[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 117 (Wednesday, July 16, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6806-S6809]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HIGH GASOLINE PRICES

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I want to talk as well about high gasoline 
prices. I agree with my colleagues that this is the No. 1 issue of the 
day when it comes to domestic policy.
  Frankly, as we talk about the housing crisis, the subprime mortgage 
crisis, hopefully, our economy will work through this difficulty with 
the collective efforts of the White House and Congress. But, frankly, I 
am worried the most that unless Congress acts to lift the moratorium on 
the Outer Continental Shelf, the oil shale, and other sources of oil 
here at home, then it will be high gasoline and high energy prices that 
will plunge our Nation into a recession.
  As bad as people feel the economy is going right now, I believe it 
can only get worse, unless Congress acts responsibly to deal with the 
causes of high gas prices. It is within our grasp to have a positive 
impact and bring down the price of gasoline at the pump.
  I think it is important for the American people to understand that 
the consequences of the last election in 2006 meant that the 
Democrats--our friends on the other side of the aisle--are in charge. 
As the Senator from Tennessee mentioned, it is Senator Reid, the 
Senator from Nevada, the majority leader, who controls floor time. We 
cannot bring things up on the floor of the Senate unless he says it is 
OK. What we are doing here today is imploring him to get to work--to 
allow us to get to work on the Nation's business when it comes to 
bringing down the price of gas at the pump.
  There is some good news: After 145 days of delay and going dark 
listening to foreign terrorists, because we hadn't reauthorized the 
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, we were able to get a bipartisan 
compromise and pass that legislation.
  Here, again, this is where the majority party, the Democrats, control 
the agenda and, frankly, we are seeing unnecessary delays that were 
causing harm not only to our intelligence gathering, but also it has 
been 603 days

[[Page S6807]]

since the Colombia Free Trade Agreement has been stalled. This is an 
example where my State sells $2.3 billion of produce from our farmers 
and manufactured goods to Colombia. They bear a tariff that would be 
removed if that trade agreement were to go through, which would create 
additional markets and help create jobs and improve the economy not 
only in Texas but across the country. If we can persuade Speaker Pelosi 
and Majority Leader Reid to allow this thing to go through, we can see 
a boost in our economy as a result of that free trade agreement.
  Then, of course, there is the matter of judicial nominees who have 
been blocked because of the unwillingness of the majority leader to 
allow them to have a vote on the Senate floor. It has been 748 days.
  I am here to talk about this last figure, and that is the 814 days 
since Speaker Pelosi said, in anticipation of the 2006 election:

       If Democrats get elected and if I become speaker, we are 
     going to have a commonsense plan to bring down the price of 
     gasoline at the pump.

