[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 76 (Wednesday, May 9, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5757-S5758]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           RISING GAS PRICES

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, yesterday I came to the floor with the 
Senator from Arizona and the senior Senator from Texas to talk about 
rising gas prices. The sticker shock at the pump is something all 
Americans are noticing. We can talk in esoteric sorts of ways about 
national energy policy, but when people drive up and have to fill up 
their tank to be able to drive their kids to school or be able to drive 
to work, that is when they begin to understand the consequences of 
Congress's failure to act in a number of respects.
  Last year about this time, our friends on the other side of the aisle 
held a press conference over on Massachusetts Avenue and were decrying 
the lack of action on the part of the then majority of Congress to 
bring down gasoline prices, but since that time, the average retail 
price of gasoline has gone up by 13 cents. I saw in today's day book 
for the Associated Press that the new majority, the Democratic majority 
is now going to have another press conference over at the same gas 
station talking about high gas prices.
  I would suggest the responsibilities of being in the majority are to 
act, not just to hold press conferences. I think our friends haven't 
quite recognized the fact that they are in charge now. They have a 
responsibility to act instead of using the same old shop-worn tactics 
of holding a press conference and launching new investigations.
  In fact, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice 
have held extensive investigations already and basically concluded the 
problem is we don't have adequate supply, and we don't have adequate 
refinery capacity to keep up with the demand. As I noted yesterday, 
Congress can pass a lot of laws. We could even repeal some laws, but we 
can't repeal the laws of supply and demand. We know that in a booming 
world economy, where there is competition in India and China, countries 
with more than a billion people each, as the economies of other 
countries become more developed, they are going to demand more and more 
of the same limited supply of oil, and that is why we have seen the 
price of oil and gasoline go up. Rather than hold press conferences, my 
hope is our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, the new majority 
who is in charge, would work with us to pass legislation which would 
actually have an impact and bring down gasoline prices, bring down oil 
prices, and enhance our national security at the same time.
  It is no secret to any of us that most--or not most but a lot of the 
oil that we import comes from troubled regions of the world. It comes 
from Hugo Chavez and Venezuela, it comes from the Middle East, and I 
don't need to say more about that and how much that supply is 
threatened at times by the bellicose actions of countries such as Iran, 
a rising, they hope, nuclear power. I hope they do not acquire nuclear 
capacity because they are a State sponsor of international terrorism. 
But my point is we need to develop more of our domestic resources. We 
need to look for alternative forms of energy that are clean. We need to 
continue our scientific research into things such as clean coal-burning 
technology. We have about 300 years' supply of coal in this country, 
and we all know that coal can burn dirty, but the fact is that by using 
the technological advantages that we have in this country, we can 
conduct the kind of research that will allow us to use this coal in a 
way that does not pollute and does not endanger the environment. The 
fact is we simply can't turn a blind eye to any source of energy and 
remain competitive in the world economy. But the fact is also that we 
are simply not going to solve these problems by holding press 
conferences, as our colleagues are going to do, apparently, this 
afternoon, I think at 2:30 or 3:30. I can't remember when. They did 
that last year when they were in the minority. They have not quite yet, 
I guess, accepted the fact that on November 7 they won the election and 
they are now responsible. It means more than holding press conferences; 
it means action.

  I tell my colleagues the Republicans are willing, ready, and able to 
work with them to try to solve the energy crisis, the gasoline price 
crisis in this country. It is not going to be easy, but for sure, none 
of us can do it in a partisan way. The only way we are going to be able 
to do it is by working together in the best interests of the American 
people. I think the American people are more than a little tired of 
some of the hollow rhetoric when people talk about problems, but when 
you are in a position to actually do something about it, that nothing 
gets done.
  As our leader on this side of the aisle, Senator McConnell, has 
noted, divided Government actually provides an opportunity for us to 
take on some of these big problems, some of these big challenges that 
are harder to tackle when there is a single party in charge, but it 
takes a spirit of cooperation. It takes a desire to actually work 
together to try to solve these problems the best we can. The energy 
problem is just one of them. I would say the spiraling debt being 
accumulated by growth and entitlement programs is another one of them.
  I am very disappointed that this new budget that is going to come to 
the floor later this week does nothing about passing the buck on 
entitlement spending. As a matter of fact, it imposes additional debt 
and burden on our children and grandchildren when we have the 
responsibility to pay our own bills, not use Social Security to pay for 
the general debt, which we are doing now, and other bookkeeping tactics 
that if we were in the private sector would probably mean that somebody 
would end up in jail. But the Federal Government plays those sorts of 
budget gimmicks, and they need to end.
  So let me end by saying that this is an opportunity for us to work 
together but not if we are going to have press conferences and do 
nothing, talk tough but fail to use the tools that are available to us 
in Congress as representatives of our respective States to work 
together in a bipartisan way to try to solve them. I think that is what 
the American people want. That is why I came to the Senate. I wanted to 
do something. I wanted to actually make a difference. I think all of us 
feel roughly the same way, but somehow we have fallen into these bad 
habits of partisanship and avoiding the solutions that are readily at 
hand.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Wyoming is 
recognized.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I wish to join my friend from Texas in 
talking about the interest in energy. I don't think there is anything, 
frankly, when we look at it, that impacts our future and our jobs and 
our families anymore than energy and its availability. Think about it 
for a moment, what we actually use, each of us, every day. We drove 
here in our cars: energy; the lights up here: energy; air-conditioning 
or heat: energy; then, of course, in the whole economy. So I wanted to 
talk about some of it in the context of high gas prices and, of course, 
Americans are experiencing that right now.
  I am on the Energy Committee, and we have passed good energy policy 
in the last couple years. We have already begun to see some of the 
benefits of that passage, there is no question about that, but there is 
much more that can be done. Unfortunately, we have gone along a good 
deal of the time this year and haven't done much about it, so we need 
to accomplish some things. The high price of gas, of course, touches 
all of us, but it is particularly important in a State such as mine, 
where people have to travel so far for school or work or other 
obligations.
  Yesterday, the Energy Committee, of which I am a member, scheduled a 
hearing on short-term energy outlook for oil and gas. This hearing will 
be held next week, but that is not enough. Having hearings is not 
enough, as having press conferences is not enough. We need to move 
forward.

