Press Conference with Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Statement

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SEN. MCCONNELL: Both the Democrats and the Republicans know that the number-one issue, on the minds of the American people right now, is the high price of gasoline at the pump. In the course of today's events, I understand the -- looking at the last year, the Democrats have called on OPEC on three different occasions to increase production over the last year. Interestingly enough during that very same year, they voted four times against increasing production here in the United States.

Republicans by and large believe that the solution to this problem, in part, is certainly to increase production. And we had a chance to vote on that out on the Senate floor. It's time to increase American production, which benefits this country here by creating new American jobs and helps deal with the problem of supply and demand.

With that, Senator Alexander.

(Cross talk.)

SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R-TN): Thank you very much.

Gas prices are heading toward $4. The Democrats are in charge. Republicans have a plan, and the Democrats don't.

Republicans have voted for billions for renewable energy. We voted in a bipartisan way, at the end of last year, for a 40 percent increase in fuel efficiency. And now we have a proposal, that Senator Domenici and Senator Murkowski will talk about, to increase supply.

We have to increase supply of oil if we want to lower prices. Yet the Democrats can only come up with raising taxes and suing OPEC. That's their plan.

The people didn't elect us to take a vacation this year, just because it's a presidential year. We've got an answer. They don't, and we're ready for them to take action on it.

SEN. KAY HUTCHISON (R-TX): The reason the price of oil is so high is because demand in other countries, especially China and India, has increased at a great rate. At the same time, supply has remained the same.

We have offered a plan that would increase supply. And it would be from our own resources, so that America would not have to depend on foreign sources for our energy needs.

And yet the Democrats come forward with what they call a plan, which is a big tax, what they call a windfall profits tax, which was tried in the past and was such a failure that jobs left America, and we had to import 10 percent more oil and became more dependent on foreign sources.

That is a pathetic answer. What we want to do and what we voted on today, led by Senator Domenici and Senator McConnell, was to increase supply and to do what Americans have always done when we have faced hardship, and that is, come together and resolve that we will stand up and use our own resources to get over our problems.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): In case you missed it this morning, something important happened on the floor of the United States Senate. The Senate finally acknowledged that the laws of supply and demand apply even inside the Beltway here in Washington, D.C. The difference in the two amendments was that one that passed overwhelmingly put roughly 70,000 barrels of additional oil out in the market, acknowledging that additional supply will help bring down the price.

But at the same time, only 42 senators voted to provide as much as 3 million additional barrels of American oil onto the marketplace over the -- in the future. How much more could we expect that additional supply to help bring down the price at the pump? And with gas at $3.75 a gallon, we've got 42 votes. I don't know what the vote will be when gas hits $4 or $4.50 a gallon or $5.00 a gallon, but I suspect those votes will change over time, as they well should.

SEN. JOHN ENSIGN (R-NV): Just very briefly. You know, in Las Vegas today, you can have steak and eggs for $3.29. A gallon of gas, average in Las Vegas is $3.70. The Democrats have not put forward a plan that they promised to lower gas prices. It is time that we address the supply side. We all know that. It's supply and demand.

We put forward a proposal -- the two sponsors will talk about it in a minute -- to actually increase supplies so that we can lower the price of gasoline. It is affecting the family budget, and that family budget is hurting right now. Republicans believe in taking care of the environment. We believe in more conservation. We voted for it. We believe in more green alternative energies. We voted for it. But we also must increase our domestic supply of energies, and today we voted for that plan.

SEN. PETE DOMENICI (R-NM): Well, clearly this is not a good day for the family budgets of the United States. If some Democrats would have been interested in a bill that would produce more energy by Americans for Americans, we could clearly have gotten something really significant accomplished.

But no, they'd rather be for a few things that'll never -- won't yield one barrel of oil, things like a windfall profits tax that failed. The proponent of windfall profits tax under the Clinton administration testified or at least indicated publicly recently that it didn't work then. It won't work now. We hope we wouldn't do it. That's one of their big programs; won't yield one barrel of oil.

They also say they're going to go after those who are speculating. We've been hearing that forever. We look for a bill that will accomplish that. We don't think they know how. We don't think we know how.

But we do know how to propose to the United States Senate four or five things that are American sources of energy produced for us and by us. Without any question, around the coastal waters of America, if we let our governors choose and then we give them an extra bonus for choosing, we will get large quantities of natural gas and oil from our own lands of our shores.

In addition, we could start the process of converting coal to liquids. It would take a couple of years to get that perfected -- maybe three or four -- and then we would have an abundance of diesel fuel and the like coming from our own coal in our own mines in our own country produced by our own people. We have two or three more like that that clearly would help America produce more energy for ourselves.

We have one on accelerated battery research. Two or three years of concentrated effort might very well make those programs for using automobiles and plugging them in for electricity at night might make the battery sufficiently large for that -- in capacity for that to be a real program. We need help from the other side or we can't pass them. But we ought to continue to challenge them to do something to really help Americans provide for Americans.

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): You know, we always talk about a balanced energy policy for this nation. You've got to have a focus on conservation and efficiency. You must have a renewed and rejuvenated focus on renewables and alternatives, but you also have to recognize that production, increased domestic production, is part of that comprehensive energy policy.

We cannot have an energy policy that is based on "no" -- no to development in ANWR, no to offshore development, no to oil shales in the western part of the country, no to coal. "No" is going to get you exactly where we are today, which is at record-breaking prices of oil, record-breaking prices that are strangling this country in terms of our development and our opportunity.

Talk about the family budget and the hits to the families. We must have an energy policy that allows for increased production. We had a chance this morning to vote on that. I hope that we will have the chance to bring up many of those components in the future because that will bring us to "yes," a comprehensive energy policy.

SEN. DOMENICI: In other words, "no" will get you nowhere, right? (Laughter.)

SEN. MURKOWSKI: That's right, that's right.

SEN. MCCONNELL: Any questions, anybody?

Q Senator Domenici -- (off mike) -- trying to find a way to move this bill forward, the one that there was agreement on. Can you explain why you did that? And is there any chance that -- (off mike)?

SEN. DOMENICI: Well, let me say first of all -- no, this is not a simple step, it's a very complicated step. And I would think if the Democrats really were serious about getting us to agree, they wouldn't have done it the way they did. They would have sat down with us and talked about it. And we can do it today or tomorrow or the next day, but it needs some discussion.

Why? Because we would be agreeing to a bill that would be working its way through the United States Senate without us having any further say about it other than to let it go. And we need to have further say about it. We need to know what's going to happen to it. Who is going to use it? What are they going to put on it? Is it coming back to us in exactly the same form that we send it to the House, or not?

If they don't want to do that, then let's leave it just where the Senate -- the Senate voted to put it on this bill. That's where it should stay unless and until we can be shown that by conceding, we aren't conceding more than just this bill. We want this particular measure, but we don't want any more baggage attached from the -- by the House or anywhere else, because we didn't agree to that.

Does that explain it?

Q Yes, sir.

SEN. DOMENICI: I appreciate it.

Q (Off mike.)

SEN. DOMENICI: I don't know what it is, ma'am, so I can't tell you. If it's exactly the same as this bill, I will look at it. I'd rather leave it that.

I told them, we'd be glad to sit down and discuss this. They haven't found the time yet, nor have I, but we will. Don't worry about it. We've got another day or two or three or four before we have to do that. But we will.

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