Democratic Energy Package

Floor Speech

DEMOCRATIC ENERGY PACKAGE -- (Senate - May 08, 2008)

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, reading the morning papers, we learned a couple of key points about the energy proposal introduced yesterday by our friends on the other side. The most important point is that two central provisions of the bill are opposed by two of their own chairmen. In this morning's Albuquerque Journal, we learned that the Democratic chairman of the Senate Energy Committee does not like the so-called windfall profit tax. He called it ``arbitrary.''

Now, we know this is a bad idea that does not work. The last time a windfall profits tax was tried in the 1980s, it reduced domestic production and actually increased our reliance on foreign oil, just the opposite of a rational policy to reduce gas prices to make America more energy independent.

In the Wall Street Journal, we learned that the senior Senator from New York, the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, is raising the alarm about another central tenet of the Democratic energy proposal, the energy futures trading provision. The Journal reports the chairman is saying the energy futures trading provisions, as written, would send the bulk of the trading that is now done in America, and thus American jobs, to markets overseas.

I agree with both of these chairmen. Two years have passed since Congressional Democrats said they had a ``commonsense plan'' to address high gas prices. This week Senate Democrats finally unveiled that plan, and their own chairmen do not seem to like parts of it. It is predictably high on taxes, more bureaucracy, and continued dependence on OPEC.

Their proposal would do nothing to lower the price of gas. It will only serve to further reduce domestic supplies and increase our dependency on foreign oil at a time when we are trying to make America more, not less, energy independent.

Republicans believe we should increase our supply of American energy to bring gas prices down and to create American jobs. Apparently our friends across the aisle believe we should continue to ask OPEC to increase its supply, while opposing additional production of American energy.

We will have an opportunity to vote on Monday on the proposal that the majority of Members on my side think would make an actual difference in the coming years. It is a fundamental difference of opinion. We can either proactively increase our domestic production or we can place greater dependence on foreign suppliers and further delay energy independence. Given the choice, I would rather produce more American energy and create more American jobs.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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