[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 110 (Wednesday, September 7, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H7697-H7698]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            HIGH FUEL PRICES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Dent). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. OSBORNE. Mr. Speaker, I am sure that most Members spent time 
touring their districts in August, and I did as well. The major 
complaint that I heard was what probably most Members heard. That was 
concern about high fuel prices. We all know that fuel for automobiles, 
trucks, and airplanes have simply gone out of sight. One thing that we 
are not probably quite as aware of as a Nation is what it has done to 
agriculture, particularly where irrigation is concerned.
  I talked to one Member of Congress who does some farming and 
irrigating. He was telling me that he had one center pivot that was 
powered by electricity; it cost him $1,000. He had one center pivot 
that was powered by either diesel or propane; that was $4,000. Same 
pivot, same size, and normally electricity would be higher than diesel 
or propane. So fuel has really eaten into the farm profits this year, 
and it is going to make farming very unprofitable for many people.
  What has happened? Obviously, one major issue has been that global 
demand has increased. We realize that China, India, countries like 
these, have been industrialized, and over the last 4, 5, 6 years have 
been using much more fuel.
  Number two, exploration has been curtailed. A 1998 executive order 
extended a moratorium on offshore drilling for 10 years. It is assumed 
that these areas would contain 75 billion barrels of oil and 362 
trillion cubic feet of natural gas, but they are off limits. Federal 
law restricts access to resources in the Rocky Mountains and the Gulf 
of Mexico. Drilling in ANWR has not been allowed; and so whichever side 
of the environmental fence you are on, whether you agree or disagree, 
it certainly has made it more difficult to meet our fuel demands. 
Natural gas prices have increased 83 percent over the last 3 years, and 
this will cost our economy roughly $111 billion, and a lot of this is 
simply because of a shortage of natural gas, at least that is available 
to us; and we have a tremendous amount of it in Alaska and other places 
we are not able to get to.
  Number three, refinery capacity has been reduced due to obsolescence. 
As a refinery gets old and equipment begins to go downhill, rather than 
being replaced, it simply is retired; and we have lost 30 percent of 
our refinery capacity since 1976. For the last 30 years,

[[Page H7698]]

we have been steadily losing capacity; and this, again, is mostly due 
to environmental regulation. We have mandated also 13 blends of 
gasoline. These are called boutique fuels, which add expense and time 
to fuel refining; and of course, in many cities, like Chicago, you may 
have to have three or four different fuel blends in a year. Every time 
you change a blend, you shut down the refinery, you clean the pipes and 
you start over again; and, again, that adds to expense. Katrina's 
destruction of refineries has pushed us over the brink. Obviously, just 
losing 5 or 10 percent, with such a thin margin, has made it somewhat 
inoperable.
  Four, we have increased reliance on foreign oil, which everybody 
realizes. We are nearly 60 percent dependent on foreign oil at the 
present time. Much of this is from OPEC. So they can simply have a 
meeting, tighten the screws and prices go up. This contributes greatly, 
this dependence on foreign oil, to a $670 billion annual trade deficit, 
which this country simply cannot continue to sustain. We have to get 
more energy-independent, obviously.
  I guess fifth, something that is in everybody's mind, is has price 
gouging occurred? To be honest with you, I do not know. I do not think 
anybody at this point knows, but I do know this: E85, that is 85 
percent ethanol, was $1.60 in my State of Nebraska 4 weeks ago. Today, 
it is $2.75, an increase of $1.15 in 4 weeks. Katrina did not have 
anything to do with that because the cost of corn has remained low. All 
of the ethanol manufacturing is done in the Midwest, and so the 
hurricane had nothing to do with this issue. I think these are things 
that have to be looked into, probably by Congress.
  The solution eventually, I hope, will be, what we have in our energy 
bill, will eventually provide relief, ethanol, biodiesel, solar, wind 
energy, nuclear, hydrogen fuel cells, and I think some additional 
refinery capacity; but it is all going to take time. This will be a 
difficult time, and I think Congress probably really needs to do some 
soul searching and look at some of the regulations we have placed upon 
ourselves.

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