[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 7828-7830]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    SOLVING AMERICA'S ENERGY CRISIS

  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, President Bush invited the Crown Prince of 
Saudi Arabia, Prince Abdullah, to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, and met 
with him yesterday. Here is a photo that has

[[Page 7829]]

been on the White House Web site and in many newspapers around the 
country showing the President and the Prince holding hands. That is a 
sign of friendship over there in that part of the world.

                              {time}  2000

  But I was struck by the fact that the focus, of course, was the 
subject of oil.
  As we watch what the President said, or at least what was reported, 
our President is in a position of begging. America begging. America 
begging a dictatorship to ease up on oil prices.
  My colleagues might recall the President asked the Saudi prince to 
take it easy before the election in November, kind of keep prices down 
a bit, but since the election, they have just skyrocketed. In 
California, people are paying over $3 a gallon. In Ohio I can tell my 
colleagues I have paid $2.50, $2.57. The average price they tell us is 
about $2.24 nationally, with a 43 percent increase since a year ago, 
and crude oil prices were up Monday about $54 a barrel, up $37 from a 
year ago.
  Now, the United States consumes about $7.1 billion worth of 
petroleum, and two-thirds of it is being imported, Saudi Arabia being 
the largest supplier. In essence, America is totally dependent. People 
have to understand this, because until the American people really 
understand this, we will not change. Every time we buy a tankful of 
gas, two-thirds of the money we spend goes somewhere else, and it goes 
to places that are undemocratic.
  The New York Times reports today, and it has this picture in the 
paper, about the President's meeting, and it also has an article about 
Venezuela, which I will submit to the Record. Venezuela provides about 
15 percent of the oil that we consume. In fact, I have a chart here 
that shows from the Middle East where we get about 30 percent of the 
total supply, with Saudi Arabia being the largest supplier, along with 
Kuwait, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, and then Venezuela about 15 
percent; nearly half of what we consume comes from those regions of the 
world. America has to understand this, because until the people of the 
United States understand, this place will not change.
  If we look at the sad energy bill that passed this Chamber last week, 
without my support, it lives in the past. It lives in the 20th century, 
not the 21st century. There is a theory: If you just put more holes in 
the ground, all problems will be solved. Well, that is not going to 
happen. We have to think in a different way.
  Now, Venezuela, as the article in The New York Times today confirms, 
has become a bit antagonistic toward the United States because we have 
an administration who is trying to get rid of the President of that 
country's government. Now, whether you like Venezuela or not, the facts 
are we get 15 percent of our oil from there, and without that 15 
percent, we have to get it from somewhere else, and the prices are 
going to go up. Now, the President of Venezuela believes that the 
United States is planning an invasion of his country, and he has 
threatened to cut these oil sales. It is not a very pretty picture when 
we look around the world, whether you look at Colombia, Nigeria, 
Venezuela, the Middle East. So it is not surprising that the President 
is holding hands with the prince.
  What is truly dangerous and tragic about this trend is America is not 
independent. We had a Declaration of Independence at the beginning of 
the Republic to cut our umbilical cord to Britain for political and 
economic reasons. But imagine an America that was energy independent; 
again, where we put all of this money, that is making others rich, in 
the pockets of producers in this country, starting with the farmers of 
America who today, within 5 years, could displace 25 percent of our 
imported petroleum with the use of clean, burning biofuels based in 
biomass, in ethanol, in biodiesel, soy diesel, fuels that we can 
produce today on the fields that are lying fallow across this country. 
Imagine what biogenetics can do to produce greater BTUs per ton of what 
we can produce. We do not need a new hydrogen age right now; we can use 
what we have today to displace these purchases. We are not doing it.
  Imagine, imagine an America that was energy independent; again, where 
when you went to the gas pump, you enriched your own community, the 
farmers that live around the communities that you live in, and that the 
gas pump that you drove up to, you could buy ethanol at E85, or you 
could buy 100 percent soy diesel. Do my colleagues know, in Ohio you 
cannot do that. Minnesota has seen the future, Iowa has seen the 
future. There are some places in this country who have seen the future, 
but the majority of our people have not seen the future.
  Renewable biofuels, domestically produced, could directly displace 
imported petroleum, and our energy bill last week should have done 
that. Some of us want to live in the 21st and 22nd century; we do not 
want our President to be holding hands with the crown prince and 
begging.

