America is Losing her Independence
AMERICA IS LOSING HER INDEPENDENCE -- (House of Representatives - June 28, 2005)
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, some people have loosely thrown the word ``freedom'' around here tonight. Well, America's freedom is declining because we are so increasingly dependent on imported petroleum. As oil prices rise, for super it is over $2.50 a gallon now at the pump and historic levels of $60 a barrel, I must rise tonight to say how sick I am of imported petroleum governing this economy. Look what it has done to our beloved republic economically, politically, environmentally, strategically. Rising oil prices control this economy. The lack of growth, every time that price ticks up, the stock market becomes very uncomfortable.
Oil prices keep us strategically locked to dictatorships all across this globe. That causes limitation in freedoms. What about the impact that oil prices have binding us to China and Iran now, looking at what is happening there, and the proposed Unocal purchase by China right at the ankles of Unocal's investments in Afghanistan right next door, as we become players in this 21st century oil market. America, wake up. Look at who gets the profit from your expenditures out of your wallet. Rising oil prices makes our economy vulnerable here at home. We lose more jobs, and the stock market remains very, very unsteady.
Rising oil prices mean we knock points off economic growth. Think about who gets those profits off those rising prices as our young men and women in the armed forces occupy the Middle East and Central Asia where most of our imported oil comes from. Now, over 60 percent of what we consume is imported from abroad; a majority of what is used in this country is imported. We are not free.
In fact, our soldiers are guarding more and more every day oil and gas pipelines from Afghanistan to Georgia to Turkey to places most Americans have not been very familiar with. U.S. foreign policy and military involvements in these areas parallel that of our global oil corporations. Unocal is not the only one. Chevron, Exxon, Arco, the names go on.
Now, this week, the Communist-owned oil company of China has decided it wants to pay more for Unocal than it is worth. Unocal does not drill anything in this country anymore; their investments are all over the world. Remember, Afghanistan was a key transit route before we got there with the military, the 18,000 of our soldiers who are stationed there now; Afghanistan was a key transit route from Unocal from the Caspian Sea Basin. They have been at this a long time. Sadly, U.S. foreign policy in that country has mirrored Unocal's satisfaction with the Taliban government there. They tried to be friends.
In fact, Unocal had plans for a new pipeline winding a far-ranging path from Turkmenistan's gas fields to the Arabian Sea. The giant oil company built cooperative relationships with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, as did the United States Government. When we supported the Taliban, as recently as 1999, U.S. taxpayers paid the salary of oil-hungry Taliban government officials. Ask yourself about that.
But as soon as the Taliban began making things a little difficult for Unocal, demanding more money for infrastructure and access to some of the oil themselves in the summer of 2001, well, our government's position began to change on the Taliban. Shortly thereafter, the Taliban became much more vulnerable after the September 11 attack, and the Bush administration was able to secure support for invasion of that country, but then maneuvered a former Unocal consultant named Khalized to be the first ambassador to Afghanistan and, guess what? Now he was just nominated and confirmed as ambassador to Iraq. Strange coincidence.
Ask yourself, who gets the profits off the rising gas prices you are paying for. China has raised its bid to purchase the U.S. oil giant Unocal, and what a twist of fate this is. It was U.S. oil dependency that drew us to secure Central Asia for oil, and now we find ourselves in the awkward position of having China buy us out. China is trying to trump our energy investments in that area because it is right next door to them, trying to buy Unocal to access what the U.S. had hoped to gain by the Central Asian invasion.
China is also courting favor with Iran. They are trying to trump us there to gain an energy edge as the Bush administration creates more barriers with Iran. Ask yourselves, who is getting the profits and why has the Bush administration made us more dependent on foreign oil, up another 10 percent, up to 63 percent now.
Mr. Speaker, America is losing her independence.
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