[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 10 (Wednesday, February 1, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H132]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE NEED FOR ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, last night we heard the President say 
something that has been repeated on news broadcast after news broadcast 
across our country: America is addicted to imported oil. This chart 
shows that over 30 percent, one-third of what we consume, comes just 
from the Middle East. Mr. President, thank you for finally saying what 
many of us have been trying to tell you and your administration and 
your father's administration for the past decade-and-a-half. Your own 
Secretary of Defense told me on the record in the Defense 
Appropriations Committee that energy independence for America wasn't 
his job, and yet he runs the largest department in your cabinet.
  My constituents complain to us daily about the cost of home heating, 
the cost of gasoline. Small business people can't afford to pay their 
bills. But they don't want to have to wait until 2025 for a solution 
after you have been out of office for nearly two decades.
  The United States consumes over $7 billion worth of imported 
petroleum, most of it from very undemocratic places. You called them 
``unstable'' last night. They are more than unstable. They are 
undemocratic, Saudi Arabia being the premier country.
  Now, Mr. President, you are in the sixth year of your Presidency. 
Four years ago you claimed to offer an energy plan in this book that 
had 103 recommendations. I said then and I say now, not a single one of 
these recommendations were directed at new fuels like ethanol and 
biodiesel, which you referenced last night. It is interesting that you 
waited until the sixth year, the middle of your second term, to even 
offer any kind of new energy program for our country. It kind of makes 
you wonder whether the Bush administration is really serious.
  We must do something now about America's chief strategic 
vulnerability. We don't need to wait 20 years; we don't need to wait 
another decade for cellulosic research. In fact, Minnesota moved to a 
10 percent ethanol blend, and we ought to do the very same thing 
nationally.
  We can provide funds for infrastructure; just put the pumps in the 
ground. I can buy the vehicles in Detroit today. I can't get the fuel 
in my own district.

                              {time}  1830

  We landed a man on the Moon in 10 years. A man on the Moon. And yet 
we cannot get pumps in the ground across America. We lay tar and 
concrete all over the country. Let us get serious.
  The 2002 farm bill contained the first-ever energy title. I know, we 
wrote it. Have we had any support from the administration? So small, it 
is almost embarrassing. In 2004 the administration recommended cutting 
the minuscule biofuels program operated by the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture by $70 million. In 2005 by $2 million more.
  They have cut the money for the National Renewable Energy Labs by 
over $46 million in Golden, Colorado. All of the pieces of the puzzle 
that could give us the answer and wean us off this foreign dependence 
are not part of the President's budget proposal.
  What are you going to do, Mr. President, to recapture lost markets? 
Think about this: Exxon yesterday reported extraordinary profits of 
over $36 billion, the largest corporate profit in U.S. history. $36 
billion. Yet the entire budget of the Department of Energy is $23 
billion.
  Exxon's profits are almost double the entire budget of the Department 
of Energy. How many jobs we could create if that windfall could be put 
to making America energy independent here at home.
  So, Mr. President, we welcome your interest at long last. We hope it 
continues. Though you are late to the table, do not shortchange the 
American people. Our national security depends on it.

                          ____________________