[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 17378-17379]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 17378]]

                           HIGH ENERGY COSTS

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I don't know whether other colleagues of 
mine have spoken today on this issue, but I would be surprised if some 
have not. I have not had an opportunity to hear what anybody else has 
said. It is with some dismay that we are, once again, faced this year 
with very high energy costs. The headline that I have in front of me 
from the Washington Post for today says, ``Oil Prices Hit a Ten-Year 
High; As Americans Face Costly Winter, U.S. Pressures OPEC on Output.''
  In that headline, several things are considered: First of all, we 
have the highest worldwide energy prices since the gulf war, and the 
war was responsible for the high oil prices at that particular time--
not OPEC cutting back oil, not bad U.S. domestic energy policy. The 
other thing that hits us is that the consumer is going to end up paying 
for this. Both points highlight that this administration has been 
promising us an energy plan to deal with this crisis situation. Let me 
be clear on that--an energy plan not for the future but to deal with 
the immediate crisis.
  I had an opportunity to write a letter to the administration earlier 
this summer asking them to put forth a plan to meet potential shortages 
of fuel oil, propane gas, and natural gas--all used in home heating--so 
the health of our seniors is not threatened when we get cold weather. I 
have not had a response to that letter. Nothing of substance has come 
from my request.
  I had a chance during the month of July, when Senator Lugar had a 
hearing before the Agriculture Committee with Secretary of Energy 
Richardson, to ask questions of Secretary Richardson, and put forth the 
necessity of his coming forward with just such a plan. Yet nothing has 
been forthcoming. I should say nothing but what the story in the Post 
reminds us of--that this Administration's energy policy seems to 
consist of either the President of the United States or the Energy 
Secretary getting down on hands and knees to OPEC countries--and they 
tend to emphasize dealing with the Arab nations on this issue--to 
please pump more oil, produce more oil, send more oil to the 
industrialized parts of the world, particularly the United States. That 
is all we are seeing at this point. That is all we saw last spring from 
this administration to get the price of energy down--begging the OPEC 
nations, and particularly the Arab oil-producing nations, to send more 
oil. That is their response to the crisis.
  This prompts me to tell my colleagues what I hope I will be able to 
do tonight as we discuss the energy and water bill. Since I have not 
had a response to my request to the Energy Secretary when he was before 
the Senate Agriculture Committee, and since I have not had a response 
to my letter to the President, as well as a letter to the Energy 
Secretary, I will be offering an amendment that will ask the 
administration to get this plan that we have been promised on the 
table. We need this plan so we can assure the consumers of America, 
particularly our more vulnerable consumers, the senior citizens, and 
particularly the most vulnerable senior citizens, those who are living 
alone, that we have a supply of energy for purchase at any cost. 
Hopefully the administration will come up with a plan that has a supply 
of energy that they can afford to pay for, and particularly a plan that 
doesn't require our senior citizens to choose between energy and food.
  Also, I think it begs discussion of a bigger issue; that is, where 
has this administration been for the last 7 years on developing energy? 
For the most part, we have had a badly damaged oil exploration 
industry, and we have had workers who work in that industry finding 
jobs elsewhere. So even if that industry were to perk up and find 
places to drill and an incentive to drill, there are not enough workers 
to man the rigs because this administration has had a policy of 
deemphasizing domestic production.
  So much of the land in the United States and our continental shelf, 
has been taken out of bounds for drilling, and in the case of natural 
gas, where two-thirds of the known supplies are available, there is no 
drilling where we know it is available under public lands.
  I know of the concern for the environment. It seems to me we can have 
a balance between environmental policy and the domestic production of 
energy. We can have that because it is possible. We can have that 
because it is a necessity. It is a necessity because we cannot be held 
hostage by OPEC nations, and we can't be held hostage by Arab oil-
producing nations and their leaders who want to put political pressure 
on the United States when it comes to a peace agreement involving 
Palestine and Israel, and all those issues that are acquainted with it.
  We do not have to have military action in the Middle East now as we 
did at the time of the Persian Gulf war. But if we need to protect our 
oil, the flow of oil from the Middle East to the United States, we 
would not be able to put together that armada that we had 9 years ago 
to stop Saddam Hussein, what he was doing there, and what that caused 
in the energy situations in this country. That was the last time the 
energy prices went so high.
  So we need from this administration a plan of what they are going to 
do to make sure there are not shortages in this country, what we can do 
to get the price down. We need that very soon. That is what my 
amendment will call for that I will offer this evening. We also need a 
policy of this administration to encourage the domestic production of 
oil and natural gas that we have available here so we aren't dependent 
upon OPEC for our sources of oil and natural gas.
  I hope some of these issues will be discussed in the coming political 
campaign. I think on our side of the aisle, the Republican Party has a 
candidate who is well aware of the shortcomings of this administration 
on energy policy and will take steps, including fossil fuel 
availability, as well as renewable fuel availability to accomplish 
those goals.
  While Governor Bush was campaigning in my State of Iowa during the 
first-in-the-nation caucuses that we had, I had the opportunity to 
travel throughout Iowa over the course of 4 or 5 days that I was 
helping him with his campaign. I had an opportunity to discuss some of 
these very tough issues and the direction that a new administration 
could take on renewable fuels such as ethanol, for example, renewable 
fuel incentives such as wind energy and biomass and tax incentives that 
are necessary for them to get rapidly started and a balance between 
renewable fuels and nonrenewable fuels.
  I am satisfied that not only does the Governor of Texas come from a 
State where there is an understanding of the importance of fossil 
fuels--petroleum, natural gas, et cetera--but there is also an 
understanding that renewable sources of energy are very much an 
important part of the equation to make sure that the United States is 
not held hostage to OPEC nations as we see the President of the United 
States and the Energy Secretary begging OPEC to pump more oil.
  I think with a new voice for energy independence in the White House, 
we will not have this very embarrassing situation that we find 
ourselves in, not just for the first time, but we found ourselves in 
this position in March, we found ourselves in this position in June 
when the leaders of this administration were hat in hand dealing with 
an OPEC organization controlling prices and controlling production, but 
if they were CEOs of oil companies in this country, doing the same sort 
of price fixing, they would be in prison.
  What a spectacle of the President of the United States and the Energy 
Secretary dealing with these OPEC nations. That is an embarrassing 
situation. More important than just being embarrassing, it signals a 
national defense weakness of our country which must be based upon 
having certain access to energy. If we are going to be strong 
militarily, we won't have this embarrassment when a new face gets in 
the White House, if that new face is a

[[Page 17379]]

person that is committed to the domestic production of energy and 
committed to renewable sources of energy, and committed to making a 
point with OPEC that we don't intend to be dependent upon these nations 
holding us up, particularly after the American taxpayer gave $415 
million of foreign aid to OPEC nations for them to use to buy the rope 
to strangle the American consumer economically and hurt our whole 
economy in the process. That is exactly what OPEC is doing when the 
price of our energy, the price of our fuel oil, goes up 30 percent.
  I hope we have a new day. I want to have a new day. I hope for a new 
day. A lot of that is what the people decide in the coming election.
  I yield the floor.

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