[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 230]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        ENERGY INDEPENDENCE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, of course our Nation is on the verge of war, 
a war against what is called terrorism. It is interesting to think 
about that word. It is kind of a nebulous term. The enemy moves around 
the world. I think it is important to take a look at what is happening 
here at home and to think about who it was that crashed into those 
trade towers and where they originated from and what might have 
propelled the hatred that was directed against the people of our 
country on our home soil.
  It is very interesting that the majority of hijackers came from the 
nation of Saudi Arabia. We look at where they came from, where they 
were educated and what their motives really were. It is interesting 
that Saudi Arabia remains the country from which the United States is 
importing the greatest share of petroleum, and if we look at the 
balance of accounts today, the primary area in which we have yielded a 
trade deficit with the world is in imported petroleum.
  Oil prices are going up over $33 a barrel. Every time we go to the 
gas pump and we buy a gallon, over half of what we spend goes to 
countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Venezuela, Nigeria. It is 
very clear what has been happening. In fact, the current recession we 
are in, starting in March 2001, was triggered by rising oil prices, and 
in fact, rising prices at the pump are driving us into deeper recession 
every day.
  When will America see who is controlling the innards of this economy 
and how where we are importing this oil from is affecting the politics 
of the world?

                              {time}  2130

  Today, I have introduced a bill that will create a biofuels 
independence initiative for our country. It is time for America to 
erase our key strategic vulnerability, and that is to imported 
petroleum and the evil politics that it yields globally.
  America has not been serious. Over the decade of the 1980s and 1990s, 
in spite of four recessions and major oil embargoes, we have continued 
to import more and more petroleum, which by the year 2050 will indeed 
be a scarce world resource. Armed forces from throughout the United 
States have been building air fields in the Middle East. We are being 
asked to appropriate over $100 billion to defend the Occidental 
pipeline in the nation of Colombia. And Venezuela teeters as we sit 
here this evening.
  It is time to pay attention to where the oil comes from, and it is 
time to do something here at home to revive the sagging and critical 
state of rural America and, at the same time, create jobs from coast to 
coast.
  One of the most important and neglected areas that we can do 
something about, if we are serious, is to create the kind of umbrella 
across our country, as we did with the National Rural Electrification 
Administration and the National Telephone Administration. We can do the 
same with the National Biofuels Corporation, so that from coast to 
coast, where acres can be turned to productive use and move farmers 
from farming for a government check by going to their mailbox, to 
farming the marketplace and producing new, renewable clean fuels for 
America, we will have a win-win-win across every State in this Union.
  There are other answers to our energy crisis: cleaning up coal in the 
Coal Belt that lies between Pennsylvania and Illinois, which has more 
Btus under the ground than the entire Middle East. Why can we not see 
it? Why can we not, a Nation that can clean up chemical weapons in Pine 
Bluff, not find a way to clean up coal? We are not serious.
  The bill that we are introducing today says America is long overdue 
from sending her Marines around the world in special forces to protect 
the oil highways over the seas. It is time to produce our way to energy 
independence and create real growth inside this economy.
  It should be interesting also for people to know that with every 
billion dollars of trade deficit that we rack up, that we cannot pay 
for here at home because of our imports, we have to bond our 
indebtedness. Today, the United States of America is in hock to about 
12 nations around the world, including those very same oil kingdoms, 
but also nations like China. Not exactly a democratic state.
  So I say, think about it, America. Take a look at our Energy 
Independence Act, H.R. 103. Think about making America energy 
independent in 10 years. It is time. And it is time to bring our troops 
home, not conducting any wars for oil on any continent.

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