[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16083-16084]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 ENERGY

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, it is summertime and school is out and 
people are planning their vacations. Most all the vacations are ones 
where people drive. They, of course, go visit relatives, they go to the 
beaches and the mountains where it is cool, barbecuing with friends, 
but driving is part of America. If you have traveled in Nevada, which 
millions of people do by automobile every year, going through Nevada 
and coming to places such as Las Vegas, Reno, and Lake Tahoe, you find 
the price of gas is very high. But it is that way all over the country, 
not just Nevada. The record-high price is no accident. It is a result 
of America's addiction to oil.
  I say again, as I have said many times before, today in America we 
are going to use 21 million barrels of oil; 65 percent of that oil we 
will import. We will do it from unstable countries and regions. We have 
been told with no uncertainty by scientists that we have only 10 to 15 
years to do something to dramatically reduce the elements of pollution 
that cause global warming.
  This week we are going to continue our debate on energy legislation. 
This is a bill on which every Senator should agree, but they do not. 
This is a bill that comes out of the Energy Committee on a bipartisan 
basis, a bill that comes out of the Environment and Public Works 
Committee on a bipartisan basis, a bill that comes out of the Commerce 
Committee on a bipartisan basis. They were all put together and this is 
what is before us, a bipartisan energy bill.
  The bill addresses both sides of the energy crisis, consumption and 
supply. That is what it is all about. On the consumption side, this 
bill raises fuel economy standards for cars and trucks and raises 
efficiency standards for light, heat, and water.
  We now know we have to produce vehicles that get 27 miles to the 
gallon. For people, including our automobile manufacturers, to say: We 
can't do it, we can't simply in a decade produce vehicles that will be 
35-miles-per-gallon efficient--our country is one of ingenuity, of 
inventing things--certainly we can do that. We have to do that.
  On the supply side, our legislation invests in renewable fuels that 
can be produced right here in America. It would sure be good for our 
country if we could include an amendment that would diversify power 
generation to include at least 15 percent of the energy from renewable 
sources. This will save consumers tens of billions of dollars every 
year, cut our oil consumption by more than 4 million barrels a day, 
reduce our dependence on oil and foreign energy sources, and take a 
giant step forward in the fight against global warming.
  Raising CAFE standards and implementing a renewable portfolio 
standard are two of the most crucial parts of this legislation. I urge 
my colleagues to stand on the side of the American

[[Page 16084]]

people by supporting this legislation: CAFE that is in the bill, and 
the renewable portfolio standard that was introduced by Senator 
Bingaman.
  There are some who say we need to produce more oil. Of course we do. 
But keep in mind, out of 100 percent of the oil in the world, America 
controls less than 3 percent of it. This is the world; here we are. We 
have that much of the oil. We can't produce our way out of the problems 
we have. But it appears to me that many are saying more of the same: 
drill, drill, drill, which is similar to what the administration is 
saying about the war in Iraq, more of the same. That will not work. 
Drill, drill, drill will not work either.
  It is time for our country to stop stonewalling and start supporting 
the kind of innovation that is already happening across America with 
the renewable portfolio standard. In the State of Nevada, there is a 
renewable portfolio standard. American ingenuity is looking at things, 
like in California where one professor is working on a new technology 
that can manufacture fuel out of simple plant material in any 
industrial park in America. I have eminent scientists who visit with me 
on this issue. There is wide-ranging support. I had come to my office 
one day last week--I was surprised--Paul Newman, the famous actor. He 
came to talk about this plant material. He is a person who is devoted 
to the environment. He is using his celebrity status to come and tell 
Members of Congress to do something about it.
  So we have eminent scientists, we have people of celebrity status 
such as Paul Newman, and the rest of Americans who want us to do 
something about it.
  In Pennsylvania, Amish farmers are charging their buggy batteries 
with solar power. In the State of Nevada, the Southern Nevada Water 
Authority, which is Las Vegas, is using solar energy at water pumping 
stations to move water uphill, something that in the past would have 
required tremendous nonrenewable power. There are things that can be 
done.
  I was listening to public radio this morning. They are having a 
drought in Australia--I believe it was Sydney. I am not sure what the 
name of the city was. But they have had a lot of new people come and 
their water supply has dropped by 21 percent, so they are desalinizing 
water from the ocean. But the people said: We are not going to do that 
by burning fossil fuel. So what they have done is they have wind farms 
60 miles away--I think that is how far it is; quite a ways away--wind 
farms, producing all the energy which now supplies 20 percent of the 
water for that city in Australia which needs millions of gallons of 
water every day.
  It can be done. We need to lessen our dependence on fossil fuel. That 
kind of innovation is exactly what America does best, and that is what 
the Government should be investing in, things like I just talked about. 
The energy crisis will not be solved overnight, but this bill is a 
crucial first step. So let's take that first step. It is a bipartisan 
piece of legislation; not divided by our political parties but united, 
I hope, by our commitment to a cleaner, safer energy future. We are 
going to finish this bill sometime this week unless something goes 
haywire.
  Then, when we finish that, we are going to move on to everyone's 
favorite subject, immigration.
  I mentioned this last Friday, and I say it again: People who have 
weekend schedules should understand if they are going to be gone from 
the Senate, they are likely going to miss votes. We cannot get to 
immigration until Thursday at the earliest. In an effort to finish by 
our Fourth of July recess, we have to take up the bill Thursday, 
probably late in the day, which will mean votes over the weekend. It is 
always possible by unanimous consent that may not be necessary, but I 
am telling everybody the odds are tremendous that we will be voting 
this weekend. And on Monday there will be votes and there will be votes 
before 5:30. It is our last weekend before the Fourth of July recess. 
We have work to do. I hope we don't run into the Fourth of July recess, 
but we may have to if we can't get things done.
  I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news regarding the schedule, but 
we have obligations to complete energy and immigration.

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