[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 129 (Thursday, July 31, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7809-S7811]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      ENDING THE GAS PRICE CRISIS

  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I am here today to point out what I believe 
everybody in this body knows, certainly everybody back in the 
heartland, where the occupant of the chair and I live: America is 
suffering a gas price crisis. I regret to tell the people back home 
that the Senate is in a crisis of its own.
  It appears that Democrats are desperate to deny real gas price 
relief. They are apparently united behind the misguided policy of the 
presumptive Democratic nominee for President who says: Don't provide 
any new sources of supply. They are doing anything they can to block 
the one real solution to this gas price.
  Opening new offshore drilling will bring suffering American families 
18 billion barrels of new oil supplies. News of America's commitment to 
new supplies will drive prices down immediately. We saw with the 
suggestion that we would be opening offshore when the President lifted 
the Executive moratorium on offshore drilling, that the prices came 
down immediately $10 and then came down roughly $20 because the price 
of oil today is influenced by the long-term judgment of what the price 
will be in the future.
  Airlines, trucking companies, and others have to go out in the 
futures market to buy the oil they need in the future. Those who bought 
futures contracts at $90 turned out to be prescient. They saved money 
from the $145 a barrel oil we see today. But right now there are too 
many hedgers, too many investors, and, yes, even some speculators, too 
many investors, including the Public Employee Retirement Systems of 
California, and of local governments that are saying: Hey, if we don't 
open oil supplies, we are going to see that $145 a barrel oil go to 
$175 and $200 and $250.
  Regrettably, if the policy of the Democrats being acted on in the 
Senate today holds, we will see those oil prices going above $200 a 
barrel and over $5 at the gas pump. The Democrats, in lockstep with 
their Presidential nominee, are doing anything they can to block the 
one real solution: News of America's commitment to new supplies and oil 
will drive down the prices immediately. New supplies, 10 years' worth 
in the case of offshore reserves, will drive prices lower for years to 
come.
  Some may say it will take a long time to bring it on line. That is 
what President Clinton said in 1995 when he vetoed the authorization to 
open ANWR, which could have been producing a million barrels of oil a 
day. He said it wouldn't happen for 10 years. Well, it is now 13 years 
past that veto. We surely could use that additional million barrels of 
oil a day.
  The Democratic leader, when it comes to lowering gas prices with new 
offshore supplies, says: ``No, we can't.'' Actually, in the case of the 
Senate Democrats, it is ``No, we won't,'' reflecting the views of their 
Presidential nominee.
  Earlier this month, I tried to join with my colleagues to repeal the 
legislative moratorium preventing new offshore drilling off our 
Atlantic and Pacific coasts. With the high gas prices facing our 
families, it is time to end the offshore drilling ban included each 
year on the annual appropriations bill for the Department of the 
Interior.
  Much to my surprise and regret, the Democratic leadership canceled 
the planned business meeting to consider and write the Interior 
appropriations bill. We thought we would succeed. We thought people 
would understand that bringing gas price relief to America's families 
by reversing the current ban on offshore drilling could meet the cry 
from our people back home to do something about the price of gas. But 
the Democratic leadership canceled the meeting to prevent the will of 
the people through their Senators from being heard.
  Now we have confirmation. We have seen a statement from the 
Appropriations Committee that the Democrats thought they would lose the 
vote and fail in their attempt to keep new oil supplies from the 
American people. It came from the Appropriations Committee itself 
saying they did not want to see the offshore opened for drilling. That 
is not the way this body is supposed to work.
  We disagree with a lot of things, but we at least ought to come to 
the floor and have a vote. Those who are for it and those who are 
against it, let them take their stand in public and let the people 
judge.
  Now we are on the floor of the Senate trying to move to a bill 
supposedly on energy. We have asked for a debate and a vote on measures 
in addition to their measure on speculation, because speculation is a 
small part. What we need to do is get more supplies.
  The plan of Republican Senators and our presumptive nominee for 
President, the Senator from Arizona, is to enact additional measures 
that will lower gas prices through additional supplies from offshore 
oil reserves, tap billions of barrels of oil in Rocky Mountain oil 
shale deposits, provide clean nuclear-powered electricity that can 
drive our next generation of hybrid cars and trucks, and give financial 
help to jump-start our U.S. manufacturing supply base for hybrid car 
batteries to bring their prices down and put people in America to work.
  But now the Democratic leadership has gone back on this offer. They 
have reneged on this offer. It is like Lucy with the football. The 
American people, we feel like Charlie Brown and the football is 
lowering gas prices. They are offering to let Charlie Brown kick the 
football to get a vote on opening offshore oil reserves and see if he 
can score a goal for lower gas prices. But, wait, the leadership of the 
Democratic Party on this floor has yanked the oil supply football away, 
only to let the American people swing and miss. The Democratic 
leadership apparently instead wants to move the goalposts back to pay 
for new wind and solar incentives.
  I support wind and solar incentives. The whole Senate voted for wind 
and solar incentives earlier this year, adopting an amendment by over 
80 votes. How many times do you have to do that? But the Democrats 
yanked the football away as well. They added new taxes to that measure. 
I guess they figured something so popular would be a good opportunity 
to raise taxes. That seems to be the policy of their nominee for 
President.
  I can tell you that the people of Missouri do not want higher taxes. 
They do not want us to make it harder to find and produce oil. More 
wind and solar power is not going to get gas prices down now or anytime 
in the future. Not a single trucker in Missouri will pay less for 
diesel because we pass a bill for wind power. Not a single Missouri 
family will suffer less pain at the pump because we pass a bill for 
solar power. Not a single farmer will pay less to run his tractors or 
less to send his produce to market.
  The only real thing that will work to get gas prices down is 
fundamental--more oil supplies to scare away the speculators and meet 
the demand.
  Missouri does not need more hot air from the Democrats. Energy 
summits where Washington politicians talk about how much they claim 
they care about families will not get the gas prices down. And yet, the 
Senator from Illinois, the Democratic presumptive nominee for 
President, was in Missouri, and he had a solution for the gas price 
crisis. He said we need to keep our tires fully inflated.
  I agree with keeping our tires fully inflated. I am told by the 
studies of the Department of Transportation that can save 6 to 12 
gallons of gasoline a year. So please keep your tires inflated. But 
suggestions to inflate our tires fully are not going to make a 
significant difference in the gas price.
  America deserves more than Democratic hot air. Here it is hot air to 
inflate our tires. On the floor of the Senate, it is hot air to tell us 
everything

