[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6766-6768]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 ENERGY

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, today as I stand here, back in Michigan 
the gas prices have risen to $3.10 a gallon. At $3.10 a gallon, that is 
the highest price at the pump that folks are paying than ever before as 
they get up to go to work, take the kids to school, as our farmers are 
preparing the fields, and as our business people are on the road. Folks 
are feeling the squeeze--one more squeeze.
  We already have in Michigan a situation where we are seeing job loss 
or wages being reduced, health care costs going up, pensions that may 
not be there for people; things that are squeezing people on all 
sides--the higher cost of college. Part of that is due to actions taken 
in the Congress and at the White House. To add insult to injury, we are 
seeing now over $3 a gallon for gasoline, and I know in other States we 
have seen as much as $4 for folks who are just trying to make it, just 
trying to get to work, just trying to take care of their families.
  When they look at this picture, they see several things. They see the 
highest possible profits ever recorded in the history of the country by 
our oil companies, particularly ExxonMobile, which recorded the highest 
profits ever. They see incredible salaries. They see the former CEO of 
ExxonMobile making about $110,000 a day, when most Michiganians don't 
make $110,000 a year. And now we were told about a $400 million 
retirement package, and we hear when you count everything, it could be 
$700 million. Unbelievable. People have had enough. People have had 
enough of a set of policies that are squeezing them on all sides.
  Then, today, we read that the conference committee is dealing with a 
series of tax cuts and tax proposals and have decided to delay 
repealing accounting procedures known as ``last and first out'' that 
were included in the bill that we passed, including loopholes that we 
closed for oil companies that would equal about $4.3 billion in tax 
breaks that we said didn't make sense and we need to close them. 
Instead, those tax breaks are going to keep rolling on. I know there 
are going to be

[[Page 6767]]

hearings in the Finance Committee. But the reality is that when the 
priorities are set, when the values are reflected about what will be 
done, the oil companies' tax breaks continue. High prices continue. 
These outrageous CEO salaries continue. The people in Michigan have 
said: Enough is enough.
  On top of that, we see foreign tax credit loopholes that may be 
continued so that we as taxpayers will subsidize the oil companies 
doing business in other countries. We see royalty relief that Senator 
Wyden spoke about last week which comes to the tune of anywhere from 
$20 billion to $80 billion in tax breaks to the oil companies that they 
said they didn't even need anymore. Yet this royalty relief and the tax 
breaks continue. We see the Energy bill that was passed last August and 
had a lot of positive things in it, that I supported, but in that were 
$2.6 billion in tax subsidies by American taxpayers for the oil 
companies, and that continues.
  In total, we are looking at somewhere between $28 billion and $88 
billion in taxpayer dollars being used to subsidize an industry with 
the highest profits and arguably the highest salaries, or certainly 
some of the highest salaries in the world. At the same time, folks are 
trying to make it every day.
  I believe, and my colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle 
believe, that we need to shut down those tax breaks to oil companies 
and put money directly back into the pockets of taxpayers. We also 
believe and, in fact, I was proud to lead an effort that resulted in a 
required investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. I was proud to 
author that in the Energy bill last August and they are finally doing 
it and they will have an investigation done and recommendations by May 
21. They are doing a law enforcement investigation.
  I call on the President and all of our colleagues to do everything 
possible to support the FTC to get the right conclusion. We know price 
gouging is going on. It is not rocket science. People see what is going 
on. We don't need to call for an investigation. We already have one 
going on. Let's make sure they have the tools and the resources and the 
support to do what is right for the American consumer.
  Americans are subsidizing one of the wealthiest industries in the 
country and in the world, with the highest CEO salaries, at the same 
time they are trying to figure out how to get 2 or 3 gallons in the 
tank of their car so they can get to work. This is the wrong set of 
values. These are the wrong priorities for our country.
  I say, along with many others, enough is enough. We know we have 
long-term issues to address, and we have worked together in the Energy 
bill on new support and tax incentives for renewable fuels. We are 
seeing in Michigan the outgrowth of that: five new ethanol plants by 
the end of the year, biodiesel plants, and we are seeing wonderful 
efforts going on with our American auto companies. I am very proud of 
what General Motors is doing with E-85 ethanol and Ford moving ahead 
with their hybrids and Daimler Chrysler with biodiesel B-20 and all of 
the efforts that are moving forward to get us off of foreign oil 
dependence. And I am hopeful that all of those policies together will 
result not only in more jobs in my State, because I believe Michigan 
will be the leader in this area, but more support for our farmers, 
better policies for our environment, and the opportunity to give big 
oil the competition they ought to be having, which is by using home-
grown fuels.
  I believe our goal ought to be to make sure the people of this 
country have the opportunity to buy their fuel from Middle America 
instead of the Middle East. I am committed to that, as many of my 
colleagues are, and I believe we need to get about the business of 
getting that done. In the process, we ought to close some tax loopholes 
with the oil companies. We ought to go back on this tax bill and get it 
right and worry more about putting money back in the pockets of the 
folks who are paying the bill at the gas pump. Folks have said enough 
is enough, and I agree with them.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, how much time is remaining on the 
Democratic side in morning business?
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. There is 7 minutes remaining.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from the State of 
Michigan because she has been a leader when it comes to the issue of 
helping consumers across America. Many people say it is morning in 
America, but not if you stop at a gas station. It feels like it is the 
dead of night, and it is getting pretty cold and windy outside.
  What the Senator from Michigan has said is that instead of this 
meaningless $100 which has been suggested on the other side of the 
aisle and which has become something of a joke, she suggested a 
significant amount: $500. Clearly, that is not going to make up for all 
of the added expenses of gasoline for people across America, but 
Senator Stabenow has been a leader in suggesting that the oil companies 
should give up their subsidies and tax breaks, which they continue to 
beg for with record profits, and instead we should take that money and 
give it back to the consumers. It is a rebate that would go not to the 
Treasury that would be lost in the sauce but would go back directly to 
families and consumers across America. I thank the Senator from 
Michigan for her leadership.
  A little later this morning, many of us are going to have a gathering 
with farm groups across America. It is often overlooked. I know the 
Senator from Michigan has mentioned it about her State, but our farmers 
are facing a tremendous hardship because of the increased cost of 
energy, not just diesel fuel but also the gasoline they need for the 
work of the farm, and added costs, as well, for items like fertilizers 
and pesticides. We estimate that over the last 5 years, Illinois 
farmers on an average are going to pay an additional $24,000 because of 
these additional energy costs, the natural gas component of 
fertilizers, as well as the fuel to use in their tractors and in their 
vehicles. That $24,000 right off the bottom line for farmers can be the 
breaking point for some, and many may not survive. That is why this 
debate is important and why it is timely and why we should not waste 
any time addressing it.
  I am afraid we have reached the point where we have to acknowledge 
the obvious. The shortest attention span in America is right here in 
this Chamber because Senators have an attention span that lasts as long 
as the headlines last and as long as the phones are ringing and the e-
mails are coming in. When that diminishes, we tend to move to the next 
issue, whatever that might be, even if we have not addressed or 
resolved the issue before us.
  I think my friends and colleagues in the Senate will look at the 
energy issue and dismiss it at their peril. What we find is, as we ask 
Americans across the board what causes you the greatest concern--this 
is a poll which came out just a few days ago from NBC and the Wall 
Street Journal--how about leaking classified information by the Bush 
administration? Eighteen percent of Americans say it causes them 
concern. How about Iraq? Twenty-three percent. How about the issue of 
immigration? Twenty-six percent. How about Iran building a nuclear 
weapon? Thirty-three percent. How about gas prices reaching $3 a 
gallon? Forty-five percent of Americans say that causes them concern.
  We ignore this political and economic reality at our peril. It is not 
enough for us to give speeches on the floor and do nothing, and this 
week we will do nothing when it comes to the energy issue. There are 
things we must do. First, we have to acknowledge that what we have done 
has not worked. It has failed. The energy plan that was endorsed by the 
Republican majority and signed by the President last August has failed. 
It has failed and obviously so.
  During the heating season this last winter, we saw dramatic runups in 
the cost of home heating, whether it was fuel oil in the Northeast or 
natural gas in the Midwest. Then, of course, came the sticker shock at 
the gas pump every single day, now up to $3-plus a

