Energy

ENERGY

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from the State of Michigan because she has been a leader when it comes to the issue of helping consumers across America. Many people say it is morning in America, but not if you stop at a gas station. It feels like it is the dead of night, and it is getting pretty cold and windy outside.

What the Senator from Michigan has said is that instead of this meaningless $100 which has been suggested on the other side of the aisle and which has become something of a joke, she suggested a significant amount: $500. Clearly, that is not going to make up for all of the added expenses of gasoline for people across America, but Senator Stabenow has been a leader in suggesting that the oil companies should give up their subsidies and tax breaks, which they continue to beg for with record profits, and instead we should take that money and give it back to the consumers. It is a rebate that would go not to the Treasury that would be lost in the sauce but would go back directly to families and consumers across America. I thank the Senator from Michigan for her leadership.

A little later this morning, many of us are going to have a gathering with farm groups across America. It is often overlooked. I know the Senator from Michigan has mentioned it about her State, but our farmers are facing a tremendous hardship because of the increased cost of energy, not just diesel fuel but also the gasoline they need for the work of the farm, and added costs, as well, for items like fertilizers and pesticides. We estimate that over the last 5 years, Illinois farmers on an average are going to pay an additional $24,000 because of these additional energy costs, the natural gas component of fertilizers, as well as the fuel to use in their tractors and in their vehicles.

That $24,000 right off the bottom line for farmers can be the breaking point for some, and many may not survive. That is why this debate is important and why it is timely and why we should not waste any time addressing it.

I am afraid we have reached the point where we have to acknowledge the obvious. The shortest attention span in America is right here in this Chamber because Senators have an attention span that lasts as long as the headlines last and as long as the phones are ringing and the e-mails are coming in. When that diminishes, we tend to move to the next issue, whatever that might be, even if we have not addressed or resolved the issue before us.

I think my friends and colleagues in the Senate will look at the energy issue and dismiss it at their peril. What we find is, as we ask Americans across the board what causes you the greatest concern--this is a poll which came out just a few days ago from NBC and the Wall Street Journal--how about leaking classified information by the Bush administration? Eighteen percent of Americans say it causes them concern. How about Iraq? Twenty-three percent. How about the issue of immigration? Twenty-six percent. How about Iran building a nuclear weapon? Thirty-three percent. How about gas prices reaching $3 a gallon? Forty-five percent of Americans say that causes them concern.

We ignore this political and economic reality at our peril. It is not enough for us to give speeches on the floor and do nothing, and this week we will do nothing when it comes to the energy issue. There are things we must do. First, we have to acknowledge that what we have done has not worked. It has failed. The energy plan that was endorsed by the Republican majority and signed by the President last August has failed. It has failed and obviously so.

During the heating season this last winter, we saw dramatic runups in the cost of home heating, whether it was fuel oil in the Northeast or natural gas in the Midwest. Then, of course, came the sticker shock at the gas pump every single day, now up to $3-plus a gallon in my part of the world, in the Midwest and Illinois, and $4 a gallon or more in California or other places. To think that we passed an energy bill 8 months ago and patted ourselves on the back about what a great job we did, now look at the reality. The reality is it failed. It failed.

We need a new direction. We need a significant change in direction. The energy policy of the Bush administration has failed America. The cost of energy is too high. We are importing too much. We are being pushed around by these little tinhorn dictators who happen to have oil reserves and now want to dictate foreign policy to the world. Why would the United States ever tolerate this situation?

What we need to do is to be very forceful. First, let's start at home. Let's acknowledge the fact that, even though there are clearly elements that gave rise to the increase in the cost of energy, there is profiteering taking place, and it is obvious. The big five had over $110 billion in profits last year, $1,000 for every household in America in oil company profits; $1,000. When this administration talked about cutting your taxes, there has been another invasion of home budgets, and it isn't the tax man, it is the oil man. It is the oil man who is taking money out of every family's budget, almost $100 a month for additional energy costs, so they can have recordbreaking profits, so their shareholders can applaud, and so Mr. Lee Raymond, the former CEO of ExxonMobil, as a parting gift for his wonderful work at ExxonMobil, can get $400 million. As I said before, he didn't even have to buy a Powerball ticket--$400 million. Sayonara, farewell, Mr. Raymond, thank you for your great service--$400 million at the expense of the American economy and American consumers. The oil companies don't get it. They don't understand what they are doing to America.

The other day, George Will, who is on one of the talk shows, chided me for saying that what is happening with energy costs is going to put a chill on the American economy. I will stand by that statement. It is true we have not seen it immediately. We will. You just can't increase the input cost in business or farming as dramatically as these energy runups are doing without hurting the bottom line, forcing farmers out of business, forcing businesses to lay off employees. Of course, those businesses depending on energy couldn't even dream of expanding at this point because they have to find a way to deal and cope with this reality.

What do we need to do? We need to punish the profiteers. We to need to say to these oil companies: This is intolerable.

It is time for the President of the United States to call the oil company executives into the Oval Office, to sit down and in very quiet and reasoned tones tell them enough is enough. You cannot continue to profiteer at the expense of workers and businesses and farmers across America.

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. VITTER). The time of the Senator has expired.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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