[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 24 (Thursday, February 8, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H1399]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1800
                     ENERGY AND OIL COMPANY PROFITS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, last week ExxonMobil, the biggest of Big 
Oil companies, announced that its profits for 2006 totaled $39.5 
billion, the highest annual profits ever recorded for an American 
corporation.
  Now I don't begrudge the right of any company to make profits, and 
certainly ExxonMobil has done quite a good job of doing so; but while 
they are out making money, it is our job here in Congress to ask what 
price we have all paid for those profits. The most obvious price has 
been the squeeze on working families. When gas prices hit $3 per gallon 
last summer, it was low- and middle-income families just trying to get 
to work that took the brunt of the impact and had to readjust tight 
household budgets.
  Are ExxonMobil's profits worth that kind of cost to our society? Is 
it fair that the world's most profitable corporation gets even more 
profitable while everyday Americans struggle to get by and provide for 
their children? Certainly that does seem unfair to me, but maybe the 
problem is not entirely ExxonMobil's fault--after all, they are just 
feeding America's fossil fuel habit. As President Bush said last, 
America is addicted to oil. As long as this addiction persists, Big Oil 
gets richer and average Americans suffer more.
  Despite the President's pronouncement, however, that addiction has 
gotten worse over the last 6 years, when the Bush administration and 
the Republican-controlled Congress came up with new and clever ways to 
hand out goodies for oil and gas companies. That was no way to run an 
energy policy, and all we wound up with 6 years later is higher gas 
prices, greater dependence on countries that really don't like us, and 
the increasing threat of global warming.
  That is probably one reason why during last year's elections the 
American people clearly chose a new direction for America, and the new 
Democratic majority in the House responded.
  During the first 100 hours of this Congress, we repealed massive tax 
breaks for Big Oil and funneled the money into a fund to promote clean 
and efficient energy technologies. It will go a long way towards 
promoting the right kinds of energy sources. It also signaled that 
Democrats are willing to end outdated policies that do nothing more 
than worsen our addiction to fossil fuels. And that is certainly not 
the end of our efforts.
  Madam Speaker, our Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and Majority Leader Hoyer 
are planning new efforts to get the House to focus on energy 
independence and combating global warming. Energy independence means 
diversifying our energy sources so that we can free ourselves from the 
national economic and environmental security concerns of being too 
dependent on oil, gas and coal. And that means keeping gasoline, 
electricity and natural gas prices stable to make sure American 
families aren't jolted by sudden high prices.
  It means reducing our oil consumption to the point where our foreign 
policy isn't being held hostage because we need oil from some of the 
most unstable or unfriendly places in the world, including Iran and 
Venezuela. It also means making sharp reductions in greenhouse gas 
pollution so we can stave off the worst impacts of global warming.
  I just want to reemphasize that last point because global warming is 
one of the most serious challenges we are facing in the 21st century. 
For a district like mine near the Jersey shore, it means dealing with 
rising sea levels, more frequent floods, and stronger storms. For the 
country as a whole, it is a security issue.
  The more the Earth warms because of pollution from fossil fuels, the 
more American families and businesses will have to deal with bigger 
disasters, more unpredictable weather, and a completely different 
climate.
  The bottom line is that working towards energy independence and 
fighting global warming are real security questions for the American 
people. Unfortunately, we have wasted the last 6 years spending more 
time helping ExxonMobil's bottom line than we have dealing with these 
serious questions.
  So this new Congress means an opportunity to move in a new direction. 
When it comes to energy independence and global warming, the new 
direction means actually putting forward solutions that will move us 
towards a clean, sustainable, secure energy future.
  We are going to raise the bar in this Congress. No longer should we 
be satisfied just to hear sound bites like ``addicted to oil'' and 
``serious challenge of climate change'' that we heard in the 
President's State of the Union address. Now we can have a real dialogue 
about how to address these issues.
  And I would just say, Madam Speaker, ExxonMobil may keep earning 
record profits, but this Congress, this Democratic majority Congress, 
has to keep its eyes on doing what is best for American families and 
for our environment.

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