[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 97 (Thursday, June 12, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5535-S5536]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       GRADUAL ADJUSTMENT DAY TWO

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today the national average for a gallon 
of regular unleaded gasoline hit another all-time high of $4.06. For 
truckers it's even worse, with the average cost of diesel now at $4.79 
a gallon.
  Every American is suffering the effects of high gas prices. But low- 
and middle-income families are hurting the most. Many now spend a 
significant portion of their income just getting to and from work. A 
good number of people in eastern Kentucky are spending 15 percent of 
their income just on gas.
  Some people are taking second jobs just to cover the cost of getting 
to and from their primary jobs.
  Prices are so high Democrats are starting to talk about gas prices 
being a serious problem. A number of them spoke yesterday about the 
effect that gas prices have on the wider economy.
  The junior Senator from Colorado told us about a farmer in Kit Carson 
County who is worried he won't be able to afford the diesel fuel he 
needs to harvest his wheat crop at the end of the summer.
  The junior Senator from Montana said manufacturers in his State are 
at risk of shutting down, that truckers are struggling to make ends 
meet, and farmers are struggling to pay for fertilizer. The junior 
Senator from Minnesota said the people of her State are lining up 
around the block at the

[[Page S5536]]

Costco in Minneapolis just to save some money.
  Even the senior Senator from New York got in on the act, though 
mostly as an excuse to go after the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. I am not 
sure how this was relevant to gas prices. Maybe he thought people would 
feel better if they realized they'd be even worse off if we hadn't cut 
their taxes.
  But to all our friends on the other side who have spoken about the 
crushing effects of high gas prices, I would simply add that they are 
right on target. High gas prices do affect everything. High gas prices 
do hurt. And I would also add this: Democrats in Congress have no plan 
to lower them.
  In a month when gas prices have hit record highs, Democrats have 
proposed three things: a massive carbon tax, a tax on energy companies, 
and allowing trial lawyers to sue our trading partners. This isn't an 
energy plan. It is a caricature. It is a caricature of a party that 
seems incapable of conceiving any solution to any problem that doesn't 
involve taxation or litigation.
  With gas prices causing unprecedented pain at the pump for working 
Americans, Democrats have responded by trying to raise taxes that we 
know will be passed onto consumers. Ignoring the iron laws of supply 
and demand, they insist that high gas prices must be the result of some 
corporate plot instead. But the current crisis is a supply and demand 
problem--not a supply and demand and litigation problem, not a supply 
and demand and taxation problem, a supply and demand problem.
  It is fairly straightforward: at the moment, there's greater demand 
than supply. And last year, Republicans joined Democrats in addressing 
demand by passing the first increase in national fuel efficiency 
standards in more than 30 years. We have also tried to address the 
supply problem by increasing production of American energy. At every 
turn, we have been blocked.
  Since 1991, the Senate has voted a dozen times on allowing limited 
exploration in a small portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 
A Democrat President has vetoed it or Democrats have blocked it every 
single time. When he did it, incidentally, gas at the pump was $1.06 a 
gallon.
  Last year, the Senate voted on proposals to expand refinery capacity, 
invest in coal-to-liquid technology, and open up more domestic 
reserves. Democrats blocked each one.
  Last year, Republicans proposed allowing Virginia to go forward with 
deep sea exploration off its coast--something that Virginia, under a 
Democratic Governor, wants. Democrats in Congress said no.
  Republicans have tried to allow the use of oil shale from Western 
States as an alternative to foreign oil. Democrats imposed an oil-shale 
ban in last year's Omnibus Appropriations bill.
  Last month, Republicans tried to increase production of American 
energy again, along with an increase in support for clean energy 
technology and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Democrats said no.
  And just last week, I offered an amendment to ensure that if the 
Boxer climate tax bill caused gas prices to go up, we would suspend its 
provisions. Democrats blocked that too.
  For years, Democrats have blocked every effort to increase the 
production of American energy and help bring gas prices down. They have 
said no to States that want to allow for deep sea exploration off their 
shores. They have blocked the use of oil shale. They have blocked a 
dozen efforts to open a small portion of ANWR for environmentally 
sensitive exploration, which--if it had not been vetoed 13 years ago--
would be providing a million barrels of oil a day to American consumers 
right now.
  That's twice as much as the senior Senator from New York wants us to 
beg from the Saudis. And now, they want to raise gas prices even more 
through higher taxes.
  It should be abundantly clear by now to anyone who is paying 
attention that our friends on the other side have no serious plan for 
lowering gas prices. As the record suggests, their primary concern is 
blocking increased production, which has inexorably led to record gas 
prices.
  If people are being forced to change their lifestyles, if the price 
of goods is skyrocketing, that is apparently all right, according to 
our friends on the other side. Their Presidential nominee even admits 
it. He says the high price of gas isn't the problem. The problem, he 
says, is that prices went up too quickly. If he had his way, he would 
have raised prices much more slowly.
  He would have preferred that gas prices go up more slowly than the $1 
increase we have seen under the new Democrat Congress over the last 
year.
  He would have preferred they go up more slowly than the astonishing 
$1.73 increase per gallon of gasoline we have seen just in the 17 
months since Democrats took over Congress in January 2007.
  As the Democrat nominee put it in an interview earlier this week, he 
would have preferred a ``gradual readjustment'' in gas prices, 
presumably so Americans wouldn't notice the shock of it.
  We used to think $4 a gallon gasoline was unthinkable. Our friends on 
the other side were apparently thinking about it all along. ``I think I 
would have preferred a gradual readjustment.''
  Those are the words of their nominee.
  While Americans are reeling over high gas prices, increasingly 
demanding that we increase our production of American energy, Democrats 
haven't let us turn over a single shovel for exploration here at home. 
And now they have got what they wanted.
  We all agree that the key to our energy future is clean energy 
technologies and alternative fuels that move us away from oil. What the 
other side refuses to acknowledge is that it will take some time to get 
there. We are moving in that direction as quickly as we can. We have 
worked in a bipartisan fashion in both the 2005 and 2007 energy bills 
to accelerate the process of moving to clean energy technologies and 
alternative sources of fuel.
  But the facts are clear: in the short term, America will depend on 
fossil fuels to drive our economy. For the foreseeable future, our 
choice is the same as it's always been: either import our energy from 
people like Hugo Chavez and from Saudi Arabia or use more of our own. 
But our friends on the other side have removed the option of increased 
American energy created by increasing American jobs. They have made 
sure we have only one option. They have put domestic energy off limits. 
And now we're paying the price.
  Republicans have been willing to work with Democrats to address both 
sides of this problem. Republicans enthusiastically support 
conservation.
  Last year, we supported the first increase in automobile efficiency 
standards in more than three decades. We have supported investments in 
alternative energy. We know this problem requires action on both the 
supply and the demand side. And we have shown it. But we're still 
waiting for our friends on the other side to show the same commitment 
to actually address the problem.
  For the sake of all the American people, who will today make hard 
choices at the gas pump, we need to work together to lower prices now, 
and that means that as the third largest oil producer in the world, 
America needs to increase its own domestic supplies in an 
environmentally responsible way so we are less reliant on Middle East 
oil and so our people finally get some relief.

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