[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17602-17605]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      AMERICAN ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

  Mr. ALLEN. Mr. President, I rise today to offer a new vision for 
American independence, a mission that is vital for Americans and for 
America's homeland and national security.
  We Americans have always been freedom seekers. We have been risk 
takers for liberty, daring to cross oceans and blaze trails across our 
continent, and at the same time we are reaching skyward to charter our 
own course into the future. We are always trying to provide a beacon to 
light the way for others around the world. Now is the time for us to be 
bold and chart our own course once again.

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  In this time of expanding promise and unparalleled danger in the 
world, we are called to come together with a clear vision and a unity 
of purpose worthy of a great people and a great nation.
  We declared our independence from colonial masters more than two 
centuries ago. We declared our independence from fascism, from imperial 
communism, and from every other form of totalitarian oppression and 
brutality in the 20th century. And America belatedly strode forward to 
become a more perfect union with justice and opportunity for all.
  In each of these challenges to our self-determination and our 
freedom, we not only declared our independence, we also mustered the 
resolve and the resources to achieve it. It is time for America to 
declare its independence again.
  Nearly 5 years ago, on September 11, 2001, we awoke on a bright, 
blue-sky morning to the dark realization that a great evil still stalks 
our world. Out of the shocking smoke and devastation of September 11 
came the realization that we are at war--at war with an extraordinarily 
violent ideology that seeks to pervert a great religion and murder 
thousands of innocent people to satisfy its thirst for power in a new 
caliphate from Europe to Indonesia.
  Today, we find ourselves engaged in a global war against vile, 
maniacal terrorists--a war against many foes--including Hezbollah, al-
Qaida, the Islamic Jihad, and others, but with its primary theaters 
being the breeding ground of radicalism and terrorism in the Middle 
East.
  My colleagues, in this war we have our differences over the means and 
methods, tactics and timetables. We do not have the same conviction 
about the importance of every theater or every engagement. We do not 
all see the same causes and effects, nor do we all give credit or cast 
blame in the same direction.
  But there comes a time where we have to set aside such differences 
and act not as Republicans or Democrats determined to win an election 
but as Americans determined to win a war, and in so doing preserve our 
freedom, our values, and our way of life.
  Rather than petty political bickering and partisan posturing, let all 
of us stand together--those of us who understand the reality of the 
mortal danger that our irreconcilable, fanatical enemy and its hateful 
ideology represent. Let's stand apart from those who would still deny 
or diminish the magnitude of the danger that we face, even as we mourn 
our thousands dead and foil new plots to kill thousands more.
  Let those of us who want to fight this war to win stand together, and 
let's stand against those who counsel appeasement at the point of a 
gun, negotiations as missiles rain dawn, and retreat in the face of 
adversity.
  My colleagues, if that is the new dividing line, I am convinced that 
the majority in the Senate and in this Congress, and most importantly, 
all Americans, regardless of political persuasion, are capable of 
coming together behind a new declaration of independence to secure 
America's future.
  Today, as we combat the powerful forces of terrorism and their state 
sponsors, we and our allies find ourselves continually dependent on and 
compromised by Middle Eastern and other hostile sources of foreign oil.
  This war is unlike other great wars. In the past, the financial 
sacrifice of free citizens fueled the engines of industry and military 
output. But today, many of our gasoline dollars now go to finance the 
war effort of our enemies, and, if those dollars do not go directly to 
our enemies now, then they go into bank accounts of some friendly but 
fragile states--bank accounts that are the envy and object of radical 
ideologues.
  When a nation like Iran has an advanced program to develop nuclear 
weapons--and when that nation is committed to the destruction of Israel 
and others--when that nation uses oil as blackmail to keep the 
international community from confronting its nuclear threat, as the 
leaders of Iran have done, then we know this: Our peace, freedom, and 
national security depend on making that oil weapon irrelevant.
  Because we rely so heavily on Middle Eastern oil in our economies, 
our foreign policy options are limited for addressing the terrorism, 
tyranny, and related geopolitical issues. For America to be free and 
independent--for Americans to remain the masters of our own destiny--we 
must declare our independence from Middle Eastern and other hostile 
sources of oil. We must commit every effort and resource to the 
achievement of this national purpose.
  I strongly believe that a comprehensive, enduring, sustained, and 
strategic plan for independence from Middle Eastern and other hostile 
sources of foreign oil must include five essential elements.