  That was when gasoline prices were $2.33 a gallon. We thought gas 
prices were high then. What are they today? They are an average of 
$4.11 a gallon. We are still waiting for that plan.
  So we are here to ask, in the most respectful way we know how, for 
the Democratic majority leader in the Senate, who controls the floor of 
the Senate, to bring a bill to the floor that will allow us to deal 
with this national economic crisis and provide some relief to the hard-
working families in Texas and across the Nation who need some help. We 
know that high energy prices not only impact the quality of life and 
the economic welfare of hard-working people in my State and across the 
country, it has a ripple effect on the price of food and other 
commodities, which is driving up inflation and threatening our economy. 
So we need some action.
  I was somewhat amused to hear the distinguished Senator from New 
Jersey, Mr. Menendez, come to the floor yesterday and talk about the 
need to ``act more and talk less.'' Act more and talk less. I agree 
with the slogan, but I wish the majority leader and our friends on the 
other side of the aisle, who are in control of the agenda of the 
Senate, would take their own advice: Act more, talk less.
  We know what is necessary in order to deal with the energy crisis in 
this country. Here is what we have encountered: Nothing but 
obstruction. The Senator from New Mexico, Mr. Domenici, is our leader 
on energy issues. He is the ranking member, and former chairman, of the 
Senate Committee on Energy. He has been an unparalleled advocate of the 
expansion of nuclear power to generate electricity in this country.
  What happens when we ask our friends on the other side of the aisle 
to work with us to try to expand the availability of cheap electricity 
through nuclear power in a safe way? It is blocked. What are we told, 
regarding our 300-year supply of coal in this country, that we want to 
invest money in clean coal technology and to use that energy in a way 
that protects the environment but generates electricity to be used by 
the American people? We are told, ``no, you cannot do that either'' by 
the majority party. When it comes to offshore exploration, taking 
advantage of the God-given natural resources America has been blessed 
with, we are told, ``no, you cannot do that either,'' even though it is 
within the power of the Congress to lift the ban that was imposed by 
the Congress, which would allow us to explore and produce oil from the 
submerged lands around our shoreline.
  The President lifted the executive ban a couple of days ago. So the 
only barrier to the production of more of America's natural resources 
here at home in the submerged lands off our coastline is the Congress. 
Our friends on the other side of the aisle are in charge, and we are 
imploring them to work with us to produce more American energy. We have 
heard a lot about the oil shale out in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. 
About 2 million additional barrels of oil a day, we are told, could be 
produced from that oil shale. But we are told, ``no, you cannot do 
that.'' That was Congress that imposed that ban last year on developing 
the oil shale, which could relieve some of that pain at the pump.
  Then, of course, we know about ANWR, the Arctic National Wildlife 
Refuge. When Congress actually passed legislation that would allow 
exploration and production of oil in ANWR, President Clinton vetoed it 
about 10 years ago. If he hadn't vetoed that legislation, we would have 
about a million barrels a day on line that would help with supply and 
would bring down the price.
  So the new energy policy of our friends on the other side of the 
aisle seems to be a ``no energy'' policy. It is not ``let's do this 
instead of that''; it is just ``no new energy.'' Now we are told that 
the majority leader wants to bring a bill to the floor to focus on 
speculation in the commodities market. We favor an examination of the 
commodities futures market, more transparency, and more cops on the 
beat in order to make sure the American people are being well served by 
the commodities futures market. But it is not the only problem we need 
to deal with. We need to deal with the law of supply and demand, which, 
amazingly, Congress is under the misimpression that it can suspend the 
law of supply and demand.
  We know, because we have been told by the world's experts, that we 
are in competition with growing economies, such as China and India, 
with more than a billion people each, who are buying cars and using 
more energy because they want the prosperity that comes along with more 
energy use. China's GDP is growing at 10 percent a year. It is building 
about two new coal-powered plants a week in that country. So we know we 
are in a global competition.
  You would think that common sense would tell us, from a national 
security standpoint and from the standpoint of bolstering our economy 
here at home and producing additional supply, which will give us 
temporary relief as we transit that bridge Senator Domenici talks about 
to a clean energy future--we know in the long run we are going to have 
to get off of an oil-based energy dependency. Frankly, there is not 
enough of it for us to permanently continue where we are now. That is 
why alternative sources of energy are important and why it is important 
that we conserve and, as Senator Alexander said, ``find more, use 
less.''
  I was in Tyler, TX, last week, at Brookshire Groceries, which is a 
chain there. They were talking about how they had retrofitted their 
tractor-trailer rigs and tried to find ways to conserve and use less 
diesel. They told me how they had retrofitted their tractor-trailer 
rigs to try to conserve and use less diesel. They found, also, that if 
they drove their trucks at about 62 miles an hour, they could maximize 
the range that they could travel--the distance--and minimize the 
consumption of diesel. If I am not mistaken, I think they told me they 
were able to save roughly 20 percent of their diesel consumption by 
finding ways to conserve. So we support the concept of using less, but 
we need to find more at the same time.
  It makes sense that we produce more here in America. It will create 
jobs at a time when our economy is flying into a headwind right here in 
America, all across the country. It will bring some relief to consumers 
at the pump. We know that 70 percent of the price of gasoline is 
directly tied to the price of oil.
  We need to ``act more and talk less,'' I agree. But it is up to the 
majority leader to allow us to act by bringing an energy bill to the 
floor.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico is recognized.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, how much time does the Senator from New 
Mexico have?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 10 minutes 13 seconds.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, it is a privilege this morning to follow 
after two Republicans who have eloquently expressed their views on this 
subject. I compliment our conference chairman from Tennessee, Senator 
Lamar Alexander. He has quickly taken the lead in this area as 
conference chairman and is doing an excellent job of putting us in a 
position where we can explain to the American people what this issue 
really is.
  Mr. President, 2\1/2\ months ago, I introduced a bill. The bill was 
intended to call to the Senate's attention that we ought to be 
producing oil and gas

