[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 21537]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                             ENERGY POLICY

  Mr. THOMAS. Madam President, I want to talk a moment about a couple 
of subjects that I think are current certainly. One of them is the 
subject of energy. Energy has been with us for a long time. We have 
been talking about a policy on energy. We have been talking about doing 
something to strengthen our domestic production so that we become less 
dependent on imports particularly from the Middle East.
  We have talked about the need to do something to help our economy, 
and energy has something to do with it. So it is an issue of security. 
We are now nearly 60 percent dependent on foreign oil.
  Oil, of course, causes the movement and transportation not only in 
our economy but in defense, so it becomes even more important we deal 
with that issue as we talk about a stimulus for the economy. And we 
will be coming up with a number of proposals we hope will have an 
impact on the economy. Energy, of course, probably has one of the 
greatest impacts on the economy. The idea we could move into doing some 
development of facilities, we could do some new efforts to produce oil, 
would all have some impact on jobs and on our economy.
  We have been talking about it for months now. We have had a number of 
meetings out in the swamp that were attended and supported by the 
administration, by the President, by the Secretary of Energy, by the 
Secretary of Interior, to move forward with something. The House, of 
course, has already passed an energy bill.
  We have been supported by groups of seniors, and I think 
understandably so. When utility rates go up, seniors on fixed incomes 
are the ones who suffer the most, and that is an experience we have all 
been through. Certainly, we have had also the support at these various 
meetings from labor unions, particularly the teamsters who have been 
there time after time.
  We have been joined by Native Americans from Alaska who are dealing 
with that portion of energy. So we have had support from a great many 
people.
  Yesterday there was a two-page ad in the Hill newspaper of all the 
people who are supporting doing something with energy policy. So there 
is very wide support for it.
  We have not, however, gotten support from the majority leader to 
bring it to the floor. We believe that is one of the legislative 
efforts that should have a high priority before we can finish our work, 
which I hope we will do relatively soon.
  So there is much that needs to be done. A policy in energy, of 
course, has to do with conservation, how we in our homes and in our 
cars can do more to conserve energy. It has to do with renewables. We 
need to put an emphasis on renewables so we can strengthen that aspect 
of production. We certainly need to do more on research so that we can 
find, for instance, ways to even more cleanly use coal and other kinds 
of volume resources.
  We have to talk about production. We have to talk about access to 
public lands. We can have production. We have shown that in Wyoming one 
can go into an area and have production without destroying the 
environment, and we should do it in a very careful way, and indeed we 
will.
  So despite the need for both the economic boost and for the defense 
and security aspect of it, we have not been able to cause the majority 
to bring this before the Senate. We urge it be done and done quickly. 
We need to bring this bill forward and deal with it. Perhaps we will 
deal with the House bill, but we need to bring it up and make some 
judgments.

                          ____________________