[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13417]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        ENERGY SUPPLY AND DEMAND

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Madam Speaker, it is great to be on the floor today. You 
know, just because it's said on the floor doesn't mean it's true, and 
there are a lot of people who've discussed things today and who've 
discussed things throughout the debate, and so let's start talking 
about facts.
  I've been on the floor numerous times to talk about energy, and I've 
softened my discussions. I used to talk about the Pelosi premium. I've 
kind of gone away from that because, really, the problem is a problem 
of supply. So I go back to the Bush administration, to January 2001, 
where a barrel of crude oil was $23. You know, I just want to be 
honest. I want to talk about supply and demand. I want to get away from 
the partisan wrangle and address what we really need to address--lower 
gas prices--which is to bring on more supply. As we talk about these 
bills that are going to come forward this week, they do nothing for 
supply, and we'll talk about why that is.
  Then when this new majority came in and since Bush has come in, the 
price has doubled to $58 a barrel. Now, I didn't have time to update 
today's crude oil price, but as of Thursday of last week, it was $136 a 
barrel, which is over double the $58. The trend line is negative. The 
trend line is not a positive thing. So the debate is how do we change 
the trend line. How do we get to a price where we at least stabilize 
the price of a barrel of crude oil? Then how do we help that effect the 
lowering of gas prices?
  I live in the bi-State area between St. Louis and Illinois where it's 
$4.17 a gallon. So, even if we're assuming the promise of the Speaker 
that we drop it by 50 cents on speculation, we're still paying $3.85 or 
$3.75. I mean it is still way too high for people in rural America to 
get to work, to go to school, to get in the fields. Diesel prices have 
doubled. It's way too high. Even if we assume the promise of 
speculation at 50 cents, which I reject, that's still way too high. We 
need to bring on more supply. This is a problem.
  So, when you have a problem, you need to start really addressing 
credible solutions, not scapegoating, not trying to find blame. What do 
we need to do as a country? We've brought this to the floor numerous 
times. As for the Outer Continental Shelf, I think the public is now 
there. The national polls are clear. The Outer Continental Shelf is 
over 50 miles off the coast. You can't see it from the coastline.
  What is more hazardous to our beaches and to our tourism are super 
tankers that are bringing crude oil from around the world, super 
tankers that are then having a wreck or are having a disaster where 
that crude oil is then washing to shore. The exploration off the east 
coast, off the west coast and off the eastern gulf of billions of 
barrels of oil that are trillions of cubic feet is not debatable 
anymore. It is accepted, in principle, by the American public. It was 
put off access by this Congress years ago.
  This year, through the appropriations cycle, we can change this. We 
can say: Let's encourage our business and industry. Let's go into the 
Outer Continental Shelf. Let's explore for oil and gas, wind and solar. 
The great thing about the Republican policy is that we want everything, 
more of everything. We want wind. There's going to be a big wind 
generation facility built in my district, and I welcome it. We want 
solar. I want to encourage tax incentives for people to put solar cells 
on their homes. All of the above is a solution.
  If you'll look to the far right, I have a bigger chart of fuel from 
coal. The Germans did it in World War II with the Fischer-Tropsch 
technology. We can do it today. In Illinois alone, there are 250 years 
of BTU ability, the same as Saudi Arabia's. Then there are renewable 
fuels. In December, this Congress passed an expansion in renewable 
fuels, hoping cellulosic comes on. Add that to corn-based ethanol, to 
biodiesel and to soy diesel. All of the above is our solution and is 
American made.
  The great thing about this: American jobs exploring the OCS, American 
jobs building the wind and the solar panels, American jobs mining the 
coal and refining the coal, American jobs in the farm fields across 
America.
  In an era when we are concerned about jobs and the dollar, it makes 
sense to invest in America, in American energy sources and in American 
jobs.

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