                [From the New York Times, Apr. 26, 2005]

     Bush and Saudi Prince Discuss High Oil Prices in Ranch Meeting

                       (By Richard W. Stevenson)

       Crawford, TX, April 25.--President Bush discussed the surge 
     in oil prices with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on 
     Monday, but focused on a plan by the Saudis to increase their 
     oil-pumping capacity over the next decade rather than on any 
     short-term efforts to bring prices down.
       The two leaders talked for three hours here at Mr. Bush's 
     ranch, trying to restore some normality to a relationship 
     that has been tense since the emergence of the role of 
     terrorists from Saudi Arabia in the Sept. 11 attacks. They 
     discussed a variety of issues, including the Arab-Israeli 
     conflict, terrorism, trade and Mr. Bush's call for more 
     democracy in the Middle East, and the men made every effort 
     to portray the relationship as back on track.
       Mr. Bush even held the crown prince's hand, a traditional 
     Saudi sign of friendship, as he guided Abdullah up the steps 
     through a bed of bluebonnets to his office, the very picture 
     of Saudi-American interdependence.
       But the focus was on oil prices. Officials from both sides 
     emerged from the meeting to say there was agreement on the 
     value of Saudi Arabia's signaling to global markets that it 
     would push down prices over the long run as demand for energy 
     increased. American officials said they hoped the Saudi 
     policy might put immediate downward pressure on oil prices, 
     even though the expansion plan has been public for weeks.
       ``A high oil price will damage markets, and he knows 
     that,'' Mr. Bush said as he waited for his guest to arrive.
       Officials said there was no explicit request by Mr. Bush 
     for short-term steps to bring down rising oil and gasoline 
     prices, which are threatening to take a toll on the economy 
     in the United States and are already pulling down the 
     president's approval ratings. They said that Mr. Bush and 
     other officials had already signaled to the Saudis that they 
     wanted a commitment to pump more oil in the short run, and 
     that last week the Saudi oil minister had publicly expressed 
     a willingness to do so.
       The officials said the Saudis used the meeting to detail 
     for Mr. Bush the steps they intended to take to cushion the 
     global market from future increases in demand from fast-
     growing economies like China and India, and from the United 
     States and other industrial nations.
       Saudi Arabia's plan, which it began discussing publicly 
     weeks ago, calls for spending up to $50 billion to increase 
     its maximum sustainable production capacity to 12.5 million 
     barrels a day by 2009, and to 15 million in the subsequent 
     decade, from about 10.8 million barrels now. The Saudis are 
     currently pumping about 9.5 million barrels a day.
       Asked whether that plan would have any effect soon on 
     gasoline prices in the United States, Stephen J. Hadley, Mr. 
     Bush's national security adviser, told reporters, ``It's hard 
     to say.''
       Mr. Hadley added that increasing capacity ``can't help but 
     have a positive downward effect on prices and deal with some 
     of the volatility in the market by assuring people that 
     supply will be available as the economies grow.''
       A Saudi official said that Mr. Bush had not requested a 
     short-term production increase and that such an increase 
     would not have any effect on gasoline prices in the United 
     States in any case. The high price of gasoline in the United 
     States, the Saudi official said, was mostly a result of a 
     lack of refining capacity here.
       ``It will not make a difference if Saudi Arabia ships an 
     extra million or two million barrels of crude oil to the 
     United States,'' said the official, Adel al-Jubeir, a senior 
     adviser to the crown prince. ``If you cannot refine it, it 
     will not turn into gasoline, and that will not turn into 
     lower prices.''
       The national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded 
     gasoline last week was just under $2.24, up 43 cents from a 
     year earlier. Crude oil prices on Monday were about $54 a 
     barrel, up from $37 a year ago.
       Saudi Arabia's plans to increase production capacity are 
     politically and geologically

