Cornyn: Energy Bill Must Increase Domestic Production, Refining Capacity

Press Release

Cornyn: Energy Bill Must Increase Domestic Production, Refining Capacity

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, discussed the need for comprehensive energy reform legislation on the Senate floor Tuesday as the Senate debates a Democrat-proposed Energy bill. Sen. Cornyn said this bill is incomplete because it does nothing to increase the supply of energy to meet our nation's growing demand - we can better address our energy security by increasing domestic production, increasing refinery capacity, and expanding clean and renewable energy. This will reduce our dependence on foreign sources. He voiced concern that the pending bill does nothing to address our current energy needs and rising gas prices.

Below are excerpts of Sen. Cornyn's remarks:

"All we have to do is to drive to fill up our gas tank and realize that the price of gasoline has gone through the roof. While it's true that Congress can pass laws and Congress can even repeal laws that have been passed by previous Congresses, what Congress cannot do is to repeal the laws of supply and demand.

"It's important that we look at whether this legislation is, in fact, designed to fix problems. And one of the solutions I would suggest we need to look to is—does this bill increase supply?

"In a global economy where we know there's going to be more supply for oil and gasoline, we're not only competing here in the United States but literally with China and India - each of which have a billion people—where their economies are growing, where the number of people driving and where the economic activity is directly related to access to a reasonable priced energy supply.

"We need to look to see what we are doing here at home to try to increase supply. We all know that we are dangerously reliant on imported oil from dangerous parts of the world or from places like Venezuela, governed by the likes of Hugo Chavez. And our current energy policy in this country does nothing but make our enemies richer. It does nothing but line the pockets of people like Hugo Chavez or somebody like President Ahmadinejad in Iran—countries that are pursuing weapons of mass destruction.

"The bill that's now before us is an incomplete bill. It deals nearly exclusively with the demand side of energy.

"This bill fails to address much of our current energy needs. This bill will do nothing to deal with our current energy needs without addressing supply. I fear this bill will also end up being even more expensive for consumers.

"I do believe there is great promise in renewable energy, and I'm proud that Texas continues its energy leadership as a traditional oil and gas state, now as the largest producer of wind energy in the country.

"We're also the largest producer of biodiesel, an industry that's grown rapidly in just the last few years. It's also unwise to turn away from proven and developing technologies to meet our nation's clean air goals. For example, nuclear energy has the lowest impact on the environment, including air, land, water, and wildlife.

"We clearly ought to be encouraging greater use of nuclear power, particularly when it comes to our electricity supply. And I want to say a word about coal. Coal should also continue to play an important role in our energy future. There are clean-coal technologies being developed that can enable us to continue utilizing this abundant domestic resource, and will improve our air quality.

"The bill we passed in 2005 under Republican leadership provided incentives for domestic exploration of potential new natural resource supplies and aided the production of affordable domestic energy. Now we're seeing the new majority threaten to overturn several of those successful provisions. And then when it comes to trying to increase supply of gas in this country by enhancing capacity of refineries, we've seen those efforts blocked by our friends on the other side of the aisle in the last Congress.

"This bill makes no effort to increase domestic production and reduce our reliance on foreign oil. This bill also does not pay enough attention to clean alternatives, attempting to mandate energy production solely from renewable sources.

"This bill does nothing, nothing to reduce high gasoline prices. In fact, some of the amendments that I'm told that our friends on the other side of the aisle are considering would actually increase energy prices for consumers.

"And we see nothing but roadblocks thrown up every time we've introduced proposals to try to encourage expansion of refinery capacity, which is the only way we're going to make more gasoline to keep up with the demand and help keep prices down. Now, we will see alternatives offered during the course of this debate that will lead to increased domestic production of oil, a streamlined refinery process and greater investments in research and development of clean vehicles.

"So I hope that as this debate goes forward, we'll have a full opportunity to debate amendments and offer constructive solutions to this problem."

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