[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 11904-11905]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       CONSUMER-FIRST ENERGY ACT

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, last Friday, I spoke of the high energy 
prices--I have done that on a number of occasions recently--and the 
need for the Senate to pass the Consumer-First Energy Act. That will be 
the first vote we will have.
  When I came to the Senate floor Friday, we had already had a very 
difficult day. We got up and saw in the newspaper that day that the 
market had crashed and gas prices were spiraling up to $132 a barrel. 
There were other things that were not good from an economic 
perspective. I did not have any idea that the price of oil would go up 
to almost $140 a barrel. Actually, it did that during the remarks I was 
making.
  The massive spike in oil prices we saw on Friday and the 
corresponding 400-point drop in the Dow only compounded the crisis that 
has been growing for months and even years. When President Bush took 
office, a barrel of oil cost $32 and a gallon of gasoline cost less 
than $1.50. Of course, now, the average price in our country is more 
than $4 a gallon, for the first time in the history of our country.
  The President took us to war--a war of choice--and Vice President 
Cheney invited oil executives to the White House to secretly write our 
national energy legislation. It was secret, so people went to court--it 
went all the way to the Supreme Court--to try to find out whom he met 
with, what he talked about, and what arrangements he made with the big 
oil companies. He was able to keep it secret. It is still secret. All 
we know is that the oil companies made $250 billion in net profit last 
year. So we have a pretty good idea what went on in the White House. 
They never asked the oil executives, obviously, to build new refineries 
or to invest in clean, renewable alternative fuels. They apparently 
failed to consider the national security implications of our addiction 
to oil and never asked the oil companies to invest in clean energy.
  You can take all the oil in the world--100 percent of it--and you can 
add in ANWR and all of the offshore we have in America today, and we 
have less than 3 percent of the oil in the world. We cannot produce our 
way out of the problems we have. Can we do more with production? Of 
course. That is the reason Democrats led the charge last year to bring 
into fruition more drilling off the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi.
  We know we have to do something to wean ourselves from the 21 million 
barrels of oil we use every day--and 65 percent of that we import. But 
the Bush administration has failed to address these concerns. Sadly, 
the Republican Members of Congress stood by his side cheering him on 
and cheering on the oil companies to make more money.
  The American people are suffering the consequences of the Bush 
administration's recklessness. As we speak, our airlines are on the 
verge of bankruptcy. What they have made a decision on last week--even 
though the airplanes were filled with passengers--is they have cut 20 
percent of the flights around the country. Why? Because with every 
airplane load of passengers they haul, they lose money. They want to 
have airplanes that use less fuel, so even though the airlines are 
filled with passengers, they are saying they are losing more money at 
that airline that is going to Missoula, MT, or Kansas City, and 
therefore they are going to stop the flight--even though it is full--
because that airline used more fuel than one taking somebody the same 
distance to someplace else. That sounds pretty crazy, but the airline 
industry is on the verge of not being able to continue. We cannot 
compete at this stage with the European airline industry. Here, we pay 
$1.40 for a gallon of aviation fuel; they pay 75 to 80 cents there. We 
cannot compete. The cost of fuel is exceeding half of the cost of an 
airline, and they simply cannot make it.

[[Page 11905]]

  It wasn't until Democrats won the majority that we finally were able 
to pass an energy bill last year that did some things. For the first 
time in 30 years, we increased the fuel economy standards and did a 
little bit to promote clean, American-made alternative fuels. We 
continued offering responsible solutions to reverse the energy crisis--
and there is an energy crisis.
  All this time, out there every day, we have the Sun shining, the wind 
blowing, and steam coming from the Earth, and we are doing nothing to 
capture that--virtually nothing. Why? Because we cannot get our 
Republican colleagues to join us in passing tax incentives to allow the 
great entrepreneurial spirit of America to invest in renewable fuels. 
We want to reverse the energy crisis. Yet our Republican colleagues 
inexplicably are refusing to work with us and prefer to simply continue 
to feed our addiction to oil. Some Republicans propose drilling in 
ANWR, but experts agree that we cannot drill our way out of this 
crisis. The ANWR thing won't pass. It has been decided that is not 
something we need to do.
  Last week, Republicans took to the floor and talked about high gas 
prices. We got their memo saying they want this global warming thing to 
be ``global warming and gas prices.'' When they had the chance to vote 
on that, they walked away from it. Mr. President, they have the 
opportunity today to vote to bring us to the point where we can start 
legislating on gas prices. I hope their rhetoric last week is an 
indication that they are going to allow us to proceed.
  This morning, we will vote to invoke cloture so we can move to pass 
the Consumer-First Energy Act. They have blocked this responsible 
legislation, or something similar to it, in the past. Maybe this time 
it will be different.
  Observers have said that now that gas is over $4 per gallon, it might 
be a tipping point for the American people. I hope it will be a tipping 
point for the Republicans in the Senate. We have SUVs that are now not 
being bought, which are manufactured by our manufacturers. We have 
hybrids coming into being, and that is good. Some people are abandoning 
their SUVs and cars--because they have no alternative--for public 
transportation. In States such as Montana or Nevada, where you have 
large areas of rural roads, people have to drive. There is no public 
transportation available. So public transportation is not an option for 
everybody, especially Americans living in rural areas and commuting 
long distances--areas not served by public transportation. No matter 
where we live or what our transportation options are, we all deserve a 
cleaner, safer, more affordable future.
  Following the lead of the American people, perhaps Republican 
Senators have reached their own tipping point and are now ready to 
embrace change with us. We hope so. The choice today is simple: They 
can continue to stand with the Bush-Cheney administration and the 
modern-day oil barons or they can join us on the side of the struggling 
American families who deserve better.
  I urge all of my colleagues--Democrats and Republicans--to support 
allowing us to proceed on this legislation. This is responsible 
legislation. We will end billions of dollars of tax breaks for these 
huge oil companies and executives who have been hauling in record 
salaries while the profits of the companies are skyrocketing. Second, 
we force the oil companies in this legislation to do their part by 
investing some of their profits in clean, affordable alternative 
energy. We protect the American people from price gouging. We stand up 
to OPEC and countries that are colluding together to keep oil prices 
high. We look at these margins. Many people believe the high cost of 
oil is sheer speculation.
  This legislation, I acknowledge, is not a silver bullet that will 
solve the energy crisis, but it will take a nip out of it. After 7\1/2\ 
years of the Bush-Cheney energy policy, there are no quick fixes. The 
road ahead won't be easy. This is a start to help lower prices and to 
help working families make ends meet. It is one small step on a long 
and uphill road to a cleaner, more affordable energy future and to 
restoring the affordability of the American dream to families all over 
our country.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader is 
recognized.

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