[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 118 (Thursday, July 17, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1501-E1502]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF ``RELIEF NOW ON THE ROAD TO RENEWABLE ENERGY ACT OF 
                                 2008''

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 17, 2008

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce the 
``Relief Now on the Road to Renewable Energy Act of 2008.''
  I believe this bill will provide relief now from soaring gasoline 
prices and also accelerate our pace down the road to alternative energy 
and energy independence. Few things affect American consumers like high 
energy prices. Higher gas prices strain the budgets of America's 
working families, raise the cost of goods and services, increase 
harvest costs for America's farmers, and negatively impact the economy 
and the livelihood of working Americans.
  According to the latest figures from the Department of Energy, the 
retail cost of a gallon of gasoline breaks down as follows:
  53 percent--Crude Oil.
  19 percent--Refining. (This component varies from region to region 
due to the different formulations required in different parts of the 
country.)
  9 percent--Marketing and Distribution.
  19 percent--taxes. (This component also varies depending upon whether 
States have also enacted sales tax on gasoline and whether local 
counties and cities have levied their own gasoline excise or sales 
tax.)
  As you can see, the single biggest factor affecting the price of 
gasoline is the cost of a barrel of oil; oil which largely comes from 
politically unstable regions of the world, such as the Persian Gulf, 
Nigeria and Venezuela. Unfortunately, we find ourselves so heavily 
dependent upon these expensive sources of oil because decade after 
decade Congress has established legislative and regulatory roadblocks 
to prevent exploration for and refining of domestic supplies of oil and 
natural gas.
  I believe it is time to invest more now into conservation and energy 
efficiency. My bill, for example, includes provisions that would 
increase alternative energy sources and diversify the energy grid with 
currently available alternative energy technologies. As a nation, we 
waste far too much energy with inefficient engines and machines. That 
is why my bill provides tax incentives for companies to produce fuel 
efficient vehicles. In fact, it provides a $1,000 tax credit for 
individuals who purchase hybrid cars produced by American corporations. 
I believe that as we work with the market demand, these energy-
efficient changes will work to stimulate domestic economic growth.
  The fact of the matter is that wind and solar power cannot bring down 
the cost of the gasoline we need to power our cars, trucks, planes, 
trains, boats and power plants while we are developing greater 
efficiency. The cost of gasoline is a simple economic debate, oil 
supply and demand. We need more supply. The answer, I believe, is to 
end our dependence on expensive foreign oil by developing our own 
domestic supplies of oil and natural gas. My bill will open up new 
areas for oil and gas exploration.
  For example, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) holds the 
single largest deposit of oil in the entire United States. Its 10.4 
billion barrels of oil is more than double the proven reserves of the 
entire State of Texas and almost half of the total proven reserves in 
the U.S. (22 billion barrels). Had President Clinton not vetoed ANWR 
energy production in 1995, the United States could be getting nearly 
1.5 million barrels of oil per day from the Arctic right now.
  There are also vast oil and gas deposits along our coastlines that 
are completely off limits to development because of government 
interference. In fact, the Department of the Interior (DOI) conducted a 
comprehensive inventory of oil and natural gas resources located off 
our coastlines within the last 2 years. According to the Department of 
the Interior there is an estimated 8.5 billion barrels of known oil 
reserves and 29.3 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of known natural gas 
reserves along our coastlines; with 82 percent of the oil and 95 
percent of the gas located in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). However, even 
more importantly, the Department of the Interior estimates that there 
are untapped resources of about 86 billion barrels (51 percent in the 
Gulf of Mexico) and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas (55 percent 
in the Gulf of Mexico) out there.
  Similarly, the U.S. has been called the Saudi Arabia of oil shale. It 
has been estimated that oil shale deposits in Colorado,

[[Page E1502]]

Utah, and Wyoming hold the equivalent of as little as 1.8 trillion 
barrels of oil and potentially as much as 8 trillion barrels of oil. In 
comparison, Saudi Arabia reportedly holds proved reserves of 267 
billion barrels. Unfortunately, oil shale is roughly equivalent to 
diesel fuel and a number of Clean Air Act regulations--such as low-
sulfur diesel--and Federal motor fuel taxes, which favor gasoline over 
diesel fuels--have created a strong financial disincentive regarding 
the production and use of oil shale fuels. In addition, many of these 
deposits are on public land making it more bureaucratically complicated 
to exploit this resource. My bill provides a financial incentive for 
companies to invest in and produce more oil from oil shale.
  Getting more domestic oil on the market is only half the solution. We 
haven't built a new refinery in this country in more than 25 years 
because the approval process for new refinery construction is estimated 
to require up to 800 different permits. While existing refineries have 
undergone significant expansion over the years, even as others have 
been shuttered, our aging refinery infrastructure leaves little margin 
for error. If we begin to produce more domestic crude oil we would need 
to turn it into home heating oil, gasoline, or diesel through the 
refining process. The ability to refine oil must keep pace with the 
demand for gasoline and diesel. My bill would expedite the construction 
of new refining capacity by streamlining the permitting process and 
opening up closed military bases for construction.
  Clearly, developing new oil fields and refineries will take some 
time. In the interim my bill will help promote the switch to flexfuel 
and hybrid cars and trucks; extend important alternative energy tax 
credits; and provide individuals and truckers a vitally needed fuel 
price tax relief package. It also opens up land for the production of 
biofuel crops in order to provide relief from high food prices as a 
result of ethanol production.
  Again, I believe in conservation, I believe in energy efficiency, and 
I believe in diversifying our energy supply by using wind, solar, coal-
to-liquid technologies, ethanol and other renewable energy sources. But 
the fact of the matter is that oil and natural gas are still going to 
be a part of our energy mix for a long time to come and we must give 
our constituents some relief now.

                          ____________________