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     sensitive. In the Middle East, the Saudis have been 
     criticized for increasing production to help the United 
     States; the most extreme of those critics has been Osama bin 
     Laden.
       Some experts, including past and present officials of Saudi 
     Aramco, the state-owned oil company, have said the plan may 
     be too optimistic because of geological complexities in the 
     oil fields and challenges in finding enough technology and 
     labor.
       The crown prince arrived at the Bush ranch late Monday 
     morning from Dallas, where he had met Sunday with Vice 
     President Dick Cheney, who was briefed on the Saudi 
     production plan. Reflecting the importance of the meeting to 
     the administration, Mr. Bush was joined for the meeting here 
     by Mr. Cheney; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Mr. 
     Hadley; Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff; 
     and Fran Townsend, the White House's homeland security 
     adviser.
       The atmosphere was considerably less tense than during 
     Abdullah's last visit, three years ago to the day, and the 
     two sides cited progress on a variety of fronts.
       Saudi officials said only technicalities remained in 
     negotiating a trade deal with the United States, a big step 
     toward Saudi Arabia's goal of joining the World Trade 
     Organization. The two governments agreed to work toward 
     making it easier for Saudi students and military officers to 
     study and train in the United States.
       Mr. Hadley said the Saudis had made ``real good progress'' 
     in fighting terrorism.
       Ms. Rice said that the Saudis and the United States had a 
     ``common agenda'' when it came to promoting peace between the 
     Israelis and Palestinians and that she had discussed with 
     Abdullah the need for the Saudis to provide financial support 
     for the Palestinians in Gaza once the Israelis pull out this 
     summer.
                                  ____


                [From the New York Times, Apr. 26, 2005]

           U.S. Considers Toughening Stance Toward Venezuela

                            (By Juan Forero)

