[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 165 (Monday, October 29, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13497-S13498]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PASSING THE ENERGY BILL

  Mr. REID. Madam President, last night, temperatures fell in many 
parts of the east coast and, frankly, even the west coast has been 
getting cold. It was cold in Searchlight. I talked to my brother this 
morning and he had to start his fire. Searchlight is much colder than 
Las Vegas. In parts of northern Nevada, it has been very cold.
  All over America, and this morning in the DC area, for the first time 
this year, people had to reach into their closets for scarves, heavier 
suits, and even coats for the first time this season. In other parts of 
the country, there have been colder days earlier. In DC, this is the 
first one we have gotten.
  In Las Vegas, even though it still reaches the high 80s during the 
day this time of year, even now you can feel an overnight chill in the 
air. There are parts of Nevada that are really cold. We have had 
freezing weather in Ely and Elko already this year.
  As the temperature falls all over the country, we begin to think 
about the cost of heating our homes for the winter. That cost has risen 
steadily during the 7 years of the Bush administration, and we have 
become even more dependent on fossil fuel.
  This morning, as our thoughts turned toward the cold months ahead, 
the price of oil rose to an all-time record of $93 a barrel. If we 
don't turn the tide by

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reducing our dependence on oil and foreign energy sources, every 
American will be forced to pay more and more to heat our homes and fill 
our gas tanks.

  I went over to my office in the Hart building today. I don't get over 
there as much as I would like, but I went around and talked to 
everybody. I have a wonderful employee who has been with me for many 
years. Her name is Carrie. She lives in Mechanicsville, MD. When the 
rain hit, it took her 3 hours to get to work and 2\1/2\ hours to get 
home. On a normal day, it takes an hour and a half. She sold her 
vehicle she loved so much, which was a Chevrolet Tahoe. It would cost 
her $40 every 2 days for gasoline. She bought a smaller car, and her 
cost for fuel has dropped significantly. Not just Carrie, but everybody 
in the country is more aware of the cost of energy. Whether it is for 
their vehicles or whether it is for their homes, the cost of oil is 
significant.
  We are addicted to oil. That is not just me saying that. Even 
President Bush said it--even though I think he hasn't done anything 
about it. He acknowledged we are addicted to oil. I have said on the 
floor time and again, and I will say it again today: Today in America, 
we will burn 21 million barrels of oil. Tomorrow, we will use the same; 
the day after, the same. It is not going down, it is going up. We use 
21 million barrels of oil a day. That is almost 3 gallons for every 
man, woman, and child in our country every day. That is enough oil, 
every day, to fill a swimming pool, or an oil pool, 10 feet deep, the 
length and width of 200 football fields--every day. How does the Earth 
have that much oil? But it does.
  Day after day, we consume oil at twice the rate of any other 
industrialized nation. Our consumption only continues to go up. This 
oil addiction has become a three-pronged crisis: It does threaten our 
economy, no question about that. Look what it has done to our 
environment. It is threatening our national security.
  A 10-percent increase in oil prices costs an estimated 150,000 
Americans jobs and more than $100 billion of American dollars.
  Since 2001, oil prices have risen by more than 230 percent. So 
clearly these impacts are real and harmful to working families.
  Those hard-working, hard-earned American dollars are coming out of 
the pockets of families, and where is it going? Overseas. Last year, 
Americans sent almost $300 billion to foreign countries to pay for 
imported oil. I am not stretching the truth to say that many of those 
dollars went to governments that don't have our foreign policy 
interests at heart.
  Meanwhile, the world's leading scientists have reached a consensus 
that the global warming crisis is real, grave, and it is growing. The 
Nobel Peace Prize was offered this year to, of course, Al Gore and the 
U.N. study group, which shared it with him, dealing with global 
warming.
  Global warming is here. For people to write, as some do--people who 
are so determined to say there is no global warming, that is a figment 
of their imagination. It is here. Why? Because of our gluttony for oil.
  Earlier this year, the House and Senate both passed a landmark, 
comprehensive piece of energy legislation to tackle each prong of the 
energy crisis. If we can finalize this and help lower prices by 
reducing our dependence upon oil, we would be developing renewable fuel 
alternatives and punishing price gougers and begin to turn the tide of 
global warming.
  The legislation we passed was bipartisan. It wasn't just a Democratic 
bill. We had Republican help. I am happy to see the Presiding Officer 
here today because no one in recent years has done more to focus on the 
problems with energy than the Senator from Washington, Senator 
Cantwell. Because of the strength and conviction of the Senator from 
Washington, who was attacked personally in her last election campaign, 
because she was on the right side of the issue, it didn't affect her; 
in fact, it probably helped her.
  We have to turn the tide of global warming. Remember, we use 21 
million barrels of oil a day. By increasing our CAFE standards by 2020, 
we can save well over a million barrels a day, and some say even more.
  In our legislation, we require an additional savings of 10 million 
barrels a day, on average, by 2030. We set an ambitious schedule to 
replace about one-fifth of our petroleum consumption with renewable 
fuels.
  At the Nevada Test Site, where we set off approximately a thousand 
nuclear devices--most of them underground and a few above ground--you 
could cover that Nevada Test Site with solar panels today, with today's 
technology, and supply enough electricity for the whole country. It can 
be done. It is not being done because we have the utilities which, in 
most every place in the country, are regulated monopolies. They don't 
want to do it because it is easier to use fossil fuel. Natural gas is 
expensive, so now we have a mad rush to coal.
  I so appreciate that Kansas and Oklahoma, in the last couple of 
weeks, said: No coal. This is the area we all need to look to, the 
States of Kansas and Oklahoma. We should look to them as role models 
because they have done the right thing.
  We also need more cooperation from energy companies. The utilities 
aren't going to do it. Last year, oil companies brought in almost $120 
billion in profits. Yet they are doing nothing to help us. The 
automobile industry is doing nothing to help us. Certainly, the Bush-
Cheney administration--the most energy-dependent administration in 
history--nobody has been closer to the oil industry than this 
administration. They both made their fortunes in oil.
  Instead, though, lobbyists for the oil, auto, and coal industries are 
trying their best to weaken our bill or stop its progress. In Nevada, I 
came out against the coal-fired plants they are pushing there. They are 
spending millions of dollars in the small State of Nevada to try to 
show I am wrong by opposing coal-fired plants, saying: We want to build 
a bridge to alternative energy. Let us build a few coal-fired plants 
and then we will do it.
  That is a lost cause. They are doing that because it is the cheapest 
way to do it. They could build solar plants, wind, and geothermal for 
no more than what it cost to build these coal-fired plants. It would be 
as many construction jobs, but it would be something different. If it 
hasn't been done before, they don't want to do it. Imagine where we 
would be today if they agreed to join us in this fight. We know the 
administration simply had secret meetings and made sweetheart deals 
with the oil companies, and they refused to let the press know about 
it. The press went to court, and the court upheld the secrecy of the 
White House.
  The time to stand in the way of progress should be long past. Since 
we passed the Energy bill on a bipartisan basis, Senate Republicans 
have stopped us from going to conference. We cannot stop. We need to 
continue to work with the House to pass a bill, despite these 
challenges. I hope and believe Democrats and Republicans will find 
common ground and set a new course that will keep us safe for our 
economy and protect our planet.
  In the Senate, our bill had something the House bill didn't. It 
raises CAFE standards, a renewable portfolio. It seems we ought to be 
able to marry the two and agree to the demand of the American people.
  Today's record oil prices alone should be enough to convince us we 
must act quickly to complete the Energy bill and pass it into law.

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