[[Page S7810]]

else but increasing supplies may have an impact.
  America deserves real action with real solutions. We should not 
abandon the American people to this gas price crisis. We need to move 
back to the bill on speculation and include amendments that will bring 
real gas price relief.
  I have an amendment, No. 5121, to open 18 million barrels of oil 
reserves off our Atlantic and Pacific coasts--10 years of new oil 
supplies for the American people.
  My amendment would also authorize more than $1 billion a year to 
jump-start a U.S. manufacturing supply base for hybrid car and truck 
batteries. Funding would go to hybrid battery research and development, 
battery manufacturing equipment and capabilities, and re-equipping, 
expanding, and establishing U.S. domestic manufacturing facilities or 
hybrid vehicle batteries.
  Why do we need it? We need it to get the supply of batteries. I have 
visited factories in Missouri where they are producing battery-powered 
cars, hybrid cars, such as the Ford Escape, the Claycomo plant. General 
Motors is working on these products. These are tremendous gas savers. 
We need to move to more plug-in vehicles.
  In my hometown of New Mexico, MO, my good friend who sells modified 
golf carts is selling street-ready vehicles now, and they are popular. 
We can have full-size vehicles if we have the batteries to power them. 
But most of those batteries are being made in Asia, and American car 
manufacturers get second call. We need to have those batteries 
manufactured in America to supply our automobile industry.
  This amendment would force gas prices down, find more oil and use 
less. The amendment would provide new oil supplies and new sources of 
oil conservation. But the Democratic leadership doing the will of the 
Senator from Illinois, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is blocking 
consideration of this amendment and all amendments.
  As I said before, this is very disappointing to me, to the people of 
Missouri, and to the people of America. Missouri and America deserve 
more than half measures that will only produce a few days or months 
more of oil supplies. We deserve more than the Senate attempting to 
abandon them in the gas price crisis by moving on to other issues.
  Missouri and America deserve real action now to lower gas prices. 
That means new offshore supplies to get prices down. That is the 
position the Republican Senators and the Republican Senator from 
Arizona, our nominee for President, are pushing for: new offshore oil 
supplies for American families, new offshore supplies for our farmers, 
new offshore supplies for our truckers. That is the only real hope for 
gas price relief.
  I beg the Senate leadership to let us move now. Failure to do so will 
assure the American people that they will go another month while we are 
out of session and have done nothing but talk hot air and suggest 
putting hot air into car tires.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator 
Martinez, the Senator from Florida, Senator Gregg, the Senator from New 
Hampshire, and I be allowed to engage in a colloquy.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. CORNYN. I thank the Chair.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Let me interrupt the Senator from 
Texas for a moment. There are less than 8 minutes remaining in morning 
business.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I was under the impression there was a 
longer period of time. May I ask what the order of business is 
following the expiration of morning business?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Thirty minutes of debate controlled 
by the minority on the motion to proceed to the Defense bill.
  Mr. CORNYN. I thank the Chair.
  Mr. President, we are going to have a vote on the motion to proceed 
to the Defense authorization bill. The distinguished occupant of the 
chair, myself, and Senator Martinez all sit on the Armed Services 
Committee. We know how important this legislation is. I have every 
confidence that we will ultimately--at least I sure hope--get to and 
pass a Defense authorization bill.
  I will point out that for the last 2 weeks, we have had a series of 
attempts by the majority to get us off the single most important issue 
facing the country today, and that is high energy prices, particularly 
high gasoline prices. My expectation is that this attempt, which will 
now make this No. 7 instead of 6, will fail as well because on this 
side of the aisle we believe we should not leave here, we should not 
adjourn for the August recess without addressing this pressing issue.
  It touches everybody in the country, rich or poor, regardless of 
circumstances in life. It is also driving up the price of food and 
