CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight - Transcript

CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight - Transcript
Wednesday, June 15, 2005

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PILGRIM: Well, another big financial worry for Americans is the sky-high price of gas. It's costing an average $2.13 a gallon at the pumps these days, just 16 cents off the all-time high, and one goal of the energy bill, currently under debate in the Senate, is to decrease America's dependence on expensive foreign fuel.

Well, Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington is pushing aggressively for changing the dangerous habit and she joins us now from the Washington bureau. Thank you very much for being with us.

SEN. MARIA CANTWELL, (D) WASHINGTON: Good evening.

PILGRIM: What would you like to see? What's your ideal scenario?

CANTWELL: Well, right now we're importing about 58 percent of our oil from foreign countries. We'd like to see that reduced. In 20 years, we're going to be produ-we're going to be importing 68 percent. So, what my amendment does, and I hope that our energy bill that passes the Senate will include this, will say that we want to decrease from that current 58 percent our consumption of foreign oil, and if we set a national goal to do this, I think that we can achieve it.

John Kennedy said let's put a man on the moon and a decade later we were doing that. So, I think we have the ingenuity in America, it's just about having the resolve from the national level.

PILGRIM: How do we cut back?

CANTWELL: Well, one of the sections of the energy bill deals with biofuels and I think a lot of Americans feel right now there isn't much competition on gasoline prices. They would like to see alternative fuels be produced competitively and challenge the price of foreign oil. I think that's a good idea and it puts American farmers in the fuel business.

PILGRIM: What about ethanol? What are we doing about that? And what should be done?

CANTWELL: Well, one of the challenges that we have is we can't say that our future energy strategy is going to come from five midwestern states. So, while we can get ethanol from corn products, what we need to do is the research and development that will allow us to have a variety of alternative fuels from a variety of products. That way you can drive down the costs.

For example, Washington state right now, we sell biofuel, but we probably add 20 cents to 50 cents on the gallon by transporting product from the midwest to the northwest. So, if we produce biofuels regionally, that can be a big savings, and I think it will be one of the big opportunities for us to get off our overdependence.

PILGRIM: There's a worry, though, that if you overregulate this, you're going to mess up the market and things will not be as cheap as they should be.

CANTWELL: Well, I think right now, people in Seattle are paying almost $2.30 a gallon, and right now, they just want to know that our federal government has a goal-off-to get off that overdependence. And right now, the trajectory is-we're at 58 percent foreign imports. Soon we'll be at 68 percent, and it doesn't look like gasoline prices are going to go down.

When you think about the Chinese demand for oil, it's likely that we'll be-that $50 a barrel will be a luxury. So, we want to make sure we're continuing to reduce our consumption of foreign oil, looking at alternatives, getting more fuel efficiency, and helping the American economy, because we just can't afford the high energy costs.

PILGRIM: We're almost out of time but I want to point out, the Senate Energy Committee proposal is considerably less ambitious than yours. What can be done to reconcile this discrepancy?

CANTWELL: Well, currently the bill would have us, instead of 58 percent of our oil coming from imports, would have us at 60 percent of our imports coming from foreign sources. So, what we need to do is to pass a goal as part of this legislation that says that we are going to pursue all measures to actually start reducing our foreign consumption of oil. That way the American economy will be stronger. Instead of depending on these countries like Saudi Arabia, and Iran, and others, Libya, for our oil supply, we will significantly reduce that. And I think that should be a national goal. I think it's one that we can achieve.

PILGRIM: We applaud it. Thank you very much. Maria Cantwell, thanks for joining us.

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