[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12041-12042]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     ENERGY LEGISLATION NEEDED NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OSBORNE. Mr. Speaker, often perception does not match reality. I 
believe that this is true in regard to our present economy.
  Many would characterize the economy as very poor. However, as we can 
see on the following chart, short-term interest rates are the lowest in 
40 years; inflation, according to the Producer Price Index, was 1.5 
percent over the last 12 months; productivity expanded 5 percent the 
last four quarters, the highest in 20 years; manufacturing employment 
reached a 30-year high in May with orders up for manufacturing; and 
home ownership was 68.6 percent last quarter, which is a record.
  All of these things would indicate a strong economy, so what is the 
problem? Why do people continually talk about what a bad economy we 
have? I would say that probably the main concern that we hear is simply 
what one of the previous speakers referred to, unemployment.
  I would like to call attention to the fact that during the 1970s, the 
unemployment rate was 6.2 percent for that 10-year average; during the 
1980s, it was 7.3 percent; during the 1990s, it was 5.8 percent; and, 
today, in 2004, it stands at 5.6 percent. We added 248,000 new jobs to 
the economy in the month of May, and during the last 9 months of 
consecutive growth, we have added 1.5 million jobs to the economy.
  Certainly this 5.6 percent rate is considerably lower than the 30-
year average of 6.4 percent. Currently unemployment in the European 
Union runs 9 to 10 percent. So we see some remarkable gains, and it 
appears that even though we would hope that unemployment would be zero, 
we are at least moving certainly in the right direction.
  This does not mean that the economy is not without challenge. We feel 
that there is one significant issue that needs to be dealt with, and 
that is the issue of energy policy. This is well within the purview and 
the domain of this particular body.
  Currently we have higher energy prices, which affects trucking, 
airlines, agriculture, small business, manufacturing and individuals. 
Yet we cannot get an energy bill passed, even though there is 
widespread agreement on most of the provisions in the bill. I am going 
to put some of those issues up here that we think are a matter of 
considerable consensus.
  In the energy bill that has been passed by the House and the Senate, 
yet we cannot get a conference report agreed upon, is the renewable 
fuel standard, which provides for wind energy, solar energy, ethanol, 
biodiesel, hydro, all environmentally friendly and will move us away 
from energy dependence upon OPEC. Also hydrogen fuel cell development 
is critical. This is environmentally friendly and is not dependent on 
petroleum.
  The Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline, we have all kinds of natural gas 
available in our country today, particularly in Alaska, and we cannot 
access it, so this pipeline is critical to reducing natural gas prices, 
which are eating us up at the present time.
  Finally, incentives to increase energy production. We have shut down 
our exploration and energy production, and that has certainly hurt the 
economy.
  Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, the economy is strong, and Congress can 
fix the

[[Page 12042]]

biggest obstacle to a period of sustained growth, the lack of a 
comprehensive energy policy. We can continue to blame the other party, 
Republicans blame Democrats, Democrats blame Republicans, we can blame 
the other body, they can blame us. We can do all of the finger pointing 
we want out there, but the buck really stops here. It is our 
responsibility, and the American people have every right to expect 
Congress to put the country's welfare ahead of partisanship.
  We need an energy bill passed, and we need it passed now. We can 
start on that this week. I am hoping that all of us here in this 
Congress can work together to put the national interests ahead of 
anything else and get this finished. There really are no excuses for 
not doing so.

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