News Conference on Senate Energy Bill

Federal News Service

HEADLINE: NEWS CONFERENCE WITH: SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY); SENATOR JOHN SUNUNU (R-NH); SENATOR MARIA CANTWELL (D-WA); SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ); SENATOR BARBARA BOXER (D-CA); SENATOR DICK DURBIN (D-IL)

SUBJECT: SENATE ENERGY BILL

SEN. SCHUMER: I mentioned this on the floor-I did want to underscore one thing Barbara said which was the system sort of works, and that's why we have conference committees and that's why we have debates on the floor. Well, this bill was pulled untimely from the floor, and then the conference committee was of two-and two who are both fine people, but they are from certain regions and certain viewpoints. And you can't have two people represent 100 senators or all of the United States. And I think that's one of the reason it failed. Had they been more inclusive, you wouldn't have had this product, but you probably would have had a bill that passed. And I say that with respect to both of them, whom I like very much.
Another great thing that you don't see enough about here is courage. You don't talk about. Well, Dick Durbin is the personification of courage. As you know, because he mentioned it on the floor, he has been one of the leaders in the view of ethanol. He even has a bottle of it in our refrigerator at home. But he has been stalwart in fighting for ethanol, and it means a lot to him. And yet when he saw how bad this bill was, he was one of the first ones who got up and said, "I can't support it." I remember seeing him on the floor-it came as a total surprise. And maybe without Dick Durbin having the courage to do what he did, maybe we wouldn't have won. So if you're looking for profiles in courage and you're looking for an example that is not politics as usual, look at him.

SEN. DURBIN: Please don't take a photo of my profile until I can lose a few more pounds. (Laughter.) But thank you --

SEN. BOXER: Stop drinking the ethanol. All the sugar-SEN. DURBIN: If you look at the senators who have gathered here today after this vote, you understand the diversity-politically, geographically. And I come to this gathering as someone from the Midwest. I believe strongly in ethanol. I know my friend Senator McCain disagrees with me. But I believe in it. I think it's an important product for the energy future of America in terms of reducing our dependence on foreign oil and reducing population.

I hope that we can return to the debate about ethanol as part of our energy future.

But, quite honestly, I was very troubled by this bill. For more than 10 years, I've gone to press conferences with farm leaders from across the Middle West and across the nation, working hard for ethanol, and saying repeatedly that MTBE was an unacceptable alternative to ethanol, that MTBE was inherently dangerous, it could cause cancer and public health problems for generations to come. This is not just my point of view. It was a point of view expressed by virtually everyone who supported ethanol. We knew it, and we told America, and the oil companies ignored us and continued to sell hundreds of thousands of barrels of this MTBE additive, put it in the gasoline tank, see it leach into public water supplies, and see contaminations which threatened families and individuals and communities. We accepted it.

And that's why I was troubled when this bill came to the floor, and those of us who supported ethanol took a look at Section 1502, and realized that we were being asked to ignore what we had said for 10 years about the danger of MTBE. From my point of view, that's totally unacceptable. I'll work hard night and day for ethanol and its future, but not at the expense of 29 Illinois communities that currently have contaminated water supplies and would lose their day in court had this energy bill passed. T hat's unacceptable. T hat's unjust. It's unbefitting the United States Senate.

What did we learn today? I think we learned that we need to build an energy policy. But you don't build an energy policy by caving in to every special interest. Now, let me say the obvious: I don't know many senators who are allergic to pork. We all like earmarks when they help our states. But, frankly, this bill was a gusher of giveaways. Too many things disguised as an energy policy turned out to just be, as Senator Schumer said earlier, only a laundry list of pork giveaways and projects.

Secondly, we learned that you can't build an energy policy by trashing the environment. If that's the choice, between energy and the environment, there will be a fight every single time. Whether we are protecting public health and public water supplies or the air that people breathe, it's a reality, and we have to protect the environment.

And, finally, you can't build an energy policy without vision. How in the world can we stand here and say this is an energy bill and does nothing about the fuel efficiency of America's cars and trucks? An honest energy bill has to include that in the first section. This bill didn't include it at all. That's why it was defeated.