  They are, first, the strategic use of our global economic power and 
international relationships to remove oil-based leverage that hostile 
states currently enjoy; second, the accelerated exploration and 
development of American energy supplies, including American oil, 
American natural gas, American clean coal, and American nuclear power; 
third, the accelerated research, development, and deployment of every 
economically viable alternative and renewable source of energy; fourth, 
a bold new national commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship, 
investing in the next generation of leading-edge, creative scientists, 
researchers, and engineers of advanced technology; and, fifth, an 
unequivocal declaration of our national security commitment to energy 
independence.
  Let me highlight some of these key initiatives that I believe are 
needed in each of those five areas.
  First, we must use our global economic power and international 
relationships strategically to undercut the oil-based leverage that 
hostile nations enjoy now and in the future.
  We all recognize that America's dependence on Middle Eastern and 
other hostile sources of foreign oil leaves America and our allies, 
mainly in Europe and Asia, vulnerable to blackmail from radicals in the 
Middle East, and even in our own hemisphere, such as the avowed 
Marxist, Hugo Chavez.
  Meanwhile, China is aggressively making oil alliances with Sudan, 
Cuba, Venezuela, and Indonesia to reduce its dependence on Middle 
Eastern oil. It is not in the interest of the United States to let 
Africa and Latin America become dominated by oil trade with China.
  As a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, I will be introducing 
a bill for the establishment of America's Energy Security Initiative.
  The plan will require the President to establish a permanent energy 
security working group consisting of representatives of the Department 
of State, Department of Energy, Department of Commerce, Department of 
Defense, and intelligence agencies. Our allies will be asked to join us 
in developing this plan.
  We will develop an inventory of all energy reserves worldwide so we 
can prioritize potential alliances and recognize when strategically 
important countries come under the influence of others. And we will 
establish a strategic plan for identifying and forming energy 
alliances, including bilateral and multilateral arrangements.
  The second essential element in our comprehensive plan for achieving 
independence from the Middle East and other hostile sources of foreign 
oil is accelerated exploration and development of American energy 
supplies. We need to adopt a flexible, diverse portfolio of energy 
options. First and foremost, that must include increased domestic 
energy production from American oil, more American natural gas, more 
American clean coal, and more American advanced nuclear energy.
  The bottom line is we need more energy explored, produced, grown, and 
manufactured in America so that hundreds of billions of energy dollars 
stay here in America and are reinvested in America's economy for 
American jobs, American competitiveness, and American national security 
rather than having to worry about the whims of some dictator in a 
hostile part of the world.
  Last month, the Senate passed a Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, a 
good

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action by the Senate, and a good first step toward reducing natural gas 
prices at home and making America less dependent on foreign sources of 
energy.
  This was commonsense, bipartisan legislation that would permit 
deepwater exploration for oil and natural gas in the eastern Gulf of 
Mexico. This bill will free up enough natural gas to heat the homes of 
6 million American families for 15 years. And there is more oil and 
natural gas even further into the Gulf of Mexico.
  We also need to allow Virginia and other Atlantic coast States to 
move toward deepwater oil and/or natural gas exploration far off their 
coasts. According to the Department of Interior, there are roughly 86 
billion unexplored barrels of oil and 420 trillion unutilized cubic 
feet of natural gas under deep water on our Outer Continental Shelf.
  The fact is, we have the resources in America and the deep water of 
our coasts--and also in shale on our land--to reduce the leverage that 
hostile dictators now enjoy.
  We also need to explore for oil and natural gas on the North Slope of 
Alaska. Critics will say it will hurt the pristine environment. I have 
been up there. It is a flat, barren, treeless plain. In the summer it 
is filled with mosquitos, and in the winter it is like the dark side of 
the Moon.
  According to our Department of Energy, the estimated daily oil in 
ANWR 1.37 million barrels--would be roughly the equivalent of current 
daily oil imports from Saudi Arabia--1.52 million barrels. That is a 
lot of oil.
  When it comes to natural gas, natural gas is a wonderful, clean-
burning fuel. It is needed for heating our homes, and it is also vital 
for manufacturing, particularly in plastics, chemicals, and 
fertilizers. We need to make sure that price is reduced at home so 
those manufacturing jobs stay in America. A lot of the new electric 
powerplants in this country which have been permitted in recent decades 
have to use natural gas.
  Using natural gas to generate electricity would be like using bottled 
water to wash your dishes. It will do the job, but why would you want 
to use a resource as good as that for generating electricity when there 
are alternatives for generating electricity such as coal?
  In fact, the United States is the Saudi Arabia of the world in coal, 
with 500 billion tons of coal, which is the equivalent of 750,000 
billion barrels of oil. We have 27 percent of the world's supply of 
coal. This is why we should be using clean coal technology for 
electricity generation.
