FTC Investigation

FTC INVESTIGATION

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this morning the President of the United States held a press conference and announced the following: Prices at the pumps reflect our addiction to oil.

So it turns out it is our fault. It turns out it is the fault of the consumers. It is the fault of families and businesses and farmers that the prices have gone so high. I don't think so. I think the prices at the pump reflect the oil companies' addiction to greed.

Let me give you a case to consider. Lee Raymond, CEO of Exxon, recently retired. Did he get a gold watch for his service to Exxon? No. Mr. Raymond was given a severance package of $400 million. And the prices at the pumps reflect the consumers' shortcoming?

ExxonMobil recorded the highest corporate profits in the history of the United States of America. Money went straight from the credit cards of American families into the board rooms of ExxonMobil. They realized billions of dollars in profit, and they turned around and gave Mr. Raymond, as a farewell gift for his fine tutelage over their company, $400 million as a going-away gift. And the President says the price at the pumps reflects the consumers' addiction to oil? What choice do consumers have?

You go shop around in your hometown, as I did in Springfield and Chicago. There is some variation from pump to pump, from gas station to gas station. By and large, consumers have nowhere to turn.

What is happening is the price of gasoline is going up so fast, so high, that it is creating a hardship--not just for farmers and individuals but for America's economy--for the farmers I represent who are trying to put a crop in the field, for businesses that depend on the cost of energy as one of their input costs. That is a reality.

Let me say to the President that the prices at the pumps don't reflect our addiction to oil; they reflect a failure in leadership by this White House.

It hasn't even been 1 year--not 12 months--since the President ceremoniously signed the Energy bill for America's energy policy last August. What a great bill that has been. Since that bill was signed, what has happened to the price of energy and heating, and energy and gasoline? It has gone up dramatically across America. That bill was a failure. It was a failure because this administration believes the price at the pump is the fault of the consumers. It isn't. The consumers have nowhere to turn. That bill that was passed was an outrage. There were some provisions in it that I supported--expanding the use of alcohol fuels, alternative fuels--but the bill also contained multibillion-dollar subsidies to the oil industry at a time when they are enjoying record-breaking profits.

We are going to take money away from taxpayers and give it to industry? What in the world could we be thinking?

The bill also has had no meaningful conservation effort. How can we be serious about an energy policy in America if we aren't moving toward more fuel-efficient cars and trucks? We continue to import oil from overseas with abandon.

Why hasn't this administration set as a goal for America what the Democrats argued for on the floor; that is, that we would reduce our dependence on foreign oil by more than 50 percent over the next 10 years? We can do it with the vision and leadership of a White House that is not wedded to the oil industry but wedded, rather, to an economy that is being at this point seriously disadvantaged by the terrible increases in gasoline prices.

When the President wants to blame the consumer pulling up to the pump for his addiction to oil, I have to ask the President: What have you done? What has Congress done? What should we do?

Let me say this: Despite my serious misgivings about the energy policy of this administration which believes the answer to our prayers is to drill for oil in a wildlife refuge in Alaska that we have protected for 50 years, a refuge which at best will start producing oil in 10 years, and over its lifespan produce 6 months of energy for America, as if this is the answer to our prayers, that is very shortsighted. We need to come together. We need to understand that when the Republican leaders in Congress and the President of the United States are saying we had better call the Federal Trade Commission because something is going wrong with gasoline stations--America, excuse me; the Federal Trade Commission is part of this administration. Why are they waiting until this moment in time when all the bells and whistles and alarms are sounding to finally realize that we have to move on price gouging and price fixing?

I think it is time to have a windfall profits tax. I introduced that bill. When ExxonMobil can realize billions of dollars of profit at the expense of American businesses and families, it is time for us to step in and say that money is coming back to the Treasury and back to the consumers. We have talked for a long time about tax cuts for average families. How about a tax rebate from the windfall profits of these oil companies going right back to the families who are being flailed by these high gasoline prices. That would send a message to the oil companies that their price gouging is not going to go without penalty. They will pay a price for it. Those who would benefit from the windfall profits tax are the very consumers who are paying these high energy prices.

I think that is what we need to do. We need to understand that if we are going to have an energy policy in America which keeps our economy moving forward, we need to acknowledge the obvious. It is not the consumers' fault. The consumer has nowhere to turn at this point but to pay these high gasoline prices. It is the fault of leadership--the leadership at the oil companies that will take every last penny out of every working family they can at the pump, and it is the fault of an administration which comes from the oil patch and has been afraid to confront their old friends when it comes to these rising gasoline prices.

It is time to start anew. It is time to start on a bipartisan basis to understand that this isn't just a temporary inconvenience. It is something which can seriously handicap this economy for a long time to come.

I just returned from Illinois. I spent 2 weeks traveling all over the State, the city of Chicago, and suburban areas. I tell you that I expected to hear a lot about the Iraqi war, a lot about immigration, health care, education, and I did hear about those, but the thing that is focusing the attention of the people in Illinois is the price at the gasoline stations.

These families understand that this is a hardship they never counted on. It is bad enough in this country when these families struggle to try to make a living, to put their kids through school, make that mortgage payment, but then to have these oil companies and their rapacious greed charging higher and higher prices for their product and taking $400 million so Mr. Raymond can have a sweet retirement from ExxonMobil, that is unconscionable.

It is time for the President to speak out. It is not a question of whether our addiction to oil has caused this problem. It is not the consumers' fault. No. It is the fault of the oil company executives and this administration which needs to show real leadership so this economy doesn't stall.

I yield the floor.

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