[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 120 (Tuesday, July 22, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H6735-H6736]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             GLOBAL ENERGY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Stearns) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Madam Speaker, the United States is the world's largest 
energy consumer and one of its leading producers. However, many 
Americans remain in the dark about the global nature of the energy 
crisis we have today.
  As a result of the integrated nature of the world oil market, it is 
unlikely that any one nation acting on its own can implement policies 
that isolate its market from the broader price behavior.
  As new major oil importers, notably China and potentially India, 
expand their demand, the oil market likely will have to expand 
production capacity, too. This promises to increase the world's 
dependence on the Persian Gulf members of the Organization of Petroleum 
Exporting Countries, especially Saudi Arabia, and to maintain upward 
pressure on price.
  International markets set the price of oil and energy as a whole. 
There is nothing we can do about that. However, we can increase our own 
energy reserves and can lessen the effects of the global energy market, 
but we must keep the proper perspective about our energy supplies.
  Now, so-called alternative fuels, including wind, solar, fuel cells, 
ethanol, and biodiesel, indeed, hold great promise for the future, but 
right now, they are expensive and are currently useful only in small-
scale applications. I hope this will change. Wind and solar power, for 
example, are intermittent and are unpredictable. Because electricity 
cannot be stored on a large scale, wind and solar are unsuitable as 24-
hour-a-day sources of energy.
  Even though government forecasts show more than a 50 percent increase 
in renewable energy used by 2030, the renewable share of the total 
energy pie will rise from only 6 to 7 percent during that period. At 
this stage, it would be more accurate to call these ``supplemental'' 
rather than ``alternative'' energy sources. They are simply not ready 
to replace the fossil fuels that currently account for about 80 percent 
of the world's energy supply.
  We need an effective national policy that supersedes the existing 
patchwork of different State laws and regulations, one that allows us 
to tap all of our energy supply options, to promote greater reliance on 
conservation and efficiency and to foster a business environment 
conducive to market competition and timely investment in new energy 
infrastructure.
  Current projections indicate that, shortly after 2040, the United 
States will exceed 400 million people and that the world will exceed 9 
billion people. This steady climb has major implications for the U.S. 
energy industry. Each new person will put additional demands on the 
system, requiring more electricity and natural gas to run their homes 
and businesses and gasoline or other liquid fuels to transport them.

[[Page H6736]]

  Although its forecasts do not quite go that far, according to the 
U.S. Energy Information Administration, electricity over the next 25 
years is expected to jump by 50 percent. Now, similarly, domestic oil 
consumption is expected to grow about 1 percent a year with U.S. oil 
consumption climbing by one-third, from 21 million barrels a day to 28 
million barrels a day. The U.S. addiction to oil is strong and growing.
  We are not alone in our thirst for oil. Global demand for oil is also 
forecasted to increase by nearly 50 percent by the year 2030. The 
emergence of China and of India as economic powers is a leading cause 
of that growth. Their mushrooming demand for oil and for other forms of 
energy is reshaping global markets and is creating new geopolitical 
alliances and security concerns along the way.
  These are significant increases, and we must plan now to meet this 
future energy demand or run the risk of undercutting the economic 
engine that drives the world's economy.
  Because of the global nature of the energy crisis, there are no quick 
fixes or silver bullets to remedy this problem. However, this Congress 
must not sit idly by and watch the price of energy bankrupt American 
families. We must make finding a meaningful multilateral approach to 
our energy problem this year Congress' top priority. We need to do it 
now.

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