[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 189 (Wednesday, October 27, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7408-S7409]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 3086
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, right now, American families are
worried. The White House thinks inflation is a high-class problem. I
clearly imagine the price of Prada bags has gone up, but what the White
House continues to miss is that inflation is killing the buying power
of Americans on low and fixed incomes.
Across America, families are going through grocery store aisles,
seeing higher prices, and having to figure out what they can afford to
eat this week. Folks are passing by gas station after gas station,
looking for lower prices--to no avail. These aren't just headlines and
stories; these are real families who are living paycheck to paycheck
and struggling to keep up.
I grew up poor. When my parents' bills went up, it made it more
difficult for my family. When gas prices went up, it meant we had less
food to put on the table. None of us would wish that on anyone, but
that is exactly what is happening in Biden's America--high prices on
food, high prices on gas, empty shelves and supply shortages,
skyrocketing debt, and Big Government overreach--and that is just the
start. Energy prices are through the roof.
Let's take a look at the rising cost at the pump.
Just this week, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel ran a story with the
headline: ``Gas prices hit their highest levels since 2014. When will
we get a break?'' As gas prices keep rising, the message from Florida
couldn't be more clear.
Last week, the national gas average was $3.36 a gallon. It was $2.16
per gallon this time last year. That is a 55-percent increase in just 1
year. If you are driving a car, that means you are seeing an extra cost
of about $800 annually. If you are driving a truck, that means you are
probably seeing an extra cost of $1,400 annually.
More than 5,000 gas stations across the country are charging more
than $4.50 a gallon. In one California community, gas was nearly $8 per
gallon last week. That is insane. Prices may go up even more as
forecasters warn that oil could rise to more than $100 a barrel.
But rising costs don't stop at the pump; they follow you home. For
the nearly half of U.S. families who use natural gas to heat their
homes, it is going to cost them $746 just to stay warm during the
winter months. If you are using electric heat, prepare to spend more
than $1,200 on your electric bills. Reports show that, this winter,
home heating prices are going to rise by more than 40 percent for homes
that use heating oil, more than 30 percent for homes using natural gas,
and 54 percent for homes using propane. Factor in the rising cost of
meat, diapers, milk, and other everyday items, and things are looking
pretty dire for the American family.
Last week, President Biden said he ``doesn't have a near-term
answer'' for reducing gas prices. He doesn't appear to have a long-term
answer either. In the meantime, he expects families to just hang tight
while he does nothing until next year, when things will magically get
better.
We all know President Biden likes to play the blame game. This time,
he is blaming OPEC for not pumping out more foreign oil. Remember when
America was energy independent? Not anymore, thanks to Joe Biden. He
has done everything in his power to cut off America's domestic supply
and resources needed to warm our homes and run our cars.
In his first month in office, he cut the Keystone Pipeline permit and
killed thousands of American jobs. Then he suspended new oil and gas
leasing and drilling permits for Federal lands.
He filled his administration with people who have been longtime
advocates of a carbon tax, including Treasury Secretary Yellen, which
would only make the current problem worse. He has others, like Interior
Secretary Haaland, who want to completely ban fracking.
Oddly enough, he supported Russia's getting the Nord Stream 2
Pipeline, which gives Russia a massive win, and he has put us back into
the Paris climate accords, which are already ruining Europe. European
countries are scaling back on oil and gas production to meet the Paris
Agreement. In Portugal, electricity prices have tripled over the past 6
months, and Germany's prices are three times the U.S. average. Across
Europe, they have to rely on energy imports from Russia.
Instead of pursuing a path of energy independence, Biden continues to
push ridiculous energy policies in his massive $5.5 trillion spending
package that will cut our legs out from under us and cause America to
become even more dependent on Russia and the OPEC countries, and he is
relentlessly pursuing a reckless tax-and-spending spree even though we
know reckless spending causes inflation.
These effects might not be felt by President Biden, but I can tell
you that, since Biden took office, more families across the State of
Florida and across the Nation have felt the pain of having to count
their pennies.
For the sake of American families, we need to figure out what the
heck is going on. This is why I have introduced a very simple bill to
get to the bottom of these sky-high prices. I am thankful for Senators
Marshall, Lummis, Capito, Johnson, Moran, and Blackburn, who have
cosponsored this legislation.
