[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7566-7567]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             ENERGY POLICY

  Mr. MARTINEZ. Madam President, we are facing a real problem as 
Americans increasingly go to the gas pump to fill the need of energy 
for their vehicles and they find that the prices at the pump are ever 
higher, more onerous, and it makes the family budget more difficult to 
manage. This is a problem for working families, to the typical American 
family trying to drive children to school, participate in carpools and 
other activities. It hits everyone at a time when other economic 
problems are surrounding the American family. We have a problem, and we 
have to act. Failure to act is not an option. At this point in time, we 
cannot offer immediate solutions, but we have to recognize where we 
are. We have to recognize what has not happened.
  I recall many days sitting where the Presiding Officer sits today, 
when our party was in the majority. Democrats would come to the floor 
and talk about how, if they were in power, because they were not in 
cahoots with the big oil companies, then things would be better, they 
would find a way to make things better. There was a bold announcement 
made by then-House minority leader Nancy Pelosi on April 24, 2006:

       Democrats have a commonsense plan to help bring down 
     skyrocketing gas prices.

  That is when prices were tipping at $3 a gallon. They were $2-
something a gallon. I wish today we were back to those moments in time.
  A commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices? I ask, 
where is the plan? What happened to that plan? Democrats came into 
power to lead both Houses of Congress on January 4, 2007. The 
distinguished Senator from Minnesota proudly took her oath; many others 
came into office. At that point in time, the price of gas was $2.33 a 
gallon. Today, it is $3.62 a gallon. Is this what the commonsense plan 
to bring down prices was supposed to bring us? Is this why someone had 
a plan that was going to help America? Has it helped us? Have we gone 
up or down? The fact is, today prices are $3.62.
  What we should do is have some plain talk. The fact is, it didn't 
matter who was in control of Congress because the laws of economics go 
well above the laws of politics. This is about supply and demand. The 
fact is, there is not a commonsense plan. The fact is, there is no 
plan, that America's energy policy continues to flounder for several 
reasons. We have to act, and we have to act as responsible leaders.
  One of the things that is inevitable is that as long as supply and 
demand stay where they are today, with demand ever increasing and 
supply topping out, we will continue to have increasing prices. I 
submit that part of what has to occur is increased production. We have 
to find ways that we can, within our own borders, produce more energy.
  I have been supportive of drilling in 2000 acres of the vast 
wilderness of Alaska in a way that would be safe. If it had been done 
back when President Clinton vetoed it, today a million barrels a day 
would be flowing into the stream of production and would help with this 
supply problem we have today.
  There may be other safe ways. A year or so ago, we made a deal. The 
deal was that we would drill safely in areas well away from the Florida 
coast in the Gulf of Mexico--8 million acres for new drilling that are 
also available and will produce oil and gas.
  These are helpful steps, but they are not enough. We have to 
conserve. We have to find ways to encourage Americans to conserve at 
the pump, to save by carpooling, to save by finding a way of buying 
more energy-efficient vehicles.

[[Page 7567]]

  We as a government should be helping American consumers through our 
tax system to find a way they can purchase vehicles that are more 
energy efficient. We know that a hybrid vehicle will get 35 to 38 miles 
to the gallon. We know that a standard vehicle of similar size would be 
lucky if it gets 17 or 18 miles to the gallon.
  At the end of the day, it is a combination of strategies. The bottom 
line is, we have to have a multifaceted strategy. We have to work 
together, not suggesting that there is one party that has a secret plan 
that, in fact, doesn't exist. We have to find a commonsense way to work 
together, Democrats and Republicans, to increase production modestly 
and safely, to encourage conservation and new technologies, and to 
continue to boldly move forward toward a Manhattan-type project that is 
going to put all of the resources and energies of this country toward 
energy independence and energy security so we can discontinue this 
horrendous practice of wealth transfer that is taking place today 
between our country--the billions and billions of dollars we are 
transferring to some of the worst enemies of our country, people such 
as Hugo Chavez and Ahmadinejad.
  The day is coming when we have to find a way to pull together toward 
a common goal of having a sensible, balanced energy policy, increase 
production safely, conserve more, and new technology. All working 
together, we can do this. America can meet this challenge.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Ohio is 
recognized.
  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I can't quite believe what I just heard. 
Because Democrats in 2006 said we need a different energy policy than 
the White House, a President and Vice President who both come out of 
the oil industry, both top energy executives, where much of the funding 
for the President's party comes from the oil industry, and in 2006, the 
Democrats said the Congress betrayed the American people because they 
let the oil industry write the energy bill, now my friend from Florida 
is saying it is the Democrats' fault that gas prices are through the 
roof.
  One of the best friends of the President was the CEO of Enron, a 
major funder to the President, close friend of the President who had a 
personal nickname, and Enron had gamed the system through speculating 
and speculating. It cost consumers, especially on the west coast, 
hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars as people raked off 
profits from their speculating. We are seeing the same kinds of things. 
I don't know if they are the President's friends doing it anymore, but 
I know there are people who have gamed the system. That is the reason, 
with no major international incident in the last 2 years, no major 
outage of a refinery or fire of a refinery or pipeline disruption, that 
prices have spiked so much.
  It is clear that a Justice Department working for the President of 
the United States, that is not beholden to the oil industry, might 
actually take some action on price fixing and recommend an excess 
profits tax--all the kinds of things we could be doing in this body and 
that the executive could do. But in this body, we have seen 
filibusters.
  Every time we try to do something on oil prices, every time we try to 
do something on long-term alternative energy, the Republicans 
filibuster. They have filibustered more than 60 times. It is 
approaching 70. I am not sure of the number; it is hard to keep up. 
They have filibustered more times already in this congressional session 
than they did in any 2-year session in history by a lot, and they are 
continuing to do it.
  We would love to sit down with my friend on the other side of the 
aisle and work on real energy legislation and wean this body and wean 
the White House from their addiction to oil company campaign dollars, 
and help wean the American people from our addiction to foreign oil. We 
would love to work on that.
  I introduced legislation yesterday that will help to jump-start the 
green energy industry in this country. It is clear we need to do a lot 
of that. But the American public is tired of finger pointing. It is 
time this Congress did more on energy, and that the Republicans, 
instead of filibustering--there are 51 Democrats in this body; we need 
60 votes to do anything because of the filibuster--instead of the 
Republicans holding together and blocking things, instead of 
filibustering, let us work together on energy issues and not have the 
oil companies dictate to this body, as they did for year after year 
after year.
  When I was in the House of Representatives, the oil companies 
dictated to the House of Representatives leadership, and everybody in 
those days in the majority party--which was the Republicans then--went 
along with their leaders on writing an energy bill that had $18 billion 
of subsidies and giveaways and tax breaks to the oil industry. Yet they 
are the most profitable industry in America year after year after year.
  Something gives there. It is time for something very different. I 
want to work together. The finger pointing should end. Let's sit down 
and do this right, but don't block us to do things that will help 
stabilize gas prices now and help to bring them down over the short and 
medium term and long term to come up with a real energy policy so we 
are not relying on--as my friend Senator Martinez said--not relying on 
Venezuela and Saudi Arabia and countries that are not so friendly to 
us.

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