Energy Policy Act of 2003-Conference Report

ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 2003-CONFERENCE REPORT

Mr. DURBIN. I thank the ranking member for yielding. I spoke on 2 successive days on this bill, and I feel strongly about it. I spent 20 years in Congress supporting ethanol and I believe in it. I think it is important to help our farm economy, reduce pollution, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. There is no doubt this bill would greatly expand ethanol across America. That is a good thing. It is something I support.

I cannot support this bill. I cannot support this bill because, frankly, it is fundamentally unfair and unjust and it is unbecoming of the Senate to offer this to America as an energy policy.

When it comes to energy, this bill is a full-scale retreat. This bill fails to include any provisions whatsoever to deal with fuel efficiency and fuel economy of the cars and trucks we drive. How can we in good conscience stand before the American people and say this is an Energy bill for our future and not address the No. 1 consumption of energy, oil imported from overseas-the cars and trucks that we drive? Why? Because the special interest groups that oppose fuel efficiency and fuel economy won the battle. They won the argument. The American people were the losers.

There is another aspect to this bill which troubles me. This bill is a full-scale retreat when it comes to environmental protection for America. Think about this for a moment. Every major environmental group in America opposes this Energy bill. What has brought them all together? The fact that in the course of negotiating this bill, those few people sat in that secret room, gave away the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, access to America's public lands, and the natural heritage which we helped to leave to our children. That is what is at stake. To walk away from basic environmental protection in the name of promoting energy is a bad deal for America's future.

To think for a moment that we have reached a point in time where China-this new developing Nation, China-has more and better fuel efficiency standards than the United States of America should be a supreme embarrassment to everyone in this Chamber.

This bill is a gusher of giveaways. We are going to build a nuclear reactor. We are going to start building coal mines in some States. We are going to build all sorts of shopping centers. It goes on and on. I am no babe in the woods. I have served in Congress and on the Appropriations Committee long enough to tell you I have an appetite for pork like every Member of the Senate and the House, but I have to agree with the Senator from New York. If giveaways turn out to be a substitute for energy policy, then we have defrauded the American public. We need to have leadership on this issue, and we do not.

The single worst part of this bill, as far as I am concerned, the most shameless aspect of this bill is found in section 1502. It is the most egregious giveaway I have ever seen in my time on Capitol Hill because in a dark room, the people who wrote this conference report said to the major oil companies and some major chemical companies that they would protect them from liability for the very product which they sold, which has contaminated water supplies across America.

Think about that for a moment. They have said that for families and individuals whose health and homes have been damaged by MTBE as a contaminant, they are going to close the courthouse doors. They are going to lock the doors and say to those families: You are going to have to bear these losses and these medical bills on your own. That is shameless. To think it is included in here should be enough for every Senator to vote against this bill.

To add insult to this injury, there is a $2 billion Federal subsidy for the MTBE producers and industry, not just protecting them in court for their wrongdoing but giving them a lavish Federal subsidy.

What does it come down to? Who are the big winners in this bill? It is obvious: Big oil companies, big energy companies, high rollers on K Street, and the muscle men on Capitol Hill.

Who are the big losers in this bill? Families with kids who have asthma, who will find more air pollution, which will mean that their kids have to stay home from school; families with water supplies contaminated by MTBE, which make their homes uninhabitable and they have no recourse to go to court to hold these oil companies accountable.

Basically, the biggest loser in this bill is Americans who expected more from this Congress, who expected leadership and vision and instead have a very sorry work product which should be defeated.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired. Who yields time?