[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11969]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               GAS PRICE RELIEF FOR CONSUMERS ACT OF 2008

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Wisconsin (Mr. Kagen) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Speaker, last month, I had the opportunity and the 
pleasure to work with the bipartisan majority of 221 Democrats and 103 
Republicans, including the entire Wisconsin delegation, to pass the Gas 
Price Relief for Consumers Act of 2008. This will in time decrease gas 
prices for everyone and will make certain that no one is able to 
manipulate oil prices and to control the free markets.
  One year ago, crude oil was selling for $65 a barrel, and all of us 
were paying around $3 per gallon at the pump. We thought things were 
bad then. The cost per barrel for crude oil has more than doubled since 
last year while, this week, we are forced to pay in northeast Wisconsin 
over $4 per gallon. Yet this is taking place during a recession when 
demand for oil is down. This is not the way of the free marketplace.
  Like you, I was more than a little surprised to learn that, during 
this past January of 2008, we had so much oil right here in the United 
States that American oil companies were exporting 335,000 barrels of 
diesel per day to Europe and to Mexico. Enough is enough.
  The Gas Price Relief for Consumers Act that we passed would allow us 
to attack gas price manipulation, something we do not currently have 
the authority to do. It would authorize as well an antitrust task force 
within the Department of Justice to begin to root out any 
anticompetitive activities and price manipulation in the speculative 
and volatile futures markets. For the first time, it would instruct the 
Federal Government to evaluate the damaging effects of past oil company 
mergers and acquisitions and these effects that they have had on our 
families and on small businesses alike.
  This is the first step in beginning to reestablish a free and open 
marketplace in the world's oil delivery, something that Teddy Roosevelt 
attempted in the early 1900s.
  My friends, we are today no further advanced in establishing a free 
and open marketplace than we were in 1910, but all of us who live in 
Wisconsin are struggling to fill our tanks today, and we need relief as 
fast as possible, and that's why I and an overwhelming number of my 
colleagues from both sides of the aisle passed this act to begin to cut 
gas prices immediately, realizing it will require some time to reverse 
the failed energy policies of the recent past. If studies show we don't 
have enough oil refineries, then let's ask the question: Is it time 
that we build refineries on each side of the Rocky Mountains?
  Skyrocketing gasoline prices are crippling family budgets and profits 
for small businesses everywhere in the country. Our long-term energy 
solutions, however, must include creating a new national energy policy, 
implementing provisions like those I fought to include in the new farm 
bill that will promote alternative sources of energy, leaving behind, 
once and for all, all of the losing ideas that we have had, namely, the 
drill-and-burn and drill-and-burn philosophy and policy of the Bush and 
Cheney administration. We cannot drill and burn our way out of this 
energy crisis.
  Although there are many causes for today's record-high gas prices, we 
should not be afraid to take on specific steps today to ensure that 
prices for middle class families and small businesses come down. That 
is why we have given the Department of Justice these new tools to, in 
effect, put a cop back on the beat, making certain that those who are 
profiting from our pain at the pump will be held accountable.
  With regard to the facts of the situation, let's look at some of the 
facts here, at the United States' oil facts. We, the people, have 
leased 42 million acres to oil companies, and of the 42 million acres, 
they are using 12 million. What else is going on?
  Since the year 1980, we have lost over 200 refineries, decreasing our 
capability to produce more oil and diesel when we require it. What else 
is going on?
  The outer banks. Everyone is talking about leasing the outer banks, 
the Outer Continental Shelf. Well, 82 percent of that property has 
already been leased, and they're not drilling. Some people have asked: 
Why aren't we drilling in ANWR? By drilling in ANWR, what are we going 
to get?
  This is an old idea. If we took all of the oil out of ANWR, it would 
drop, economists say, the cost at the pump by one to two pennies per 
gallon, and that would take place 10 or 20 years from now. Furthermore, 
there is no guarantee whatsoever that the companies bringing the oil 
out of ANWR would deliver it to the United States citizens. It may go 
to Japan or to Europe or to the highest bidder. So ANWR and drilling, 
drilling and burning is not the solution.
  What is going on in our marketplace? Recent investigations and 
testimony here in the House and in the Senate have shown that there is 
a concentration where pension funds are now beginning to invest more 
and more since the year 2000 into our commodities futures market. So it 
is now time to ask the question: Isn't it appropriate that we ask you, 
if you're buying oil, to take possession of what you buy?

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