  I recently visited a clean coal facility in King George County, VA, 
where the smokestacks run so clean you can't even see the emissions 
from it. If you didn't hear the whirling, you would think it was 
closed.
  We ought to be using innovative technology to gasify or use coal as a 
fuel.
  Today, I am announcing my strong support for a comprehensive bill 
directed at advancing domestic coal-to-liquids technologies. Senator 
Bunning is the lead sponsor of this Coal-to-Liquids Promotion Act of 
2006, authorizing the Department of Energy to administer loan 
guarantees to the first coal-to-liquids plants and promulgating rules 
to allow BRAC sites and military bases to be considered as sites for 
commercial coal-to-liquids plants.
  This bill also expands 20 percent tax credits for coal-to-liquids 
plants and provides a similar provision for expensing these 
investments, and it also extends the fuel tax credit for coal-to-
liquids products from 2009 to the year 2020.
  Our comprehensive plan for energy independence must also include 
using American advanced nuclear power for electricity generation. The 
Energy Policy Act that we passed last year was a significant step in 
rekindling the domestic nuclear industry in the United States which has 
not seen a new nuclear reactor built in the last 20 years. It provides 
meaningful incentives and protections and it strengthens security for 
nuclear facilities.
  Going forward, as far as nuclear power is concerned, the big 
impediment for nuclear power is the disposal of spent fuel. This is why 
we need a comprehensive solution such as the Global Nuclear Energy 
Partnership that develops a viable long-term solution to the problem of 
nuclear spent fuel through chemical separation and reprocessing, which 
is much more efficient and much less dangerous than our current methods 
of using nuclear power and dealing with spent fuel.
  We also need to increase our Nation's refinery capacity. There hasn't 
been a new oil refinery built in the United States in almost 30 years. 
In response, I have introduced a bill called The Bolster Our Energy 
Security for Tomorrow Act, which directs the President to designate 
three BRAC sites for possible refinery development, with at least one 
of these refineries producing biofuels, and to appoint a Federal 
refinery coordinator to negotiate with willing States to streamline the 
permitting process without changing existing environmental laws.
  I have also joined with my colleague and friend from North Carolina, 
Senator Burr, in introducing the Affordable and Reliable Gas Act. This 
legislation will help increase refinery capacity and prevent these 
dramatic spikes in gas prices that we see in this country, usually in 
the spring, as they shift from a winter blend to a summer blend.
  We have 104 ``boutique'' fuels that strain our refinery capacity, as 
well as pipeline capacity. Our measure would reduce the number of 
boutique fuels from 104 to 1 clean-burning diesel fuel and 4 clean-
burning gasoline fuel blends by the end of 2008. That will help reduce 
gas prices.
  We also need, as Americans, to conserve. We need to conserve. We need 
to look at ways of being less wasteful, more efficient and smart in the 
use of our energy, particularly in energy used by large computer 
servers. It is not widely known, but one large computer data center can 
use as much electricity in 1 day as it takes to power a city the size 
of Petersburg, VA, with its approximately 34,000 residents. That is so 
much energy that I want to make sure the Federal Government and 
companies that use such mega computer servers and data centers are 
doing so wisely and efficiently.
  I have introduced legislation that directs the Environmental 
Protection Agency, through its Energy Star Program, to study the rapid 
growth in energy consumption of computer data centers by both the 
Federal Government and the private sector, analyze how effectively the 
computer industry is migrating to more energy efficient microchips and 
servers, reduce the costs associated with building and operating large-
scale data centers, and make recommendations for positive incentives to 
advance adoption of energy-efficient data centers.
  The third essential element of our comprehensive plan for achieving 
independence from Middle Eastern and hostile sources of foreign oil is 
the accelerated research, development, and deployment of every 
economically viable alternative source of energy. We need to adopt a 
flexible, diverse portfolio of energy options. Diversity of supply is 
security of supply. We ought to be using alternative fuels, such as 
biofuels, including soy diesel and ethanol, cellulose fuels, and 
innovative ideas, whether it's hybrids, hydrogen, solar power, or 
nanotech-enabled lithium ion batteries.
  We must take further action to create an economic climate that 
encourages investment in new energy and alternative fuels. That is why 
I am reviewing, and I urge my colleagues to consider, legislation that 
allows 100 percent first-year expensing for all plant and equipment 
investments to help spur development of domestic and alternative 
sources of energy.
  Expensing is a high-performance tax reform of vital national 
importance from an energy-specific perspective. According to economists 
such as Gary Robbins with Fiscal Associates, 100 percent expensing 
would reduce the capital costs in key segments of the energy industry 
by up to approximately 10 percent. It would also be important to 
environmentally friendly ``green'' technologies, where first-year 
expensing for the green technologies can often tip the balance between 
feasible and unfeasible.