threatening inflation which is going to threaten our economy regardless 
of what we do on housing and the subprime mortgage crisis.
  I ask the distinguished Senator from New Hampshire if he has some 
thoughts about what we ought to be doing between now and the time we 
adjourn for the August recess.
  Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Texas. I wanted to 
join with him today in addressing this issue because at least in New 
Hampshire--and I suspect it is true in Texas, too, even though maybe in 
a different way--the No. 1 issue on the minds of the people is the cost 
of energy. They are concerned about it when they fill up their car with 
gasoline, but they are even more concerned about it heading into the 
winter.
  People in New Hampshire anticipate winters. We know it is coming. 
There is not much we can do about it. It is coming. We also know that 
60 to 70 percent of the homes in New Hampshire--maybe more--are heated 
by oil. The price of oil that has to be put in the tanks in order to 
heat homes has doubled or tripled. A lot of families in New Hampshire, 
low-income families, but also moderate income families, are going to be 
extraordinarily stressed to try to meet that energy need and the price 
of that energy.
  There are a lot of things that you can maybe do to change your 
lifestyle. You can maybe drive a little less. Maybe you can take a bus; 
not so much in New Hampshire because there are not a lot of city areas 
that have bus districts, although we do have some. But you can adjust 
your driving. You can downsize your car so you use less gasoline. But 
if you have a home and you have a family, there is nothing you can do 
about it. You have to heat that home. You have to stay warm in the 
winter when the temperature is at zero or even minus degrees and the 
wind chill is certainly at minus degrees. To do that takes a lot of 
energy and takes oil. So people are scared. They are scared about how 
they are going to heat their homes.
  I believe my No. 1 responsibility as their representative in 
Washington is try to do something about bringing down the price of that 
energy. How do we do that? In my opinion, we do it by at least voting 
in the Senate on the issue of expanding our supply in the United 
States, with American energy, while also conserving more. Yet we have 
been blocked now. As the Senator from Texas points out, this will be 
the seventh time the Democratic Party and the Democratic leadership has 
tried to move the Congress and the Senate off the issue of trying to 
bring down oil prices, bring down gasoline prices by expanding American 
sources and American production by allowing us to drill offshore, by 
allowing us to use oil shale, by allowing us to expand nuclear power, 
by allowing us to put an effort into the development of electric cars, 
by doing a whole series of things.
  Seven times now the Democratic leadership here has said, no, they do 
not want to hear about this. They want to talk about issues that are 
important, but they are nowhere near the importance, at least to my 
constituents, of what it costs them to fill up their gasoline tanks and 
what it is going to cost them to fill up their oil tanks this winter.
  I cannot think of a higher priority as a Congress than to take up 
this Energy bill and have some votes on these very important issues of 
whether we open more drilling offshore, whether we use more oil shale, 
whether we expand our efforts to try to bring online nuclear 
powerplants, whether we continue our efforts to try to expand electric 
cars.

[[Page S7811]]

  The Senator from Texas hit the nail on the head. We need to act on 
these issues, and we should stop this obfuscation which is occurring on 
the other side of the aisle on this issue. We should get to the essence 
of the issue, which is produce more American energy.

  Mr. CORNYN. I appreciate the Senator from New Hampshire addressing 
that issue. I have always been amazed that those who say we ought to do 
something to help poor people who need help with their heating oil are 
the same folks who seem to be the most resistant to opening America's 
reserves of natural resources which would have the effect of bringing 
down oil prices for everybody. It seems to me that would be one of the 
most commonsense things we could do.
  Mr. GREGG. The Senator makes a truly excellent point. If we want to 
address the fear low-income people have about the cost of their energy 
to heat their home, bring down the cost of energy. Address the 
systematic problem.
  LIHEAP is an important program. It is a critical program for us in 
New England. But it is the bandaid. It is not going to the symptom. The 
symptom is the price of the energy, so that is why we need to vote on 
it.

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