[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 14630-14631]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   AMERICA IS LOSING HER INDEPENDENCE

  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, some people have loosely thrown the word 
``freedom'' around here tonight. Well, America's freedom is declining 
because we are so increasingly dependent on imported petroleum. As oil 
prices rise, for super it is over $2.50 a gallon now at the pump and 
historic levels of $60 a barrel, I must rise tonight to say how sick I 
am of imported petroleum governing this economy. Look what it has done 
to our beloved republic economically, politically, environmentally,

[[Page 14631]]

strategically. Rising oil prices control this economy. The lack of 
growth, every time that price ticks up, the stock market becomes very 
uncomfortable.
  Oil prices keep us strategically locked to dictatorships all across 
this globe. That causes limitation in freedoms. What about the impact 
that oil prices have binding us to China and Iran now, looking at what 
is happening there, and the proposed Unocal purchase by China right at 
the ankles of Unocal's investments in Afghanistan right next door, as 
we become players in this 21st century oil market. America, wake up. 
Look at who gets the profit from your expenditures out of your wallet. 
Rising oil prices makes our economy vulnerable here at home. We lose 
more jobs, and the stock market remains very, very unsteady.
  Rising oil prices mean we knock points off economic growth. Think 
about who gets those profits off those rising prices as our young men 
and women in the armed forces occupy the Middle East and Central Asia 
where most of our imported oil comes from. Now, over 60 percent of what 
we consume is imported from abroad; a majority of what is used in this 
country is imported. We are not free.
  In fact, our soldiers are guarding more and more every day oil and 
gas pipelines from Afghanistan to Georgia to Turkey to places most 
Americans have not been very familiar with. U.S. foreign policy and 
military involvements in these areas parallel that of our global oil 
corporations. Unocal is not the only one. Chevron, Exxon, Arco, the 
names go on.
  Now, this week, the Communist-owned oil company of China has decided 
it wants to pay more for Unocal than it is worth. Unocal does not drill 
anything in this country anymore; their investments are all over the 
world. Remember, Afghanistan was a key transit route before we got 
there with the military, the 18,000 of our soldiers who are stationed 
there now; Afghanistan was a key transit route from Unocal from the 
Caspian Sea Basin. They have been at this a long time. Sadly, U.S. 
foreign policy in that country has mirrored Unocal's satisfaction with 
the Taliban government there. They tried to be friends.
  In fact, Unocal had plans for a new pipeline winding a far-ranging 
path from Turkmenistan's gas fields to the Arabian Sea. The giant oil 
company built cooperative relationships with the Taliban government in 
Afghanistan, as did the United States Government. When we supported the 
Taliban, as recently as 1999, U.S. taxpayers paid the salary of oil-
hungry Taliban government officials. Ask yourself about that.
  But as soon as the Taliban began making things a little difficult for 
Unocal, demanding more money for infrastructure and access to some of 
the oil themselves in the summer of 2001, well, our government's 
position began to change on the Taliban. Shortly thereafter, the 
Taliban became much more vulnerable after the September 11 attack, and 
the Bush administration was able to secure support for invasion of that 
country, but then maneuvered a former Unocal consultant named Khalized 
to be the first ambassador to Afghanistan and, guess what? Now he was 
just nominated and confirmed as ambassador to Iraq. Strange 
coincidence.
  Ask yourself, who gets the profits off the rising gas prices you are 
paying for. China has raised its bid to purchase the U.S. oil giant 
Unocal, and what a twist of fate this is. It was U.S. oil dependency 
that drew us to secure Central Asia for oil, and now we find ourselves 
in the awkward position of having China buy us out. China is trying to 
trump our energy investments in that area because it is right next door 
to them, trying to buy Unocal to access what the U.S. had hoped to gain 
by the Central Asian invasion.
  China is also courting favor with Iran. They are trying to trump us 
there to gain an energy edge as the Bush administration creates more 
barriers with Iran. Ask yourselves, who is getting the profits and why 
has the Bush administration made us more dependent on foreign oil, up 
another 10 percent, up to 63 percent now.
  Mr. Speaker, America is losing her independence.

                          ____________________