[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 14892-14894]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              OIL DRILLING

  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I have come to the floor this morning 
to comment on the press conference that President Bush had just moments 
ago where he renewed his call for more oil drilling, saying that more 
drilling is the answer to spiraling prices.
  I have to tell you, unfortunately for all of us who are suffering 
from these out-of-control prices at the pump, what I hear is the 
President coming out and talking real tough but offering no solutions 
to the real crisis in front of us.
  Americans are hurting today. In my home State of Washington, we are 
paying $4.45 a gallon. But I cannot go home and tell my constituents 
that we are going to go drill off the coast of Washington State and 
lower their prices at the gas pump. That is not true. In fact, the 
President's own Department of Energy says to us that lifting the 
moratorium is not going to have an impact until 2030. Even then, in 
2030, there is no guarantee that drilling more oil off the coast of my 
State or any other will solve this gas price problem in 2030.
  The President says he wants to open more land for drilling to 
increase production. What he doesn't say is that the oil companies 
right now today hold 68 million acres of land, both onshore and 
offshore, that they could, if they wanted to, drill today.
  Let me say that again. While the President wants to hand out more 
leases, he wants all of us to come out here and hand more leases to the 
oil companies, they are already sitting on 68 million acres of Federal 
land doing nothing to explore and produce oil on those leases. Why? 
Because if they put more oil out there today, prices will

