[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2917-2919]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               GAS PRICES

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I am glad to be able to come to the 
floor. I wish to talk about a subject that was talked about to me a lot 
during the Presidents Day break back in Georgia. I spent most of that 
week traveling in my State, going to townhall meetings, listening to 
Georgians from Savannah, GA, to Murray County, GA, and everywhere in 
between. It was absolutely easy to tell what the No. 1 issue for the 
average American or the average Georgia family is; that is, what the 
price of gasoline is doing to their budget.
  Gasoline prices continue to escalate. In fact, I have a Chevrolet 
Silverado pickup truck that I use from time to time and I had to fill 
it last weekend. It cost $78 to fill it, and it wasn't totally empty. 
That is a big pricetag to fill a pickup truck. When I think of every 
carpenter or farmer or landscaper or student taking their goods back to 
school to their dormitory room and how much they have to pay for 
gasoline to deliver those goods and services or that furniture, I 
realize how harmful current gas prices are and I fear how high they are 
going to go.
  We need a comprehensive energy policy in the United States of 
America. I was listening to the distinguished majority whip speak 
before me. He made an interesting comment about the Keystone Pipeline. 
He said, even if we approve the Keystone Pipeline, it would not do 
anything for gas prices today. He is right because we have to build the 
pipeline. But if we had approved it 2 years ago and it was operating, 
we would have 700,000 barrels of petroleum more a day coming into the 
United States. So to say that just because it would not be ready today 
doesn't help gas prices is not keeping our eye on the ball.
  What we have to recognize is, in the absence of a comprehensive 
policy, in the absence of foresight, in the absence of putting all the 
general items on the table that generate energy, we are putting off the 
day in which the United States of America is energy independent. 
Because we are not energy independent, then what goes on in Iran, in 
the Strait of Hormuz, and in Venezuela affects the speculation on 
gasoline and petroleum which affects the prices of gasoline in the 
United States.
  I am not one of these ``burn gas right and left, drill as much as you 
can, fossil fuels are fine.'' I know we have problems with carbon. I 
drive a hybrid vehicle, not because I am trying to drive a point but 
because it makes sense. Anytime you can reduce carbon, that makes 
sense. But you cannot eliminate it. You cannot eliminate it. What we 
have to do is we have to put all sources of energy on the table. And 
one of those is to continue to explore for gasoline and petroleum in 
the domestic United States of America--off the Gulf of Mexico, off of 
our coastline, in our national lands that we own where we know we have 
shale oil and where we also know we have natural gas.
  That exploration ought to be replete throughout the country, so we 
are expanding our supply and reducing our dependence on foreign 
imports. The best way to lower the price of gasoline in the future for 
Georgians and for Americans is for the Congress of the United States 
and the President of the United States to have a comprehensive energy 
policy that embraces all forms of energy.
  To the credit of the President, he approved not too long ago the loan 
guarantees on reactors 3 and 4 at Plant Vogtle. They will be the first 
nuclear reactors built in the United States of America since Three Mile 
Island. Nuclear energy is a safe, reliable, carbon-free--carbon-free--
generation of energy. Every time we can expand our nuclear capability 
we are lessening the pressure on domestic and foreign oil to be burned.
  We know in the Haynesville shale and the Marcellus shale, which has 
been discovered in Pennsylvania and Louisiana and Texas, that we have 
gone from having a finite supply of natural gas to an infinite supply. 
Yet, because there is some contest over whether hydraulic fracturing is 
good or not good, we are not exploring that gasoline as we should or 
that natural gas as we should. We should be exploring it as much as 
possible, because it is a cleaner burning fuel than liquid petroleum 
and gasoline. We ought to be doing renewable energy wherever it makes 
sense. But we have seen renewable energy has its limits. We spent $6 
billion a year subsidizing ethanol in hopes that it would have reduced 
foreign imports, but it has not. It has had its own problems with two-
cycle engines. But ethanol has a place. It is scalable on the farm in 
some cases. That is a good source of energy.
  Solar is a good source of energy where it works. But it only works as 
a supplement. It is not a primary supply or source. And wind, great. 
But it is only great in the Midwest and down toward the Southwest. But 
we ought to be using and encouraging it.
  What we ought to be doing is encouraging all forms of exploration, 
all forms of generation, and all of them domestically in the United 
States of America. That will bring down gas prices.

[[Page 2918]]

