Check it out: Domenici Floor Statement on Rising Gas prices

[NVMojo]

For Immediate Release
April 26, 2006 Contact: Marnie Funk [phone]
Angela Harper [phone]

Domenici Floor Statement on Rising Gasoline Prices

Mr. President, I rise today to talk candidly about rising gasoline prices and what we can do about them. I have been deeply concerned about our reliance on foreign oil and the rising cost of energy for several years. That was one of the reasons I gave up my post as Chairman of the Budget Committee to become Chairman of the Energy Committee. I saw energy dependence and rising energy prices as a big problem for this country and I wanted to help solve it.

Last year, we passed the bipartisan Energy Policy Act of 2005. It was the first comprehensive energy bill in 12 years and it took Republicans and Democrats five years and a lot of hard work to get this bill passed. It’s an excellent bill and one I am proud of. This bill fixed a lot of our energy problems and in a year or two, it will fix a lot more.

Let me highlight a couple of remarkable we accomplished with our energy bill.

• We create a pilot program in seven western states to streamline the permitting process so oil and developers won’t have to wait years to develop their leases.

• We require eight billion gallons of ethanol be included in gasoline by 2012. This provision will help ethanol displace 2 billion barrels of foreign oil over the next six years.

• We provide several incentives for new nuclear energy that have prompted nine utilities and consortium to plan as 19 new nuclear power plants.

• The bill encourages energy from wind, solar and geothermal sources. Our incentives will bring more than 14,000 MW of wind energy could be online by the end of next year -- which is enough energy to power roughly five million homes for one year.

But oil and gasoline prices continued to climb after the energy bill was passed into law. A lot of that was due to hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

• We still have two refineries down because of the storm. That accounts for 5 percent of our refining capacity.

• We have also lost about 1.5 million barrels of oil per day because of damaged oil rigs – that’s a whopping 22 percent of our domestic production.

Global unrest and rising global demand have also driven up prices. Oil is a global commodity. Problems in producing nations like Venezuela, Nigeria and Iran have sharply driven up oil prices in recent weeks. Continued growing demand from countries like China and India have kept supplies and contributed to rising prices.

A little of this we can do something about. Most of it we can’t do much about unless we either wean ourselves off foreign oil – which will take several years to do – or dramatically increase our own production of oil, which Democrats in the House and Senate refuse to do.

Let’s talk about what we can do. President Bush proposed four things yesterday. I endorse every one of them.

He wants an aggressive investigation of fraud and manipulation. We mandated a similar investigation in the energy bill. I absolutely support the President’s call for an ongoing investigation into manipulation or cheating.

He wants to repeal certain tax breaks in the energy bill he says are unnecessary for oil companies. I agree! I’m prepared to lead efforts to do just that. I am happy to help repeal tax breaks for development of oil in foreign countries. I support his call to eliminate funding for research into deep water drilling. I have said consistently in recent days that I cannot support the concept of tax breaks for oil companies while some American families are searching their budgets for the extra cash they need to fill their gas tanks.

The President has announced that he will temporarily halt the fill of SPRO – a move I hope will free up about two million barrels of oil this summer.

If we had developed ANWR 10 years ago, when Congress passed ANWR legislation, we could be getting as much as 1 million barrels of oil a day from that region. But President Clinton vetoed that bill and congressional Democrats backed him. How much oil have we been losing out on for 10 years? Well, the estimated reserves in ANWR could replace what we import from Iran.

I stand here today and tell you that many of the Democrats who have come down to the floor for the past two days to blame the President and Republicans for our energy prices, are the same Democrats who have fought against the one thing they know will make a real impact on oil prices – increasing our own production.

These senators understand that today’s gasoline prices are driven by increasingly long-term speculation on global production. They understand that a strong signal on supply can drive prices up today and down tomorrow. They know that a vote to develop ANWR will have an immediate impact on oil prices, which in turn, will have an immediate impact on gasoline prices.

Just look at what happened to the energy markets yesterday after the President announced his four-prong plan. Energy prices fell.

Yet, these same senators fought again ANWR, fought against OCS production and have consistently fought against new energy production almost anywhere – production they know will ease our price and supply problems.

I have marked up a Lease Sale 181 bill that will develop oil and gas 100 miles off our coast. Democrats have threatened to filibuster the bill when it comes to the floor.

The Massachusetts delegation continues to block the Weaver Cove LNG facility – a facility proposed for Fall River that would provide 400,000 mcf of natural gas per day. That’s enough natural gas to ease price and supply pressure for most of New England.

Instead, they propose a gasoline tax holiday. I find it interesting that it is Democrats who want to temporarily repeal the gasoline taxes since it was Democrats who have voted over the years to increase those same taxes.

