[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8820-8821]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             ENERGY POLICY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, yesterday and the day before, I came 
to the floor and noted the many troubling signs of a persistently weak 
economy and how I believe the actions of Democrats here in Washington 
are seriously undermining the recovery Americans desperately want. I 
proposed some things that could be done about it right now.
  The President says he wakes up every morning asking himself what he 
can do to create jobs and help businesses succeed. Let me offer a few 
suggestions. It is not that difficult, really. I am sure the job 
creators and the workers the President meets with are telling him the 
same thing they tell all of us every day. Most people think Washington 
is too intrusive, that it imposes too many job-stifling regulations and 
sends too many mixed signals today for anybody to plan for tomorrow. We 
know that many who would hire right now are actually holding back 
because they do not know what else to expect in terms of regulations, 
in terms of taxes, in terms of mandates, and in terms of fees. In fact, 
we just learned that a significant percentage of businesses plan to 
drop their employee health coverage--something the administration 
assured us repeatedly people did not have to fear. Unexpected jolts 
such as these are causing confusion and anxiety, and they are freezing 
job creators and entrepreneurs in place.
  Beyond that, many Americans are also seriously concerned about a 
government in Washington that spends trillions more than it takes in 
and a national debt that this year will exceed our entire national 
economy. Many people are also understandably outraged by the fact that 
the party that occupies the White House and runs the Senate has not 
even taken the time to put together a budget or any other kind of plan 
to get our Nation's fiscal house in order. After all, if the government 
does not plan ahead, how can job creators? If the White House does not 
have a plan to pay down the debt or preserve entitlements, why should 
people have any confidence that something will be done?
  None of this is news to the President or to the Democrats in 
Congress. The fact is, the President and Democrats in Congress know as 
well as I do what employers and workers need to prosper and to create 
prosperity and jobs. They just don't seem to want to do it, and that is 
the problem. To be blunt, people wonder whether the President is really 
focused on jobs when so many of his policies seem to be aimed at 
destroying them and where there is so much he can do right now to 
create tens of thousands of good American jobs.
  Yesterday, I spoke about trade and how, even though the President 
admits that pending trade agreements with South Korea, Panama, and 
Colombia have the potential to create tens of thousands of new jobs and 
boost American businesses, he refuses to move on them in an apparent 
favor to his union allies.
  This morning, I would like to focus on the two sides of the 
President's energy policy in which he publicly claims to support 
greater domestic production and the jobs that come with it even as he 
seems to do everything he can behind the scenes to block production and 
to kill energy-related jobs right here at home.
  The President says he is a proponent of domestic energy production, 
but, let's be honest, he has not shown it. This should not surprise 
anyone. This is an administration, after all, that appointed an Energy 
Secretary who, a month after the President's election, said, ``Somehow 
we need to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels 
in Europe.'' Since then, the administration's policies have helped us 
get there. Not only have gas prices skyrocketed, but the 
administration's policies are also hindering the creation of thousands 
of good private sector jobs that so many Americans desperately need. 
Let's look at just a couple.
  Everyone knows that in the aftermath of the oilspill in the gulf last 
year, the President imposed a 6-month moratorium on new deepwater 
drilling. We can dispute the wisdom of a temporary ban for purposes of 
a safety and environmental review. What we cannot dispute is that the 
impact on jobs and the Nation's economy has been quite severe, nor can 
we deny that the White House has effectively continued the ban even 
after its time was up and the review was complete. It was only after 
the courts got involved and months of political pressure from both 
Democrats and Republicans that the administration reluctantly began 
issuing new permits months after the ban was supposedly lifted. And 
even as gas prices hover around $4 a gallon, permitting is still well 
below prespill levels and energy production in the gulf is expected to 
slow.
  Senator Vitter tells us that the administration's anemic permitting 
in the gulf for domestic energy production threatens nearly 100,000 
jobs every year in addition to the many thousands of jobs that could be 
lost every year in industries that are related to or are dependent on 
energy. Senator Vitter has also told us about one estimate suggesting 
that 23 wells per month are needed just to maintain current production 
levels in the shallow waters of the gulf and that even after the 
moratorium was supposedly lifted, the administration has averaged fewer 
than 2 per month.
  As for deepwater drilling, the administration has issued a grand 
total of two new deepwater permits--just two. The other 13 have been 
for work that was already permitted prior to the moratorium.
  The administration's lack of support for energy production in deep 
water has led to five rigs simply pulling up stakes over the past year 
and moving

[[Page 8821]]

their tax dollars and their workers elsewhere in the world. This is 
just one of the ways the administration is holding back job creation in 
the energy industry. This is to say nothing of the administration's 
actions with respect to Alaska's Outer Continental Shelf, which, 
according to one estimate, could create an average of 54,700 new jobs 
annually for decades, adding billions in pay and tax revenue.
  Let's not forget that the administration's impact would be even worse 
if it had its way and raised taxes on energy producers, which would 
have only served to strengthen foreign competitors, raise gas prices 
even more, put energy independence further out of reach, and kill more 
American jobs. By one estimate, the energy tax Democrats still want to 
impose on energy producers could cost 154,000 jobs and $68 billion in 
lost wages.
  For 2\1/2\ years, Democrats in Washington have paid lipservice to the 
idea of job creation even as they have pursued an agenda that is 
radically opposed to it. We can see this when it comes to trade, as I 
indicated yesterday, and we can see it when it comes to energy, as I 
have discussed this morning. Unless Democrats change their priorities 
and their policies, the threats of a downgrade will not go away. The 
debt will not get any smaller and businesses will not create the kinds 
of jobs Americans need. The President can talk all he wants about the 
economy, but it is time he starts looking at the impact of his own 
policies on the economy.
  We need to change course, and a good place to start is with trade and 
with energy. American businesses want to expand and want to hire. Here 
are two areas where we can help them do it right now.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Nebraska.
  Mr. JOHANNS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 15 
minutes.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________