[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 119 (Thursday, September 21, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9862-S9863]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       DRILLING FOR AMERICA'S OIL

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk to our 
colleagues about something going on in America at this very moment that 
probably is very pleasing to the average consumer. I came to the floor 
of the Senate over a month ago to deliver a speech using this map. I 
called it the ``No-Zone Speech.'' I called it the ``No-Zone Speech'' 
because all of these red areas around our Nation, off our shores, in 
the Outer Continental Shelf, are no-zones to oil exploration and 
development. Why? Because we have said politically we don't want to go 
there. Yet it is believed by the U.S. Geological Survey that in the no-
zone rests maybe 80 billion or 90 billion barrels of oil.
  I gave that speech in late July of this year at a time when we were 
debating a very small area down here that could supply upwards of 3 
billion or 4 billion barrels of oil, known as lease sale 181. The 
Senate finally got it, worked out their differences, and passed that 
legislation. They are now working with the House to try to resolve 
those differences.
  But something phenomenal has happened at the gas pump. During the 
time I delivered that speech, the Senate was working on lease sale 181, 
and American consumers were paying over $3 a gallon for their gas. What 
happened? If you went to the pump yesterday in certain parts of our 
country, you paid less than $2 a gallon, and in my State of Idaho you 
are paying 30 cents or 40 cents less a gallon than you did in late July 
or early August. What happened?
  Let me tell my colleagues what we think happened. It is about the 
very reality of America developing its oil reserves and becoming less 
dependent upon foreign, unstable sources.
  About a month ago, Chevron announced they had discovered in the gulf 
in what is known as deepwater areas 20,000 feet below the ocean's 
surface, and 8,000 feet below the ocean's floor, possibly one of the 
largest oil find discoveries in the history of the United States. That 
announcement, coupled with the fact that there had been no hurricanes 
in this area, coupled with the fact that all of the oil development and 
refinement that was taken off line by Katrina is now back on line and 
operating, and the reality that there was a new reserve of oil that was 
secure to our Nation and not dependent upon a foreign unstable 
political power, changed the dynamics of the oil market.
  The $70-plus a barrel for crude that refiners were paying in late 
July was always believed by many of us who study the market to have $20 
of the $70 as purely risk money and speculative price. That is gone. 
That is gone because of this very large discovery down in the gulf and 
the reality that the Congress is going to act responsibly for the first 
time and allow some development, some exploration in the no-zone.
  To think we could become increasingly independent of unstable foreign 
sources of oil would be phenomenally important for this country and our 
economy and, most importantly, for the consumer. I am quite sure that 
the person who pulls up to the gas pump in Mid City USA today and is 
paying 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80 cents to a dollar less than they paid a 
month ago is a pretty happy person, and they ought to be. But, more 
importantly, they ought to be recognizing what they should be asking 
the Congress of the United States to do, and that is to advance the 
development of drilling in the no-zone.
  The Presiding Officer is a Senator from Alaska. She and I and others 
have worked for years to develop the rest of the oil reserves in Alaska 
in the ANWR

[[Page S9863]]

area, where there could be 30 billion or 40 billion barrels of oil, but 
America's politics has said no, and America's consumers have suffered. 
Then we work our way down the coast, down through California and all 
the other areas where the politics of those areas say, no, you can't 
drill here, and yet we believe there are trillions of cubic feet of gas 
and potentially billions of barrels of oil.
  I have worked on the Energy Committee of the Senate since 1990. I 
have watched as others have worked with me and watched American 
consumers and the oil industry of our country becoming increasingly 
dependent on foreign sources. In 1990, it was about 40 percent 
dependency, and then 42 and then 45 and then 50 and then 55 and then 
60. At the peak of this summer's consumption, upwards of maybe 65 
percent of our oil was coming from those unstable political regions of 
the world where, at any moment, a terrorist attack or the bombing of a 
ship could spike the oil market because the supply would diminish, and 
that is why we saw $70 a barrel for oil in speculative prices.
  At just the moment when we are doing lease sale 181, the new 
discovery happens in the gulf, and the market recognizes that $20 worth 
of speculation on risk goes away, and American consumers are beginning 
to recognize the value of being less dependent on foreign oil.
  A very wise admiral a long time ago fought a very important battle 
with the politics of America and the politics of an old-style Navy, and 
his name was Rickover. He said: As long as our surface and subsurface 
Navy is dependent upon refueling with diesel fuel all over the world, 
we will not be free and independent. The politics of that was very 
rigorous. In 1982, Admiral Rickover delivered a speech before Columbia 
University where he talked about the battles he fought to develop the 
first Nautilus nuclear-powered submarine. He said that the political 
battle to get the submarine was more difficult than the design of the 
submarine itself.