Well, I can support that idea. I like the idea of helping American families keeping some of that money they are spending at the gas pump these days. But we use that money to build roads and mass transit. The federal government is going to have to make those revenues up somewhere. So let me propose this idea: Let’s let oil companies make up the difference.

Let’s open up ANWR and use the revenue from the bonus lease sales to make up the revenue we’re helping consumer keep. I think it makes sense. Democrats are blaming oil companies for the rising gasoline prices. Let’s make them pay – and at the same time, let’s produce enough of our own energy to ease gas prices at American pumps regardless of what happens in Iran, Venezuela or Nigeria.

I say let’s marry the tax break Democrats want with the real solution – environmentally responsible energy development. That way, Democrats get their quick, brief tax break and Republicans get the opportunity to finish the rest of President Bush’s national energy policy by providing the sound energy production that we have been saying for years is absolutely necessary to ease supply and demand constraints in the face of rising global demand.

We did what was politically possible with the energy bill last year. And make no mistake, that bill was very significant. But we knew there was more to do. We knew that we had to increase our domestic energy production. That’s why I continued to work on ANWR this year. That’s why I introduced and marked up in committee my Lease Sale 181 bill.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, let’s finish the job now. Let’s work together to give the American people a complete national energy policy that includes the responsible production we need to keep energy prices low for the coming years while we develop the leading-edge technologies and fuels that will move us away from foreign oil forever.

energy.senate.gov

[jpak]

1. Opening ANWR will reduce gas prices - LOL!!!!!!

If oil is selling at $75 a barrel on the global market - oil produced from ANWR won't be sold for a penny less.

Nice try moran.

[NVMojo]

2. I agree. The guy's a moran!!!

"I say let’s marry the tax break Democrats want with the real solution – environmentally responsible energy development. That way, Democrats get their quick, brief tax break and Republicans get the opportunity to finish the rest of President Bush’s national energy policy by providing the sound energy production that we have been saying for years is absolutely necessary to ease supply and demand constraints in the face of rising global demand."

[kestrel91316]

8. Besides, it will take TEN YEARS to get a drop from ANWR, if we

start the project TODAY.

[Warpy]

3. Grandstanding gasbag!

Trust me, when push comes to shove, he'll vote with the oil companies and against this country and its people.

He's GOP, through and through.

[JohnWxy]

4. Republicans have prevented enactment of new CAFE standards

or exending them to SUVs. Had that been done we wouldn't be looking at price increases now.

http://www.arcticwildlife.org/alaskawild177.htm


SENATE REJECTS NEW CAFE (CORPORATE AVERAGE FUEL ECONOMY) STANDARDS

March 18, 2002


The Senate voted decisively to reject new fuel efficiency standards. In a 62-38 vote, the Senate voted to adopt an amendment sponsored by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Kit Bond (R-MO) that would put the responsibility of any new CAFE standards on the National Highway, Transportation, and Safety Administration (NHTSA). The bill sets a two-year timetable for NHTSA to develop some standard, but it does not instruct NHTSA to also develop a timeline for that standard to be set. Congress has in the past forbid NHTSA from even studying new CAFE standards. On its own, NHTSA has been reluctant in the past to deal with the issue.

In the face of a sure defeat, a competing proposal from Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and Ernest Hollings (D-SC) that would have required the first increase in CAFE standards since 1985, was not offered. Increasing the CAFE standards as called for in the Kerry / Hollings proposal would have resulted in oil savings much quicker than any oil from the Arctic Refuge would come on line.Estimates of the effects of the Kerry / Hollings proposal put the savings at one million barrels a day by 2015.

Following the vote on the Levin / Bond amendment, the Senate then voted to pass an amendment by Senator Zell Miller (D-GA) to specifically exempt pickup trucks from any new standards at any point, leaving them at 20.4 mpg until Congress votes to change it.

In a substantial show of hypocrisy, Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK) stated that since Arctic Refuge supporters have been saying all along that the best way to achieve independence from foreign oil would be through increased CAFE standards, "We're rapidly diminishing excuses for not opening ,". Senator Murkowski voted for both the Levin / Bond amendment and the Miller pickup exemption amendment.

Why have the Repubs fought new CAFE standards, take a look:

[zeemike]

5. Domenici Has always been in the pockets of big oil

So whatever he is for is good for them.He is actually more Texan than New Mexican

[JohnWxy]

6. Republicans (most of them) are just lobbyists with offices in the Capitol

building (and the White House).

[NNadir]

7. He states how many gallons of ethanol ADM will produce over 6 years.

Why not claim 100 years and claim energy independence.

The Repukes have lost their minds.

[kestrel91316]

9. Hey, Domenici, listen up dumbs--t:

It takes REAL leadership to recognize that CONSERVATION and FUEL EFFICIENCY are the cornerstones of energy independence.

Dumbass.

I could spit nails right now.