The GAS Price Act will simply require the Energy Information
Administration to report publicly to Congress on any Federal Agency
policies or regulations that it determines will cause energy prices to
rise. All my bill does is ask a Federal Agency to provide important
information to us in Congress with a statement of facts on what is
causing rising energy prices since President Biden was sworn into
office. Then we can take this information, see what needs to be fixed,
and help the American people. That is it. Let's tell Americans why this
is happening, and let's figure out how to fix it. It is as simple as
that.
I am sure none of my colleagues would disagree to keeping Congress
informed about new rules or policies that have a negative financial
impact on families in our great State.
Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent
that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 3086,
which is at the desk. Further, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be
considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I rise to
object to the Senator from Florida's request to pass this legislation
through unanimous consent.
If we want to tackle rising fuel costs, let's do something that will
actually protect American consumers and actually promote our energy
independence. Let's reinstate the fossil fuel ban that was lifted in
2015.
[[Page S7409]]
Listen to what has happened here in our Nation since 2015, when every
Republican on this Senate floor--when they controlled the Senate--voted
to lift the ban on the exportation of oil from the United States. That
ban had been in place for 50 years to keep American oil here.
Well, here's what the Republicans did in the House and Senate back in
2015: they lifted the ban.
Oil companies from the United States now send our oil overseas. And
get this: In 2020, we exported more than 8.5 million barrels of
petroleum every single day out of the United States to other countries.
And, in 2020, pursuant to Republican Senators in 2015, we, in 2020, for
the first time in more than 50 years, exported more barrels of
petroleum every single day--exported--than imported.
Is that energy independence?
I don't think so.
And why do we do it?
I will tell you why we do it. It is for the oil companies. That is
why we do it.
The Republicans don't want to do anything on climate change--oil
companies. The oil companies want to export American oil, drill for it
here in the United States, because they can make more money selling
that oil into the international marketplace. Of course, that is what
the Republicans are going to vote for back in 2015.
And here's what happened: we got up to 2021, and we now are net
exporters of petroleum in our country.
So the bill that is being proposed would actually do nothing to help
consumers at the pump. The one thing that we could do is reimpose the
ban on the exportation of these 8.5 million barrels of oil a day. Keep
it here. It is lower priced. It is drilled for in the United States.
Our economy would get the benefit of that lower priced oil and people
would be going up to the pump, paying a lot less per gallon of gasoline
than they are doing right now.
But you are not going to hear anything from the Republican Party that
takes on the oil industry and their international market using American
oil to make more money because people in the rest of the world will pay
more for it. But that leaves less American oil here for drivers, as
they are pulling in to the pump every single day.
So this is just the greed of the domestic oil industry so that they
can have unlimited international energy markets so that, ultimately--
and this is the beauty of it--they make more money overseas and they
get to tip American consumers upside down at the pumps as they have got
their fingers on this nozzle and watching this price of gasoline go up
even as they are looking at it. It is a beautiful world for the oil
industry to have the cooperation of the Republican Party on this
agenda.
And so all I can say is that this proposal is just the opposite of
what we should be talking about. The Republicans should be reexamining
their own conscience about what they did in 2015, instead of shedding
crocodile tears today as though Joe Biden did this. This net export of
petroleum products is a Republican idea driven by the Republicans who
sit here on the Senate floor.
And so in no way should this resolution pass, and so I object to the
Senator's motion for unanimous consent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. That would be interesting if it was true. When
you think about it--and you can look at oil prices, and they are
international oil prices--it is illogical to believe that the American
oil companies want to spend the transportation dollars to send the oil
overseas if they could sell it in America.
So, first off, I am truly shocked that my colleague would say those
things. I am shocked that he would object, but I get it. I know my
Democratic colleagues have to bend over backwards to protect the Biden
administration's disastrous energy policies. But I find it hard to
believe they would go so far as to object to having basic transparency.
Maybe, if what my colleague said was true, then my bill would show--
they would come back and say: Yup, that is exactly what happened.
My bill would simply provide us with greater insight into the cause
of rising gas and energy prices in the United States.
We must be committed to making the American dream work for everyone,
ensuring that every family, including poor families, have a chance to
get ahead.
I think about my mom and dad. I watched them struggle to make ends
meet. This inflation, these gas prices, food prices, all these things,
are hurting the poorest families in this country. When you get very
little, like we did, and prices go up--gas prices, food prices--it
means it is a very difficult time for these families. Hard-working
families are trying to get by.
We need to provide more information to Congress so we can make good
decisions to figure out why these gas prices are going up the way they
are.
So I am disappointed that my colleague would object to a simple way
of trying to figure out exactly what has happened here, why gas prices
are going up, and what should Congress be doing to make sure that
doesn't continue.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority whip.