Gas Prices

Floor Speech

GAS PRICES -- (Senate - April 24, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator from Missouri for making enormous common sense on a subject where, frankly, the Congress can only be characterized as having a schizophrenic approach to our energy crisis today. Congress always seems to talk a good game, but when it comes to actually doing something about it, the solutions seem to be few and far between.

I, too, think it is important to remember that since Speaker Pelosi made that promise 2 years ago, we have not had anything happen in the Congress that would indicate that this ``commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices'' is any closer today than it was 2 years ago. You would think, if any party has a commonsense solution to help reduce the pain at the pump, they would be eager to unveil it and to debate it on the floor, to show it off. But, of course, as we finished out the 2006 session of Congress, we got no such bill.

So again, as elections are heating up, and, as we all know, our constituents back home are feeling the pain at the pump--and whereas there is a lot of concern today about food prices--a lot of the increase in food prices is caused because of increased costs of production on the farm, primarily energy costs. Again, we see that as it becomes a political football, it has become something to talk about in election season. But when it comes to the fact that now our Democratic friends have control of both Houses of Congress, we have seen no action--zero action--taken to reduce the price of gas.

The price of gas, as we know, has continued to go up. Here is a chart that indicates--right here on Capitol Hill--that back in, I guess we can call it, the good old days, unleaded regular was $3.09 a gallon. Today, in April 2008, it is $3.49 a gallon, right here in Washington, DC. In some parts of the country, it is approaching $4 a gallon.

While $3.09 is certainly not a low price by anybody's reckoning, it certainly looks pretty good today. But, frankly, we have not seen our colleagues on the other side of the aisle work with us to support any legislation that would be calculated to bring down the price of gas at the pump. As a matter of fact, this is calculated into the inaction as a result of the energy policies by the majority, and you see it costs the average American family $1,400 a year in additional energy costs, additional gasoline costs.

So while the majority, which really runs the Congress, is quick to blame others for high oil prices, it is, in fact, their inaction that continues to raise gas prices. I wonder how long it will be before our friends on the other side of the aisle--who won the last election, who claimed a mandate as a result of that election--are actually going to act like the majority that they now are and help work with us to bring down prices at the pump. How long will it be before they stop pointing the finger of blame and start looking in the mirror for the solutions?

The only way we are going to resolve this schizophrenia when it comes to our energy policy is by Republicans and Democrats working together to pass commonsense legislation which will have the effect of bringing down the price of gasoline at the pump. I will talk about some of those in a minute.

The simple truth is, those who have been entrusted with the majority in the Senate and the House have failed to act to lower energy prices at all. Rather than show us their commonsense solution, as Speaker Pelosi talked about, they have opted to pursue political posturing, which has done nothing to deal with the problem. So, as we see, the problem just gets worse and worse and worse.

Now, our side does not have all the answers, but we have proposed some good solutions, I think, which would help address America's growing energy crisis that we should and could act upon to start bringing the price of gas down.

Let me say, first of all, there are several reasons why the price of gasoline is so high today. First and foremost is skyrocketing consumption in other parts of the world. This commodity is in great demand, and we are competing literally with the entire world for this scarce commodity known as oil that is then refined to make gasoline. Of course, we know there remains political unrest in producing countries as well.

Every one of these problems could be mitigated, if not solved outright, by promoting and investing in America's natural resources rather than continuing to be so dependent on imported oil and gas from dangerous parts of the world and from our enemies such as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

We are a politically stable nation with the resources to invest in maintaining our infrastructure and to add production that would greatly increase the available oil and gas supply.

All of that adds up to lower costs at the pump and more money in the pockets of American citizens.

There is a lot Congress can do that would be positive, but the one thing we can't do is to repeal the law of supply and demand. When you have a fixed supply and the demand goes up, the price invariably goes up. I don't know why Congress refuses to acknowledge that simple law of economics of supply and demand, and add to the supply.

First and foremost, we need to increase American energy production right here at home. Unfortunately, we see time after time and, again, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle block commonsense energy policies that would give American companies access to valuable resources such as oil deposits in the Arctic, in Alaska, the Outer Continental Shelf, on Government lands, and shale oil sites that have great promise in terms of the volume of oil that can be produced, the major component of gasoline. Of all of the cost drivers in gasoline, it is the price of oil that causes the greatest increase. If we could increase the supply of oil by increasing America's supply of oil by developing the resources we have in our country, it would vastly improve the situation we are in now.

In addition to lowering prices at the pump and increasing domestic energy production, it would also create more jobs in America. At a time when Congress is passing economic stimulus programs, spending enormous sums of taxpayer money, one of the best things we could simply do is to change the policies that would allow us to explore and develop our own natural resources rather than depend on imported oil from foreign sources. Personally, I have always liked to see the ``Made in America'' label when I buy a product. Wouldn't it be nice to see that on the side of a gas pump here at home? Think of the thousands of jobs that could help kick-start our economy if we actually encouraged American energy production and less dependence on foreign sources.

Beyond increasing the supply of oil, we also need to increase our refinery capacity, the place where that oil is then made into gasoline. We haven't built any new refineries in this country since the 1970s because of restrictive policies of the Federal Government. One of the most costly steps in producing gasoline is refining oil to make it usable in vehicles. Since we have limited refining capacity--again, the law of supply and demand--a fixed supply and increasing demand is driving up the cost of gasoline because we don't have the refinery capacity to make the gasoline out of the oil. So prices continue to go up.

Finally, any American energy policy must, of course, include alternative sources of energy. We need to look to technology in our American legacy of innovation and research to help reduce our need on oil and gas, whether domestic or foreign. But that is not going to happen overnight. It is not going to happen even in the near term. But long term, clean coal technology, nuclear energy, even biofuels and wind energy can help reduce the strain on our gas supply by taking some of the energy load off of oil.

We need to be careful not to cherry-pick a few politically correct solutions. We have already seen the increase in the cost of food, in significant part because of food being used for fuel. Even with the best of intentions of an ethanol policy, it has created an impending crisis when it comes to using food for fuel.

I think it is time for us to take definitive steps to help reduce the cost of gasoline at the pump. We have some solutions, if we would get some cooperation on the other side of the aisle. Since the Democrats are now in charge, we would expect them to lead, to keep the promise that Speaker Pelosi made 2 years ago. We wish to help them come up with a commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices. But continued obstruction, continued schizophrenia, and continued reliance on politically correct solutions which sometimes end up backfiring is not the way forward. The American people are looking to us for a solution and it is high time we deliver.

I yield the floor.

Source