[[Page S5758]]

  What is the answer to high gas prices? Of course, the simple 
economics of it is supply: Supply and demand. One option is to drive 
less, of course, and we can do some of this. We can have more efficient 
cars and those kinds of things. But we must drive to work. We must 
drive. We have to have energy. So there are some things we can do. But 
the other issue, and the one we can deal with, is increasing supply. My 
friend from Texas makes a good point. We get so wrapped up in bills and 
amendments sometimes, but we have to ask ourselves: What can we add? 
What can we regulate? What needs to be repealed? We cannot repeal the 
law of supply and demand. That is where the impact is on the price. 
That economic fact must inform this debate. We certainly can consume 
our energy in more efficient ways, and we should do that. I support 
those efforts. I am glad to be a cosponsor of a bill, S. 992, that does 
that. But we also have to pass alternative fuels, and I am for that. 
But I think we have to be honest on alternative fuels as to what kind 
of an impact that is going to have in a relatively short time. I am all 
for these kinds of things, whether it is wind or Sun or whatever, but 
it is years down the road before it will be able to do the kinds of 
volume that is necessary for energy.
  So I think my real point is that in the meantime, as we look for 
alternatives, as we look for various things, there are things we can do 
now, and that is what we need to do to deal with our needs in the 
interim while these other things are being decided.
  So I am hopeful the majority will bring legislation to the floor that 
allows us to provide Americans with secure, affordable, and responsible 
sources of energy. I am convinced that unless we move forward, the 
majority is not moving in this direction, and I think we must.
  Last week, we marked up a biofuels bill in the Energy Committee. The 
bill focused on ethanol from corn and feed stuffs, and that is a good 
thing.
  However, these fuels raise the cost of corn. They raise the cost of 
livestock feed and, subsequently, meat and other groceries. They cannot 
be transported in our existing system. You cannot put ethanol into 
pipelines and move it. The advanced technologies are not commercialized 
anywhere yet in the world.
  Along with Senator Bunning, I offered an amendment to add coal-to-
liquids, and coal-to-liquids don't suffer from the same shortcomings as 
ethanol. It will have no impact on the affordability of food. It can be 
delivered through existing pipelines.
  Coal is available as one of our most abundant resources, as a matter 
of fact. It is the most plentiful supply of fossil fuels we have in 
this country. Coal has the potential to be converted to liquids and 
fluids and to electricity on the spot. These are the things which need 
to be done.
  We spent most of 2 hours talking about this amendment, and it 
received a great deal of support. However, when it came down to it, it 
was a party-line vote of 12 to 11, and it was defeated. So I will bring 
it to the floor when the Energy bill comes.
  I think we need to look at the short-term impact. Here is one--
conversion of coal to liquids--that can work. We are doing some of it 
now to a small degree. In Wyoming, we are developing a refinery that 
will take coal and turn it into diesel fuel. Interestingly enough, we 
had support from a number of agencies or organizations that you would 
not necessarily imagine in that, including the AFL-CIO building 
construction trades, AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, Air 
Transportation Association. All these people know how important it is 
to have energy and to have it available. There is a list of about 15 
groups of this kind that are supportive. They are not oil supporters 
necessarily; they are businesspeople who know that to meet our needs, 
we have to have energy.
  Let me read from the letter they wrote:

       In this century, America cannot be secure unless its energy 
     supplies are secure. Fostering greater reliance on domestic 
     energy is a national security imperative. The Nation's 
     abundant and affordable coal reserves, matched with the 
     proven technology, can put America on the path to energy 
     independence by dramatically reducing our growing dependence 
     on imported oil and reducing our burgeoning trade deficit. 
     Domestic production of coal-to-liquids fuels will see 
     billions of dollars invested in new investments made in the 
     United States and create thousands of new jobs.

  That is not the end of the letter, but that is the message from 
groups that are not directly involved in energy but know the impacts of 
the shortage of energy. I could not agree more with the role these 
folks see in the future.
  Senator Bunning and I have been asked to refrain from offering our 
amendment, but we did not wait. We believe strongly in the purpose of 
the Energy Committee to develop the best possible approach we can in 
dealing with the energy problem and dealing with it not only in the 
long-term but in the shorter term until we reach the longer term goals 
that may be there. So we didn't achieve our goal there. That is why we 
want to move forward with this and see if we can't get coal-to-liquids 
in our energy policy and get some incentives to move forward. I want to 
work in a bipartisan way to address the current concerns our Members 
have. I hope we have the opportunity to revisit this issue.
  Americans are suffering from high fuel prices. We should do 
everything we can to remedy that situation. We have to do more than 
just talk about it; we need to make a move to take our largest fossil 
fuel resource and make it available for domestic production.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. McCaskill). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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