that will help us produce more
energy at home while protecting the environment; produce electricity to
meet increasing demand; and promote alternative energy sources and
conservation. This energy plan will help America meet its demands of
today while planning for the energy needs of future generations, and it
will allow us to become more energy independent.
Accordingly, Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the rule, House
Resolution 394, and the underlying bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the
previous question on the resolution.
The previous question was ordered.
The resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________