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  In fact, many financial and industry experts believe that expensing 
is the cheapest, most effective and most growth-oriented tax change 
that the Congress can actually make. It has been estimated that 
replacing the old-fashioned tax depreciation with immediate first-year 
expensing would add more than $200 billion to our GDP and upwards of 
750,000 new jobs.
  The fourth major area in which we must act for energy independence is 
one that is often overlooked in the usual discussions of national 
energy policy. We need a bold new national commitment to innovation and 
entrepreneurship, investing in the next generation of leading-edge 
scientists, researchers, and engineers.
  We should all want America to be the world capital of innovation. To 
achieve that mission we need scientists, we need engineers, we need 
technologists. They will be the ones who will be designing and 
developing the new inventions, the new innovations, and the new 
intellectual property of the future.
  However, America's education system is not graduating sufficient 
talent in science, technology, and engineering.
  Last year, the United States matriculated approximately 70,000 
engineers compared to 300,000 engineers in India and 500,000 in China.
  In America, we must do a much better job in motivating, inspiring, 
and incenting our young people to study science, engineering, 
technology, and medicine at a much earlier age. That is why I have 
worked, as many have worked, in a bipartisan fashion, with Senators 
Lieberman, Ensign, Alexander, Domenici, Bingaman, and others on the 
National Innovation Act, which implements the recommendations of the 
National Innovation Initiative Report and provides tangible action 
items, including scholarships, to increase America's science and 
technology talent.
  I am also a strong supporter of the Protecting America's Competitive 
Edge through Energy Act of 2006, which would boost science and math 
education programs in the United States by providing early career 
research grants that support young, promising scientists and engineers 
at the beginning of their careers.
  I have led with a good partner, Senator Ron Wyden, on the other side 
of the aisle, on our Nanotech Initiative. Nanotechnology is the next 
transformative economic development for our country and the world. 
Nanotechnology is a very diverse field. It is going to have a positive 
impact on life and health sciences. It will have a major impact on 
microelectronics and materials engineering. Nanotechnology will allow 
us to build wider and stronger materials that will need less energy for 
propulsion. There is a company called NanoChemonics, in southwest 
Virginia, that is teaming up with coal companies to get the impurities 
out of coal, to make it into a fuel, as is Sasol in South Africa. 
Nanotechnology will be helpful in environmental cleanups.
  All together, the Nanotechnology Initiative, the National Innovation 
Act, and the PACE Energy Act will go a long way toward meeting 
America's rising demand for highly skilled men and women in all fields 
of innovation, and it will strengthen America's security through energy 
independence.
  Fifth, and finally, I conclude where we must begin, with a clear, 
unequivocal expression of national commitment, a new Declaration of 
Independence, if you will, matched with the discipline to keep us on 
track, according to an agreed-upon timetable. For those who say we 
cannot come together for such a national purpose, I say you 
underestimate the character and the resolve of the American people and 
the power of the American idea.
  Look at what we have done in the past when confronted with great 
challenges to our freedom and our way of life. Half a century ago, the 
Soviet Union launched the space satellite Sputnik. Our scientific edge 
in missile technology and the space race was in serious doubt. Our 
national security was at great risk of falling behind. But America's 
ingenuity was dramatically and urgently mobilized by President 
Eisenhower, who passed the National Defense Education Act, providing 
massive investment in science, technology, and engineering.
  We need that same kind of commitment and leadership to keep America 
the world capital of innovation now and in the future.
  September 11 awakened our Nation to a monumental new challenge: 
fighting and winning this global war against hate-filled terrorists. 
This war on terror, similar to all wars, will require clarity of vision 
and unity of purpose. America's long-term national security depends on 
securing our independence from the Middle East and other hostile 
sources of oil. We have the resources to do it, the resources 
underneath our land and water, and the best resource of all, the 
ingenuity of our free, creative minds. Now we just need the willpower 
to use it.
  Mr. President, 230 years ago our forebears pledged their lives, their 
fortune, and their sacred honor to the cause of independence. We are 
more fortunate. We need only do what we have already sworn to do--set 
aside our differences and act in the public interest. This Congress 
must adopt a clear ``Declaration of Independence'' from the Middle East 
and other hostile sources of oil, and it must act urgently, decisively, 
and with a unity that rises above partisan differences to make that 
Declaration of Independence a reality.
  Let us begin right now.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be 
allowed to speak for about 20 or 25 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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