       As President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela veers toward greater 
     confrontation with Washington, the Bush administration is 
     weighing a tougher approach, including funneling more money 
     to foundations and business and political groups opposed to 
     his leftist government, American officials say.
       The Bush administration has already begun to urge 
     Venezuela's neighbors to distance themselves from Mr. Chavez 
     and to raise concerns about press freedoms, judicial 
     independence and the Venezuelan government's affinity for 
     leftist groups abroad, including Colombian guerrillas.
       But it has found no allies so far in its attempts to 
     isolate the Venezuelan leader, and it has grown more and more 
     frustrated by Mr. Chavez's strident anti-American outbursts 
     and policies that seem intended to fly in the face of 
     Washington. On Sunday, Mr. Chavez ended a 35-year military 
     cooperation agreement and ordered out four American military 
     instructors he accused of fomenting unrest.
       The accusation, which American officials denied, was the 
     latest blow to relations that had been bitter since the 
     United States tacitly supported a coup that briefly ousted 
     Mr. Chavez in April 2002. Since then his strength has grown. 
     He won a recall election last August, and record high oil 
     prices have left his government flush with money as it 
     provides 15 percent of American oil imports.
       American officials, who had chosen to ignore Mr. Chavez 
     through much of last year, now recognize the need for a 
     longer-term strategy to deal with a leader who is poised to 
     win a second six-year term in elections next year.
       A multiagency task force in Washington has been working on 
     shaping a new approach, one that high-ranking American policy 
     makers say would most likely veer toward a harder line. 
     United States support for groups that Chavez supporters say 
     oppose the government has been a source of tension in the 
     past. Under the plans being considered, American officials 
     said, that support may increase.
       ``The conclusion that is increasingly being drawn in 
     Washington is that a realistic, pragmatic relationship, in 
     which we can agree to disagree on some issues but make 
     progress on others, does not seem to be in the cards,'' said 
     an American official who helps guide policy in Latin America.
       The official added, ``We offered them a more pragmatic 
     relationship, but obviously if they do not want it, we can 
     move to a more confrontational approach.''
       Already counternarcotics programs have suffered, American 
     officials noted, and meetings among high-ranking officials 
     from the two countries are minimal.
       ``What's happening here is they realize this thing is 
     deteriorating rapidly and it's going to require some more 
     attention,'' said a high-ranking Republican aide on Capitol 
     Hill who works on Latin America policy. ``The current look-
     the-other-way policy is not working.''
       The United States, he said, is particularly concerned 
     because Venezuela is one of four top providers of foreign oil 
     to the United States. ``You can't write him off,'' the aide 
     said of Mr. Chavez. ``He's sitting on an energy source that's 
     critical to us.''
       A main problem for the United States is that Washington has 
     little, if any, influence over Caracas. The high price of oil 
     has left Venezuela with no need for the loans or other aid 
     that the United States could use as leverage.
       Nor does the Bush administration have much support in Latin 
     America, where left-leaning leaders now govern two-thirds of 
     the continent. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is 
     expected to raise concerns about Venezuela in a four-country 
     tour through the region this week. Political analysts say she 
     will have a hard time finding support.
       Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, on a recent trip to 
     Brazil, publicly raised concerns about Mr. Chavez. Days 
     later, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, in a 
     meeting in Venezuela with Mr. Chavez and the leaders of 
     Colombia and Argentina, pointedly said, ``We don't accept 
     defamation and insinuations against a companero,'' meaning a 
     close friend.
       ``Venezuela has the right to be a sovereign country, to 
     make its own decisions,'' he added.
       For his part, Mr. Chavez, who is famous for his rambling, 
     often outrageous speeches, has grown more belligerent, using 
     his anti-American posturing to bolster his popular support. 
     He has accused the United States of planning an invasion, 
     prompting a threat to cut oil sales, and has hurled sexually 
     tinged insults at Secretary Rice.
       While other Venezuelan officials stress that oil sales to 
     the United States would never cease, Venezuela's new energy 
     ties with China have worried Washington, as did Mr. Chavez's 
     recent meeting with President Mohammad Khatami of Iran, which 
     he declared ``has every right'' to develop its atomic energy 
     program.
       Mr. Chavez is also forming a popular militia that he says 
     will eventually have two million members and has plans to buy 
     100,000 AK-47 assault rifles from Russia and fighter jets 
     from Brazil.
       ``All governments recognize the democratic character of the 
     Venezuelan government, its peaceful vocation, and they want 
     to establish relations with Venezuela, with just one 
     exception, the United States,'' Ali Rodriguez, the Venezuelan 
     foreign minister, said in an interview. ``It has gone to 
     great lengths to isolate Venezuela, but no government is 
     playing along. It has failed, and that's because there is no 
     reason to isolate Venezuela.''
       Indeed, many of Latin America's largest countries see 
     little benefit in colliding with Mr. Chavez, nor do they 
     support the isolation of Cuba. Venezuela provides oil at 
     below-market prices and has numerous lucrative economic 
     agreements with dozens of nations. Many also do not want to 
     antagonize their own leftist constituencies, who are partial 
     to Mr. Chavez.
       ``The other countries don't want to be drawn into a polemic 
     between Venezuela and the United States,'' said Jennifer L. 
     McCoy, a Venezuela expert at Georgia State University who 
     headed the Carter Center's election observer mission in 
     Caracas last year. ``It's a counterproductive strategy that 
     could result in a negative Latin American reaction if they're 
     forced to take sides.''
       Many influential Democrats in Congress also oppose a more 
     aggressive approach.
       ``I think it creates further estrangement,'' said 
     Representative Bill Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat and a 
     member of the House International Relations Committee who has 
     met many times with Mr. Chavez. ``One cannot get around the 
     fact that Hugo Chavez is a democratically elected 
     president.''
       But Bush administration policy planners say that efforts to 
     patch up relations with Venezuela have largely failed.
       The American ambassador, William Brownfield, who took over 
     in Caracas in September, spent fruitless months before 
     getting a meeting with Mr. Rodriguez. Requests for meetings 
     with other ministers and even midlevel officials are 
     routinely ignored, and Venezuela has canceled dozens of 
     routine exchange programs with the United States.
       The one option that administration officials increasingly 
     believe they have is to respond much more assertively and 
     publicly to Venezuelan policies the United States does not 
     like, ideally with the help of other countries and respected 
     institutions like the Inter-American Commission on Human 
     Rights.
       ``We shouldn't be afraid to say when he's taking away 
     liberties, not at all,'' Robert B. Zoellick, now the deputy 
     secretary of state, told the Senate Foreign Relations 
     Committee in February.
       Venezuelan Foreign Ministry officials say they still hold 
     out hope that relations will improve. ``There is one 
     condition for us to have healthy relations with the United 
     States,'' said Vice Minister Mari Pili Hernandez, who handles 
     relations with Washington. ``It's called respect.''

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