[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6471]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                IT'S TIME TO STOP RELYING ON FOREIGN OIL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, with gas prices skyrocketing to over $4 and 
$5 a gallon, threatening our fragile economic recovery, let me retrace 
the history of U.S. economic recessions and unemployment since the 
1970s and their relation to global oil markets and oil prices. Both in 
1973, during the Nixon administration, and then during 1978, during the 
Presidency of Jimmy Carter, America's economy was subjected to serious 
harm by global oil kingdoms on whom our Nation already had become too 
dependent. When gas prices eventually doubled, with the unemployment 
that followed, President Carter described that major oil price squeeze 
as the ``moral equivalent of war.''
  This chart very vividly shows, how rising unemployment, which is the 
blue line, follows every major oil price increase since the 1970s. Yes, 
every spike of gas price increase creates a path to high unemployment 
that follows. That certainly was true back in 2008, when in fact the 
oil prices spiked over $4 dollars per gallon and unemployment shot up, 
triggering our current recession as well. President Carter lost his 
reelection to Ronald Reagan, who won on a campaign of blaming Carter 
for a ``misery index.'' Back in those days the misery index was 
explained as the sum of unemployment and inflation rates but that sum 
actually was due to gas price sticker shock. When gas prices rise above 
$4 a gallon, that very fact triggers major unemployment here at home. 
How many times does our American economy have to be hit over the head 
with a baseball bat before we recognize our conundrum? We should be 
working full steam ahead to become energy independent here at home 
rather than coveting our neighbor's goods.
  If we look at the continuing use of petroleum inside our economy--
other than the recession we're now in, where we've had a little bit of 
a dip in imports due to decreased demand--all the way going back to the 
1970s, every year, we've consumed more imported petroleum. The red 
lines show how much more is imported each year. Rather, why don't we 
invest those trillions and trillions of dollars we are spending in the 
Middle East and around the world to import that oil right here in our 
own country?

                              {time}  1030

  We literally could rebuild energy production capacity, and much more, 
from one end of our country to the other and create millions of jobs 
doing it.
  America's chief strategic vulnerability is our dependence on imported 
energy. How many more Americans have to die to keep those oil lanes 
open? It is no coincidence we have sent our soldiers to fight where the 
greatest global oil deposits are located.
  My oath is to protect our Nation against all enemies, foreign and 
domestic. America's petrol dependence is an enemy on both fronts: 
foreign and domestic. It is no secret that there are some big business 
interests, including many global oil companies, oil speculators, and 
financiers trading in those petrodollars, that are making a killing, in 
many ways, off of America's dependency.
  In 2008, rising oil prices tripwired the Great Recession we are 
currently enduring. And we know recent price hikes threaten our 
recovery just as our Nation and our people are struggling to get back 
on their feet. Look at the profits that the major oil companies are 
ringing in from gas prices at over $4 a gallon. Just in the last 
quarter, Exxon raked in $10.7 billion, BP brought in $7.2 billion, 
Chevron earned over $6 billion, and the list goes on and on--in one 
quarter. One quarter. These huge profits at the expense of our people 
and nation.
  The American people suffer great hardship every time this petroleum 
addiction rears its ugly head, and it has done so every decade, 
consistently. The situation keeps getting worse, if anyone is paying 
attention. In effect, our American Republic becomes a gasoline hostage 
and a sticker cash cow anytime the global oil markets need an infusion 
of oil cash or raise prices due to supply aberrations. We simply can't 
leave America and our people this vulnerable. And we can't keep killing 
our soldiers to keep those oil lanes open.
  The biggest force in the world is inertia. People don't want to 
change, or don't know how to change our predicament, or don't want to 
change this losing strategy for our Nation. It's no secret that some 
interests are making a whole lot of money off the present equation: ``I 
win, you lose.''
  Mr. Speaker, if these economic interests aren't tamed and aren't 
enemies of our Republic, I don't know what is. Bill Greider wrote a 
book, it's time to ``Come Home, America.'' Let's do that by restoring 
energy independence here at home and, indeed, our very liberty.

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