[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Page 22987]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         SENSIBLE ENERGY POLICY

  Mr. KERRY. Madam President, at some point that is appropriate--this 
is not the time; I might do it after I ask unanimous consent and speak 
on some other business--I certainly would want to speak to the issue 
the Senator from Alaska has raised a number of times on the floor of 
the Senate.
  I will say, a moment ago he asked the question: Where else are you 
going to provide 250,000 jobs a series of times? The fact is, there is 
a sensible energy policy for this country and a way to provide many 
more than 250,000 jobs by properly pursuing a series of measures other 
than violating the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It is such a false 
premise, such a false offering for jobs that it really obviates most of 
the commonsense approaches to energy that the Senate has yet to debate.
  I very much look forward to the debate the Senator promises us. It 
will be a good debate. There are millions of jobs awaiting Americans in 
a sensible energy approach, and millions of Americans understand that 
and are waiting for us to move to that approach as rapidly as possible.
  What is really interesting about the debate about the Arctic wildlife 
refuge, so much as there is a debate, is that not a drop of oil is 
going to come in the near term and answer any of the immediate needs of 
national security with respect to our dependency.
  Moreover, most of the world's reserves are everywhere else but the 
United States. So whatever Alaska has to offer, we have great respect 
for Alaska. We love the 95 percent of the oil shelf that is available 
for drilling. It is not going to be a literal drop in the bucket with 
respect to the independence issue or the global price of oil. So these 
are all issues that await us.
  It is an important debate for the country to have. There will be no 
difference in the outcome whether that debate takes place in December 
or takes place in January, as the majority leader has promised us. So I 
anticipate the budget of this country, which still awaits action by the 
Senate, and the Defense appropriations bill itself, which is important 
to the funding of our troops immediately, ought to take precedence over 
that other debate which incidentally has been begging for its proper 
attention for some 30 years or more.
  I do not think another month is going to make all that much 
difference in the outcome. So I do look forward to it.

                          ____________________