  Well, that was then, and that was many years ago, and most of us have 
forgotten that political battle because what we now know is that most 
of our Navy, both subsurface and surface, is nuclear powered. From the 
time the new nuclear Navy vessel is built, slides from the drydock into 
the water, and begins its mission around the world, it is never 
refueled.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Murkowski). The majority's time has 
expired.
  Mr. CRAIG. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to continue for 5 
additional minutes as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. CRAIG. So that Navy vessel never has to pull into a port anywhere 
in the world to refuel itself. It is totally independent. It can travel 
the world. It can go into the Indian Ocean where it would be very 
difficult to refuel a diesel-powered vessel, and it sails on. That is 
why we are the dominant naval power of the world today, because of the 
vision of a man years ago who said: We must be independent--independent 
of energy sources for our Navy.
  Why can't America demand energy independence for all of us? Can you 
imagine what would happen in our economy today if the hundreds of 
billions of dollars that are paid for oil from Iraq, from Kuwait, from 
Venezuela, and other unstable political areas of the world simply 
didn't have to be paid? Instead we would pay producers in our country 
for developing the resources that our country still has in the no-zone. 
Can you imagine our strength as a country? Can you imagine our foreign 
policy if we didn't have to recognize that we had to work to keep 
certain areas of the world stable because they are a source of our 
energy, they are a source of our very heartbeat as a country? They are 
the very source of the heartbeat of the economy of our country.
  The recent discovery in the deep waters of the gulf proved the point 
and proved it loudly, and the markets reacted, and the consumers are 
benefiting today.
  This President gets it. He understands it. It is why his first task 
as a President when he came to power was to develop an energy task 
force and to lay out for the Nation a national energy strategy that 
would move us toward energy independence. Oh, the gnashing of teeth, 
the ringing of hands that occurred on the floor of the Senate: We dare 
not drill in ANWR. We dare not go here. We must not do this.
  During the course of all that rhetoric we became increasingly 
dependent upon unstable political areas of the world for our oil. And 
the American consumers began to pay the price a couple of years ago 
when gas went above $2 and then $2.10 and then 50 cents more and then 
$2.80 and, of course, this summer over $3 a gallon.
  America's farmers today are now paying $3.20 to $3.50 a gallon for 
diesel, and they can't control their input costs. Many of them are 
finding themselves in financial difficulty because of the cost of 
diesel or the cost of fertilizer because, of course, it takes natural 
gas to produce fertilizer and nitrogen and phosphates.
  America, wake up. America, get on your phone and call your 
Congressman and call your Senator and say: No more no-zone. Allow us to 
develop our resources and to do so in an environmentally sound way 
because we now have the technology. We proved it in the shallow waters 
of the gulf a decade ago. We are now proving it in the deep waters of 
the gulf as we speak.
  Clearly, America could be energy independent. There is no question 
about it. The ability of the farmer to produce corn that is developed 
into ethanol, the ability of our country to drill in the no-zone says 
that America could once again stand unafraid around the world as it 
relates to the political stability of the oil development and the oil-
producing regions of a very unstable world.
  The reason we are dependent today is politics, plain and simple. The 
reason the Senator from Alaska continually argues for the responsible 
and environmentally sound development up here in the northern reaches 
of Alaska is because we can do it and do it right, and there are 
billions of barrels of oil up there and trillions of cubic feet of gas. 
And America, once again, as Admiral Rickover understood decades ago, 
can be independent as she stands for other causes around the world.
  What a difference a day makes. What a difference one oil find makes 
because that new Chevron oil find and that new trend in deep water may 
well increase our oil reserves by 25, 30, 40, 50 percent. What would 
happen if we were doing the rest of the development in this area, if we 
were doing the gas development up through Virginia and along the east 
coast, if we were developing offshore in California, if we were 
developing in the ANWR in Alaska?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  Mr. CRAIG. Madam President, the reality is very simple and very 
obvious. It is all at the pump, and the American consumer, I hope, has 
awakened to the reality of what a difference a day makes in the price 
of gas and the impact on their family budget and their pocketbooks. 
Let's drill and develop the no-zones.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.

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