[[Page S6808]]

from U.S. assets, this oil and gas to be used by the American people to 
lessen our demand on foreign oil so that as we move across the bridge 
to the next fuel the world uses, we use less crude oil from foreign 
sources by using our own. That was the gist of the bill. It had 
conservation in it. It had production in it. It had addressed the 
continental offshore exploration.
  Indeed, after 2\1/2\ months, nothing has been done except that the 
President of the United States intervened and said to the American 
people: Let's just put the blame right where it belongs. I am lifting 
the Executive moratorium on all of the coastline of America in the 
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that abuts our country. I am lifting the 
ones I have control over. And, Congress, you do what is next; you lift 
yours so we can begin the orderly process of having leases and 
producing oil and gas from our property for our people.
  I cannot tell you how thrilled this Senator was with the President's 
action because it said: What is next? I can almost envision the minds 
of those who are in the business of holding us hostage to natural gas 
and crude oil we have to purchase from overseas, in particular crude 
oil. I can almost envision them peeking over and peeking down into the 
Congress of the United States, saying: Now it is your turn; we are 
wondering what you are going to do. Those who are holding us hostage 
are wondering: Is the United States going into another deep sleep?
  There has been a 27-year deep sleep by America on these very valuable 
resources that should be explored on our coastlines which we own--we, 
the people, own--and we should get to work on a program to see how much 
of that we can use and where is it and how many billions of barrels 
there are. Make no bones about it, it should have been inventoried in 
depth, but it has not been. For a long time, people were scared to do 
that because they did not want to hear the results. Lately, the 
administration did not want to do it because they didn't know if 
Congress would ever let us use it. So we have just cursory inventories, 
but they indicate that 20 billion barrels is a pretty good number to 
consider as the barrels we will probably get from offshore America. I 
am somewhat informed, and I say that is a lowest possible number. I 
would think, if these offshore oil lands should really be opened for 
exploration, we are talking about anywhere from 20 billion to 100 
billion barrels of oil that belong to Americans that ought to be 
produced.
  As those foreign countries peek over, they are doing two things: they 
are peeking at us to see what we will do, and they are also peeking at 
us to see whether we are going to let this asset go dormant or are we 
going to put it into the pool so that the psychology of what is 
available to the world will work its will and bring the price of oil 
down.
  I rise again today to speak on the most important economic and energy 
issue of our time. America faces a grave and growing threat from our 
massive dependence on foreign oil. We are told by lead economists for 
the International Energy Agency that we face a ``dangerous situation'' 
and that at today's pace, our global suppliers of oil will fail to meet 
demand over the next 25 years. We hear our businesses deeply concerned 
about fuel costs, and we hear the American people clamoring for new 
energy supplies in the wake of $4-plus gasoline.
  Amidst all of this noise, from the majority in Congress we get a 
deafening silence. In fact, I think some on the other side of the aisle 
were hoping that this whole thing could disappear until after the 
election, that they wouldn't have to vote on what they want to do with 
the American people's assets--to wit, the offshore oil and gas reserves 
that are theirs, that have been locked up, as I said, for 27 years. I 
think sometimes the other side of the aisle--at least some of them--and 
the leadership would think: Let's just wait until after the election, 
and then we will solve the problem and we won't have the Republicans in 
the way here. They can't do that because this is the Senate. An energy 
bill has to come up. We have to have amendments to it, and we have to 
vote. We will be looking anxiously and waiting anxiously for that to 
happen.
  I have spoken recently about the need to build a bridge to a clean 
energy future of affordable, reliable alternative energy fuel. The 
foundations of that bridge for the next three or four decades will be 
built on our Nation's use of crude oil. I hate to say that, but I have 
thought it through, and no matter what we do, no matter how successful 
we are, we are going to have to use crude oil until we find a total 
substitute for the automobiles and the trucks of today. They are the 
big users. We cannot just pile them up and throw them away. They are 
going to be used. As they are used, we must have crude oil. So we are 
going to be dependent, and we have to find our way to bridge that with 
as much of it as we can produce at home. I have spoken about this and 
the fact that may be three or four decades. It is very important that 
everybody understand that.
  A growing majority of the American people are clamoring for us to 
explore for more homegrown energy. When you consider that an increasing 
number of Americans across all political ideological spectrum support 
more oil production at home, the Senate's silence on this issue is 
rather shocking. It is past time that the majority in the Senate 
respond to the clarion call of the overwhelming majority of Americans. 
It is time for leadership. The American people are calling for 
solutions, and they are getting excuses. They are growing disillusioned 
by the inactions of Congress.
  I have spoken at great length on this Senate floor about the fallacy 
of the so-called ``use it or lose it'' argument. I want to do that one 
more time.
  I hear many Members of this body accusing others of sitting on 
leases. But perhaps we should point this bright perspective light back 
on ourselves. With the Executive moratorium now lifted, Congress is 
solely responsible for locking up billions of barrels of oil and 
trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. Perhaps it is the American 
people who will tell us: Use it or lose it.
  According to a comprehensive report by the National Petroleum Council 
called ``Facing the Hard Truth About Energy,'' in the United States an 
estimated 40 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil resources 
are completely off limits or are subject to significant lease 
restrictions. That is more than the equivalent of 8 years of total U.S. 
imports at current rates. On the Atlantic and Pacific OCS alone, there 
is estimated to be 15 billion barrels of oil. That is more than the 
total Persian Gulf imports over the past 15 years and approximately the 
same amount of the total oil produced in the Gulf of Mexico in the past 
half century. There are abundant oil reserves there waiting to be 
drilled, waiting to be explored, waiting for American ingenuity and 
talent which is now in abundance, and it is best to act on it because 
it is ours.
  These figures are staggering, and in light of the fact that our 
estimates have historically been very low when we get to actual 
exploration and production, perhaps we should take the time and 
resources to pay for a very comprehensive inventory. Then we would know 
how much there is out there. The American people would be even more 
excited about the prospects of that vast resource which is theirs.
  Staggering as the numbers are, they do not include the 800 billion 
barrels of oil-equivalent oil shale located in Colorado, Utah, and 
Wyoming. By the conservative estimates of the RAND Corporation, our oil 
shale resources at the base is three times greater than the oil 
reserves in Saudi Arabia.
  The facts are clear: We are spending hundreds of billions of American 
dollars to purchase something from around the world that we have 
sitting under our feet. As gasoline exceeds $4 a gallon and oil hovers 
around $140 per barrel, the American people should be tired of excuses. 
I believe they are.
  Amidst this backdrop, it is stunning that the majority offers a 
simple speculation bill. Every serious expert--from Daniel Yergin, to 
Guy Caruso, to Ben Bernanke, and Warren Buffett--recognizes it is a 
supply-demand problem and not a speculation problem. We are glad to 
debate the issue, but we better put some other things before the 
Senate, not just that, if we intend for the American people to believe 
we care about their plight and the plight of the American economy 
today.

