[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 52 (Thursday, March 29, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2187-S2188]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BIG OIL SUBSIDIES

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, over the past decade, the five major oil 
companies have made more than $1 trillion--that is not billions; it is 
``T,'' trillions. They have also taken home billions of dollars in 
taxpayer subsidies--our money they have also taken--to add to those 
grossly exaggerated profits. They get these subsidies they do not need.
  You do not need to take my word for it. Even oil executives admit an 
industry making hundreds of billions of dollars in profits every year 
does not need a handout from the American taxpayer.
  Former Shell CEO John Hofmeister said a decade of high gas prices is 
incentive enough for oil companies to drill for more oil:

       My point of view is that with high oil prices, such 
     subsidies are [totally] unnecessary.

  We agree. So do almost 80 percent of the American people. There is no 
reason for these companies--five companies last year made $137 
billion--to need subsidies from the American taxpayer.
  So today Senate Republicans are going to have a chance--another 
chance, another opportunity--to show Americans where they stand on this 
issue. I hope they will allow us to invoke cloture on this and to 
complete this legislation today. They appear poised, however--what I 
have heard from my friends on the other side of the aisle--to pick the 
pockets of American taxpayers in order to line the pockets of these oil 
executives.
  But unless we vote to repeal these wasteful giveaways, the country 
will spend another $25 billion over the next decade making these rich 
oil companies that much richer.
  The oil executives who benefit from this bad policy--and the 
Republicans who go to bat for them--want you to believe repealing 
taxpayer subsidies will increase gas prices. It is not true. The only 
effective way to bring down prices at the pump is to reduce our 
reliance on foreign oil.
  We have made progress toward that during the Obama years. For almost

[[Page S2188]]

the 4 years he has been in office, domestic oil production has 
increased every year, and America's dependence on foreign oil has 
decreased every year.
  Everyone should hear again what I said: During the Obama years, 
domestic oil production has increased, dependence on foreign oil has 
decreased.
  Last year, America used a lower percentage of foreign oil than at any 
time in almost two decades, thanks to President Obama's smart energy 
policies. We have heard speeches in the last couple days here in effect 
saying: Drill, baby, drill. We are doing a good job. We cannot produce 
our way out of this mess we are in. America controls less than 2 
percent of the oil in the world. We use more than 20 percent of it. And 
even though we are doing better--and that is good--we must lessen our 
dependence. We must become energy independent. And we can do that.
  There are huge discoveries of natural gas that the Republicans voted 
against using. Can you imagine that? A bipartisan bill, Menendez-Burr, 
to use the natural gas. We have more natural gas reserves than any 
other country in the world. So we wanted to start a program here: Why 
don't we use some of it? Boone Pickens--by the way, who is not a 
Democrat--it is his idea, joined by others: to move the big fleets we 
have. Millions of these 18-wheelers every day use all this fuel 
unnecessarily. We could convert these to natural gas--less polluting, 
easier on the engines. But the Republicans voted against that. I guess 
the oil companies would rather we use their oil.
  The prices at the pump continue to rise. That is because chanting, as 
I said, ``drill, baby, drill'' is not a comprehensive solution to this 
Nation's energy problems, including high gas prices. We know what is 
going on in the Middle East. We know there are complicated issues. We 
need to continue responsible domestic oil exploration. But we cannot 
drill our way to energy independence, as I have said. America must also 
invest in clean energy technologies that will free us from our 
addiction to oil over the long term.
  President Obama was in Nevada last week. Between a place called 
Railroad Pass and my home in Searchlight, there is a huge what we used 
to call a dry lake. On that--Boulder City now owns that real estate--
they have allowed huge construction projects of solar. You drive by 
that--it used to be, when I was a little boy, we would drive by that 
dry lake, and if you looked out there, it looked as though there was 
water. It was a mirage. Now it is not a mirage. It looks like a lake 
because there are all those solar panels--more than a million of them 
there producing huge amounts of energy, nonpolluting. That is the way 
it should be. We should do lots more of that.
  Repealing $24 billion in lavish subsidies to oil companies would pay 
for those clean energy investments, with money to spare. With the 
savings, we can help move forward proven technologies such as solar, 
wind, advanced batteries, and even next-generation vehicles. We can 
give innovators the tools they need to bring the next electric car or 
advanced solar panel from the drawing board to the boardroom.
  As most everyone knows, my wife has not been well, so I have not been 
going to Nevada as much as I had over the 30 years I have been here. 
But I am going out this coming week because she is doing much better. 
One of the people I am going to visit next week is a man by the name of 
Byron Georgiou, who has developed a company for electric cars. I am 
looking forward to that. They are a manufacturer there in Nevada. It is 
programs like this that we need. We need to give innovators the tools 
they need to bring the next electric car, as we have in Nevada, or 
advanced solar panel from the drawing board to the boardroom, and we 
can pay down the deficit with the money that is left over. But we 
cannot do any of that if we continue to give taxpayer dollars to the 
most profitable corporations in the world--corporations that made, as I 
indicated, a record $137 billion in profits last year. It is easy to 
keep track of because there are only five of them, these multinational 
corporations.
  This morning, when the Republicans consider whether to put oil 
company coffers ahead of taxpayers' wallets, I hope they consider this 
fact: The five major oil companies raked in last year $260,000--it is 
actually more--more than $260,000 in profits every minute of every day 
for 1 year. They did not take Christmas off. It was still made during 
Christmas: $265,000 a minute. During Thanksgiving, New Year's, they got 
the money; more than $260,000 a minute. That is a huge amount: $260,000 
in profits every minute--every minute--24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 
It takes a typical family 5 years to earn what those oil companies took 
home in profits in a single minute last year.
  American families are struggling. Big oil companies are not. Before 
my Republican colleagues vote to send another taxpayer dollar to Big 
Oil, I hope they will consider the $260,000 a minute, and I hope they 
will make the right decision as we vote at 11:30 today.

                          ____________________