Press Conference with Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) - Oil Prices and Energy Legislation
Interview
REP. MARKEY: Thank you for being here. My name is Congressman Ed Markey. I am the chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
And today is an historic day. It is a day that many predicted would never arrive, but it now has. Every presidential administration wants to be remembered for an historic achievement. Unfortunately, the Bush administration is setting records that no one ever wanted to see broken.
This administration's failed energy policies have led to record oil prices, record oil company profits and near-record gas prices. For nearly eight years, this administration's backwards energy policy has lined the pockets of oil company executives while hurting American consumers, the economy and the planet.
Since President Bush took office, the price of a barrel of oil has gone from $30 a barrel to now today $103 a barrel. This dramatic change in a brief period of time helps to explain to a significant extent what is happening in our economy.
As a result of the Bush administration's failed energy policies, our dependence on foreign oil is now over 60 percent, which means that the United States is hemorrhaging funds every single day in order to pay for all of this imported oil into the United States. The numbers are staggering. Americans now send $500,000 a minute overseas -- $30 million an hour, $5 billion a week -- in order to purchase this oil now at $103 a barrel.
The consequences are very visible at the pump. When President Bush took office the price of a gallon of gasoline was roughly $1.50. The price now? Three dollars and 16 cents on average across the United States.
The Bush administration's oil-centric energy policy has proven itself to be completely bankrupt for everyone except for Big Oil and OPEC. While the American consumers are being tipped upside-down and having money shaken out of their pockets as they stand there putting gasoline into their vehicle, Big Oil is registering the largest profits ever reported by any corporation in the history of the United States.
This week the House of Representatives passed legislation which would repeal unnecessary tax breaks for the biggest oil companies and use those funds to spur investment in renewable energy resources like wind and solar and other technologies of the 21st century. With oil now hovering at $103 a barrel and oil companies making record profits, Big Oil doesn't need additional tax breaks in order to drill. They already have all of the tax breaks they need. They don't need additional tax breaks.
And they certainly shouldn't be coming to consumers who are already paying at the pump and sending that money to Big Oil, and going instead to their other pocket and asking for tax breaks for the very same Big Oil companies. That is wrong, just plain wrong. It tips the consumers upside-down, shakes money out of their pockets, and then gives tax breaks to the very same companies that then record these record profits.
And with the planet's thermometer rising, we need to transition our energy production to a low-carbon economy that will cut heat- trapping pollution and create jobs.
We need incentives that solve global warming, not make it worse.
But what is this administration's response? To continue to stand with the oil companies in opposition to this bill, which would help consumers, help our economy, and help our planet.
It is clear that this administration is unaware that $4 a gallon gasoline is on the horizon. This administration is unaware of the harm that does to ordinary citizens. This is, in a nutshell, what the administration has been all about. "GOP" used to stand for "Grand Old Party". Now, it stands for "Gas and Oil Party." And this, unfortunately, is what has happened to the American consumer. They are now paying the price for the fact that there has been no energy policy except that of Big Oil for eight years in the White House.
So let me stop, and I will answer any questions that you have.
Yes, ma'am?
Q If the tax bill doesn't make it through the Senate, what do you see as some other vehicles for these tax breaks, for the renewable tax breaks?
REP. MARKEY: Well, I think -- I think because we only fell one vote short in the Senate, there's a powerful message being sent at $103 a barrel. There's a powerful message being sent to that one vote we need in the Senate that at $4 a gallon for gasoline, that is now being predicted, something has to happen that shifts the tax breaks from the oil industry and over to the renewable industry so that we actually begin to put in place a pathway to a new energy-independent future.
And so I'm very confident that we will find that vote in the Senate.
I think increasingly the pressure is going to be on each senator who voted to continue the tax breaks for the oil industry at the expense of the renewable-energy industry, that has been blocking the path to the future. So every senator who voted no, every senator who voted to keep the tax breaks for the oil industry and away from wind and solar, is the senator blocking the path to an energy-independent future. And I don't think that's a place where senators want to be at $4 a gallon for gasoline, at $103 a barrel for oil.
Q Some number crunchers out there argue that raising taxes on the oil companies might actually increase the price of gas more, because they'll say, "Well, you know, the oil companies, they need -- they cost more to do business." How do you respond?
REP. MARKEY: The price of a barrel of oil, with all the tax breaks that the oil industry could dream of, is skyrocketing. The only way that we can reduce the price of oil is if we give oil some competition, if we give the tax breaks over to wind and solar and biofuels and other energy resources.
Right now the oil industry thinks, OPEC thinks it can charge the United States whatever it feels like. And that's not going to change until we take the tax breaks and hand them over to the competitors of Big Oil. And right now that's being blocked in the Senate. There is no way that we will see any downward pressure on oil prices until they know that there are other alternative ways of generating energy that are out in the marketplace.
Q What was your reaction to the president saying yesterday at a news conference that he hadn't heard the forecast of $4 gasoline per gallon?
REP. MARKEY: The administration has been out of touch with ordinary consumers at the pump for eight years. Yesterday's press conference was just the exclamation point on this complete disconnect between an oil and gas White House and ordinary people at the pump, who are being tipped upside-down and having money shaken out of their pockets.
Q Has there been any conversation with the administration on compromises, any sort of bill that might (get through a veto ?) or anything like that?
REP. MARKEY: Again, we're only one vote short, and as each day goes by, as the price of oil continues to rise, I think we're one day closer to actually getting that vote we need in order to change the direction of energy policy in our country.
So, no.
Q Who do you think the one vote will be?
REP. MARKEY: The one vote will be one of the smartest United States senators that is sitting over there. It will be a contest to see who wants the award to recognize how desperately needed it is that we change the energy policy in our country. Who wins the award, I have no idea.
Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
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