  The distinguished majority whip was right: It will not bring it down 
today, because we have put off having an energy policy. But once we 
finally develop an energy policy, and we stick to it, and we explore 
all forms of renewable energy and all forms of fossil fuel and all 
forms of coal, and we enhance nuclear, then we will have a plethora of 
energy and we will have a lower price and less competition with foreign 
oil and foreign petroleum, which is where the United States of America 
needs to be.
  Right now, we all realize what is going on in the Middle East is the 
root cause of most of the increase in the cost of oil, because of 
speculation. Every time we can improve our position and be free of 
those influences is better for the United States of America and, most 
importantly, it is better for the average citizens we all represent.
  My message from the people I represent in Georgia, the ones I talked 
to all during the Presidents Day recess and that week is: Do everything 
you can to expand your supply of energy wherever you can find it. Take 
us out of a dependence on foreign imports and get us independent of 
foreign oil; that will bring down the price of oil. As a byproduct, 
that will be in the best national security interests of the people of 
the United States of America.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Manchin). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, as February came to a close, it left 
behind an unfortunate new record, $3.73 per gallon, the national 
average, for unleaded gasoline, the highest ever recorded during this 
month. Prior to this morning's drop of three-tenths of a cent, gas 
prices had been on the rise for 27 straight days. In just 3 years, gas 
prices have doubled, and they are not stopping there. Back home in 
Arkansas, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline is up over 
25 cents from a month ago. Many analysts are predicting we will hit $4 
a gallon by summer.
  Think about what that does to the economy. For our small business 
owners and farmers, it means much higher overhead. Those costs 
ultimately get passed on to the consumers. In very dire cases, which 
many of our small businesses are facing today due to reduced profit 
margins, threats of higher taxes and increased regulations, high gas 
prices could be the final straw.
  It puts extra pressure on budgets of already cash-strapped local 
governments. Just the other day I was reading a story from the 
Booneville Democrat that documented the negative effects the price of 
gas has on Logan County, AR. The county judge, Gus Young, noted if gas 
prices reach $4, it is ``going to take away from the other things that 
need to be done.''
  In Blytheville, AR, which is a 300-mile trek from Booneville, those 
same concerns are being voiced. In the Blytheville Courier News, former 
mayor Barrett Harrison described how in recent years, despite efforts 
to use more fuel-efficient vehicles and to cut down on idle time, the 
city would still end up having to amend the budget at the end of the 
year due to the high fuel costs.
  For hard-working Arkansans, it is changing the way they live, and not 
for the better. It is especially painful for our seniors and single 
parents who live on fixed incomes. The high price of gas is one of the 
top issues I am hearing about in letters, calls, and during my visits 
across the State. I also recently posed the question about how the 
rising price of gasoline in Arkansas is affecting them on my Facebook 
page. I want to share a few of the responses I received.
  Tim in Rogers, AR said, ``The more we have to pay for gas, the less 
money we have for the other necessities and pleasures of life and 
living.''
  Melody in central Arkansas said it costs her family ``nearly sixty-
five dollars to fill up their truck'' and said they have limited their 
driving to only their doctor in Hot Springs and the grocery store.
  And it goes on from there. Many respondents said that it limits their 
spending at places like the grocery store and will affect their 
vacation plans. The overwhelming common thread in those responses is 
that Washington needs to do something about the high cost of gas.
  There is no denying that rising fuel prices are hurting Americans and 
further complicating our efforts to revitalize the economy. There is 
also no denying that we are not moving fast enough to address these 
concerns. Americans want to know why, while their gas bills mount, 
Washington still does not have an energy policy. It is past time that 
we move forward on one and that begins with increasing our energy 
production here at home.
  We have the largest recoverable resources of oil, gas and coal of any 
nation on the planet. America's recoverable resources are larger than 
the combined supply of Saudi Arabia, China and Canada. Despite that, we 
depend on hostile regimes--and nations that have agendas that are often 
at odds with our own--for much of our oil.
  The current tension between Israel and Iran only serves to make 
matters worse. If Israel strikes Iran, there is a good chance that the 
Iranians could attack Saudi Arabia's oil fields to retaliate against 
the West.
  It doesn't have to be this way. The Keystone XL Pipeline, Arctic 
National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, and drilling in the eastern Gulf of 
Mexico alone would produce 3 million barrels of oil per day. The lack 
of will in Washington to increase production here at home is 
unnecessary. It is a literal road block. It prevents our economy from 
picking up, increases the costs Americans pay for fuel, and it creates 
an enormous liability for our national and economic security.
  President Obama has said that increased domestic oil production is 
unnecessary as he contends it is at the highest it has been in 8 years. 
However, you only get those numbers by relying heavily on production on 
private lands in North Dakota, Texas and Alaska. We simply are not 
utilizing the resources we have been blessed with on public lands.
  We can make a major dent in the problem simply by opening the Outer 
Continental Shelf and ANWR to drilling in an environmentally 
responsible way. The Outer Continental Shelf alone is estimated to 
contain enough oil and natural gas to meet America's energy needs for 
about 60 years. Energy exploration and production in ANWR would take 
place on just a small portion of the 1.5 million-acre northern coastal 
plain, yet will allow us to safely produce 900,000 barrels of oil per 
day for the next 30 years. I have been there. I have seen firsthand 
that this can be done in an environmentally safe way.
  Similarly, the Keystone Pipeline would transport 700,000 barrels of 
oil per day from Canada to U.S. refineries in the gulf coast. And it 
too can be constructed and run in an environmentally safe manner. 
Tapping into Canada's oil sands--one of the world's largest oil 
reserves--would help ease our dependence on hostile regimes for oil. As 
global demand for oil surges and the Canadians increase production, the 
addition of the Keystone pipeline would allow us to get reliable and 
secure oil from our largest trading partner and trusted ally.
  Unfortunately, President Obama has punted on every opportunity we 
have given him to move the Keystone Pipeline forward. That is why I am 
supporting legislation to approve the project under Congress' authority 
enumerated in the commerce clause. This same Congressional authority 
was used to move the Alaska Pipeline forward 40 years ago, which has 
dramatically increased the amount of oil produced here at home.
  I have long supported legislation that puts a heavy investment into 
researching wind, solar, hydrogen and other technologies. These will 
ultimately ease our dependence on foreign oil and gas. But we need 
relief now and American oil is necessary and available.

[[Page 2919]]

  For the foreseeable future, our economy will rely heavily on fossil 
fuels. While we certainly need to encourage the market for alternative 
energy sources, it has yet to be fully developed. But there is no 
denying that by stalling domestic production, we create an unnecessary 
burden on an already weak economy and are hurting our efforts to meet 
our energy needs. We need to lift the moratorium on offshore oil 
development, open ANWR for exploration and move the Keystone Pipeline 
forward instead of further postponing the decision.
  As I mentioned earlier, the people of Arkansas are demanding action 
from Washington. They are frustrated by the higher totals that appear 
on the receipts every time they go to fill up their gas tank. They are 
tired of seeing more and more of their disposable income being eaten up 
at the pump. Let's start providing them relief by increasing production 
here at home.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
  Mrs. BOXER. What is the order at this time?

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