[[Page 6768]]

gallon in my part of the world, in the Midwest and Illinois, and $4 a 
gallon or more in California or other places. To think that we passed 
an energy bill 8 months ago and patted ourselves on the back about what 
a great job we did, now look at the reality. The reality is it failed. 
It failed.
  We need a new direction. We need a significant change in direction. 
The energy policy of the Bush administration has failed America. The 
cost of energy is too high. We are importing too much. We are being 
pushed around by these little tinhorn dictators who happen to have oil 
reserves and now want to dictate foreign policy to the world. Why would 
the United States ever tolerate this situation?
  What we need to do is to be very forceful. First, let's start at 
home. Let's acknowledge the fact that, even though there are clearly 
elements that gave rise to the increase in the cost of energy, there is 
profiteering taking place, and it is obvious. The big five had over 
$110 billion in profits last year, $1,000 for every household in 
America in oil company profits; $1,000. When this administration talked 
about cutting your taxes, there has been another invasion of home 
budgets, and it isn't the tax man, it is the oil man. It is the oil man 
who is taking money out of every family's budget, almost $100 a month 
for additional energy costs, so they can have recordbreaking profits, 
so their shareholders can applaud, and so Mr. Lee Raymond, the former 
CEO of ExxonMobil, as a parting gift for his wonderful work at 
ExxonMobil, can get $400 million. As I said before, he didn't even have 
to buy a Powerball ticket--$400 million. Sayonara, farewell, Mr. 
Raymond, thank you for your great service--$400 million at the expense 
of the American economy and American consumers. The oil companies don't 
get it. They don't understand what they are doing to America.
  The other day, George Will, who is on one of the talk shows, chided 
me for saying that what is happening with energy costs is going to put 
a chill on the American economy. I will stand by that statement. It is 
true we have not seen it immediately. We will. You just can't increase 
the input cost in business or farming as dramatically as these energy 
runups are doing without hurting the bottom line, forcing farmers out 
of business, forcing businesses to lay off employees. Of course, those 
businesses depending on energy couldn't even dream of expanding at this 
point because they have to find a way to deal and cope with this 
reality.
  What do we need to do? We need to punish the profiteers. We to need 
to say to these oil companies: This is intolerable.
  It is time for the President of the United States to call the oil 
company executives into the Oval Office, to sit down and in very quiet 
and reasoned tones tell them enough is enough. You cannot continue to 
profiteer at the expense of workers and businesses and farmers across 
America.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Vitter). The time of the Senator has 
expired.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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