[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10391-10392]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             ENERGY POLICY

  Mr. THOMAS. Madam President, I will make a few remarks this morning 
in our remaining time regarding one of the issues before us. We, of 
course, have spent a good deal of time on emergencies over the last 
number of months, and properly so. We have had emergencies. Obviously, 
the most compelling one has been terrorism and homeland defense.
  In addition to that, we have talked about a number of other things. 
We have had fires; agriculture, which we felt is something of an 
emergency; as well as health care, which the Senator from Washington 
talked about. Indeed, most legislation that comes up is sort of deemed 
an emergency, at least in the view of the sponsor.
  There is one thing which I think pretty clearly should be one of the 
most important, something that will affect us over time and one that we 
can avoid, which is the energy problem in our country. Probably nothing 
touches more Americans than energy, whether it be electric energy or 
gasoline for one's automobile.
  Finally, after a considerable amount of effort in both Houses, we do 
have an energy bill that has passed both Houses. It is designed to give 
us an energy policy which we have not had for a very long time. 
Obviously, there are differences between the House-passed bill and the 
Senate-passed bill. Both of them have many of the components that were 
put forth by the President and the Vice President early last year in 
terms of an energy policy. Yesterday, we had the appointment of a 
conference committee named by the House, and I am pleased with that 
because we will be able now to go forward in putting together these two 
bills and coming out with an energy policy for the United States.
  I want to emphasize how important that is. We have seen some problems 
recently in California, of course, and problems can occur in other 
places. We will likely see some this summer if we continue to have the 
heat we have had, and the demand for electric power. There will be some 
problems, I suppose, relative to that.
  We are seeking a policy that does several things. No. 1, it avoids 
having an energy crisis. There is no real need for that. We know what 
is needed. It is very simple to set forth what we have to have in the 
future. We are also seeking to try to do whatever we can. It is very 
possible to avoid overdependency on imported oil and fuel. We are now 
60 percent dependent on overseas countries for our oil supplies. These 
are our challenges.
  In addition, an energy policy that looks forward to cleaner air and 
protecting our environment is one everyone is committed to. There will 
be great debate over ANWR and whether or not a small footprint on 19 
million acres of a wildlife refuge in Alaska would be detrimental. That 
is yet to be decided.
  However that turns out, there are things we have to do. One 
opportunity we have is to continue to make coal a cleaner resource. 
Regarding electric generation, 50 percent is generated by coal. That 
will continue to grow, I suspect, and be a larger percentage over time. 
We need to make sure we can make the coal-generated electricity as 
clean as possible. Our bill will provide for additional help with 
respect to that. It is important we do that. Coal

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is probably the largest energy resource we have available in the United 
States.
  Regarding gas and oil, again, we have become very dependent on 
imports. We have great opportunities in this area in the continental 
United States, in Alaska and the West. We need to do that and be 
balanced with the environment and production. We need access to public 
lands to do that. We will work on that.
  We have an opportunity now to deal with one of the issues that 
impacts, probably more than anything else in this country, our policy 
on energy. We are ready to move with that. It needs to be balanced 
between renewables, production, environment, and usage. We can do that.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Connecticut.

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