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drop, and they are doing pretty darn good today.
  I don't think we should be surprised. I don't think we should be 
surprised at this at all. These are the same oil companies that are 
making record profits, billions and billions each year, as a direct 
result of increasing oil and gas prices. It is no surprise they are 
telling us: More drilling, give us more to drill, give us more to 
drill, and making empty promises of lowering gas prices when that 
simply is not true.
  Given that there are two oil men in the White House today, I don't 
think any of us should be surprised. I don't think any of us should be 
surprised that millions of barrels of oil the oil companies pull from 
American soil today never enter the market. It is sold, by the way, not 
to the United States but to markets in China and overseas. So telling 
us this will lower our gas prices, to me, seems pretty out of touch 
when we know that if we were to come out here and allow them to drill 
more in the areas off our coast, having a huge impact on our fishing 
industries and our tourism industries and other important industries in 
the State today, that we would never see that oil even if we allowed 
them to drill it because it would be sold to markets overseas. There is 
no requirement that it would come here to the United States anyway.
  Families in my home State of Washington and across this country are 
pretty sick and tired of paying higher and higher prices at the pump. 
It is certainly impacting the economy of every small business, every 
family, every community. Those people deserve real solutions. They 
deserve solutions that are going to offer stability and controlled 
prices. What we are hearing from the President today is just going to 
give them more of the same: empty promises and failed policies.
  Over the past week or so, I have heard the Republicans saying: Find 
more, use less. That sounds pretty good to me, but I have a good 
solution to that. Have the companies find that ``more oil'' in the 68 
million acres they currently hold by drilling today. Then let's invest 
in ``using less'' by passing the energy tax credits that Republicans 
have filibustered, by the way, time and time again on this floor. I 
think it is long past time that those new investments are made in 
renewable energy and fast-tracking alternative energy technology so we 
don't continually come out here and fall into this drill, drill, drill 
debate that sends empty promises to people who really are hurting 
today.
  I think we should have a policy that really works. I think we ought 
to look for solutions on this floor in ways that provide real 
solutions. But just getting into a debate that sends empty promises and 
listening to a President in the White House say give the oil companies 
lots more to drill and sending an empty promise to my home State of 
Washington and across this Nation, to me, is pandering at its worst.
  Mr. BIDEN. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mrs. MURRAY. I will be happy to yield.
  Mr. BIDEN. First of all, I agree with everything the Senator just 
said. But if, in fact, if I am not mistaken, all of the reserves that 
are estimated to exist off of your shore and ours--in Delaware they 
want to drill as well--if all the reserves in the entire continental 
United States, the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic 
Ocean--if they all exist, and they all meet the expectation of the 
best, most probable high return, we still only represent 3 percent of 
the total world oil reserves.
  My problem is my Republican colleagues who tout themselves as being 
big businessmen who understand how the business world works in the 
market economy, it always amazes me how they fail to remember how 
cartels work. The cartel called OPEC controls the vast majority of the 
oil resources. Not one of these wells would come on before 10 years--
not one. That is according to our Department of Energy. Not one for 10 
years.
  When they come on, what makes anybody think that the outfit that 
controls 60 or 70 percent of the world's oil reserves isn't going to 
just pump 3 percent less? Does anybody think that OPEC, knowing that we 
had 3 percent of the world's oil reserves, is going to continue to pump 
at the rate they are pumping? I promise you they will reduce the amount 
of oil they pump just like they always did to 3, 4, 5, 7 percent less, 
guaranteeing that whatever the price was will be sustained.
  What I do not understand is, I do not understand our friends, 
including the President, who was a businessman of sorts--I don't mean 
that; I am not being a wise guy--who was in the business world prior to 
this, doesn't understand how cartels work. Is there anywhere in the 
President's offshore drilling where he has gotten a commitment from 
OPEC that they will continue to pump at the rate they are pumping now? 
Are you aware of any such?
  Mrs. MURRAY. The Senator from Delaware raises a good point. Of course 
he hasn't gotten that kind of commitment from the OPEC countries. Of 
course he has not. They are focused on a profit, as they are doing 
quite well today.
  The Senator is right. If we were to go ahead and use this moment in 
our history when we have some big decisions to make to just say: Oh, we 
will drill more, there is absolutely no guarantee that OPEC will not 
control that supply.
  Mr. BIDEN. If the Senator will continue to yield for a moment, the 
thing I want everybody to understand is, as a guy named Yergin, who 
chairs the Cambridge Research Group, who advises not all but most of 
the major world oil companies, explained to me once, he said: You know, 
oil is like filling your swimming pool. If you put a hose in your 
swimming pool and you keep filling it and filling it, it takes a long 
time to raise an inch or two. It has virtually no impact on the total 
size cubic feet of your swimming pool or the amount of water in it. The 
second thing is, all the oil that goes into that swimming pool all goes 
into one big pool. It is all the same price.
  If you notice, people pumping oil in Texas are not charging less than 
people pumping oil in Saudi Arabia. If you notice, people pumping oil 
in California are not charging less than people pumping oil in 
Venezuela. If you notice, when the OPEC price goes up ``American'' 
oilfields benefit.
  I am not suggesting the American oilfields are in collusion with 
OPEC, but guess what. Americans think, if we pump our own oil, we will 
be independent. It ``ain't'' our own oil.
  Mrs. MURRAY. I remind the Senator, if we were to do that, that oil 
would not come to America where our constituents would be able to use 
it.
  Mr. BIDEN. The oil on the Senator's side of the country would not. 
One reason I voted against the Alaska pipeline is instead of going 
through Canada to the United States, it would go to Japan, figuratively 
speaking.
  Mrs. MURRAY. So it goes there today.
  Mr. BIDEN. I hope we start talking about basic facts. If everything 
we think we have under the ground that we control as the United 
States--on the Continental Shelf, off the Pacific Ocean, in ANWR--
everything out there, we have 3 percent of the world's proven oil 
reserves. It doesn't give you much of a bargaining chip. It would be 
one thing if you say: You know, every bit of the oil we pump that we 
control goes to the United States, and we are only going to charge $2 a 
barrel. Wouldn't that be great? Or $10 or $20 or $30 or $50. But I kind 
of notice, those guys down in Texas charge us exactly the same price as 
those guys wearing robes in Saudi Arabia charge us. Isn't that kind of 
funny? And if you only control 3 percent of the oil reserves and pump 
it all, all the folks we don't like so much who control 60 or 70 
percent of the reserves, they just pump 3 percent less, and the price 
is the same. We cannot drill our way out of this.
  I thank my friend from Washington for pointing this out.
  I yield the floor.
  Mrs. MURRAY. I thank my friend from Delaware for joining me. We have 
been listening to this debate now. The President weighed in from his 
podium this morning. Much as we would like to hand our constituents 
tomorrow morning a lower gas price, we in this Senate

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have to be realistic about today, tomorrow, and far into the future. 
Even the Energy Administration Agency has said the impact on wellhead 
prices from opening the Pacific, Atlantic, and gulf waters to drilling 
``is expected to be insignificant.''
  Let's not, here on the Senate floor, talk about empty promises to our 
constituents at a time when they are really hurting. Let's take this 
opportunity and time to make long-term investments that put our country 
on a path to being less dependent on oil. Those are the right 
investments that we ought to be making. Yes, they are hard. Yes, they 
are difficult. Yes, they are challenging. It is not easy to come up 
with compromises on them when we are all from very different parts of 
the Nation. But let's not just sell a bill of goods to the Nation when 
we are hurting.
  I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Tester). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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