  With all that is going on that is scaring the American people, I 
personally believe the biggest culprit in the crowd is the growing 
dependence on crude oil, the amount of money we send overseas

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every hour, every day, every week, every month to countries, many of 
which are our enemies and could care less about us, that we must pay 
that to get crude oil to be refined so that we can move our automobiles 
and our trucks and do our work and our business every day.
  It sounds incredible that we would not join together, Democrats and 
Republicans, on this exciting day and say we finally have pulled back 
the curtain that has had a blackout imposed on offshore drilling in 
America and join hands and say: What do we do to begin to develop it as 
quickly as we can? I don't see why we ought to be arguing. We ought to 
do it together and quickly. That is what the American people would 
like. I don't think that is what we are going to get. I hope some 
Democrats will be listening. That is what this Senator would like to 
do.
  We have a bill. We have a proposal. It would probably be better if 
Democrats and Republicans had one together that both produced and 
conserved, that produced more oil and conserved more in terms of our 
automobiles by producing more electric cars. Just combine those--this 
one, and match it off against another one--and we will be moving in the 
right direction.
  I close by saying I hope that day comes. I hope the other side is not 
waiting, doing nothing until the election is over, using any excuse 
they would like. There is no excuse. We can do it, and we ought to do 
it now. The curtain has now rolled back. The offshore is there to look 
at, to see, and it contains billions of barrels of oil that are ours. 
We ought to go get it in an orderly way, and we ought to pass laws in a 
bipartisan way that permit us to do it. But if not, we ought to put 
forth ours and have some serious votes in front of the American people 
to decide our future.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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