Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act of 2008--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

STOP EXCESSIVE ENERGY SPECULATION ACT OF 2008--MOTION TO PROCEED -- (Senate - July 22, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, we are at a seminal moment in America. American consumers are being battered by high oil prices, high home heating oil prices, all high energy prices. The average middle-class person is squeezed more than ever before. People are not going to college, people are not taking jobs, people are not visiting grandkids, and it is all because of high oil prices. It is changing the way we live--and not for the better. Americans are crying out.

What is the answer? My colleagues on the other side of the aisle are stuck in the past. They talk about drilling more. Of course they do; they always do what big oil wants. Big oil now, big oil forever. That is the Republican motto. Do what they want and nothing else, while consumers foot the energy bill.

We cannot drill our way out of this problem, we know that. We have 3 percent of the oil and 25 percent of the consumption. We cannot drill our way out of the problem. Are there good, constructive ways we can, in the short term, increase domestic production? Absolutely.

I was one of the Democrats who rallied us to drill in the gulf on a large tract of oil. There are plenty of places, as my colleague from North Dakota talked about, in Alaska, but make no mistake about it, the price of oil will not come down until we reduce our dependence on it.

Democrats are fighting for a new future, not looking at the past, finding one little bit of oil here, one little bit of oil there, and praying it will solve our problems. We are looking for alternative and renewable sources of energy to play a major role in our energy supply, freeing us from oil: No more OPEC. The Republican plan would reduce dependence on OPEC from 50 percent to 45 or from 60 percent to 55. It is not going to do a darn thing. Particularly, every bit of new oil we find here--and I hope my colleagues will say all the new oil we find here should be used only in the United States. But China and India will consume far more than we find in the next 10 or 15 years.

Let me say this: There will be more new cars in China and India in the next decade or so than we have cars in America. We cannot drill our way out of the problem.

I understand my colleagues' desire for their program. It helps big oil. That is what we have done all along when the Republicans have been in charge. Big oil now, big oil forever. America knows that is not going to work. We are in a new world where there is not enough oil to meet our needs.

What are we doing on our side? We are for increasing domestic production in the short term in a rational way, but we are not depending on it. It is not the main part of what we are talking about because we know that will simply lead to higher oil prices. It will never reduce the cost of oil enough to bring relief to the American family.

What should we be doing? What are Democrats proposing? We are proposing reducing our dependence on oil and foreign oil in particular. We are proposing incentives for alternative energy--wind and solar. T. Boone Pickens, a big oilman, says we cannot drill our way out of the problem.

We are proposing dramatic changes in our automobiles. You can have an electric car that drives just as far and long as a gasoline-driven car and rides more smoothly with the same power and the same torque. Why aren't we pushing that? Big oil companies don't want it. They won't be selling those batteries. The big oil companies don't want wind power or solar power. They are not involved in those issues.

The head of ExxonMobil told our Judiciary Committee a year and a half ago that they do not believe in alternative energy. Of course they don't. They are making record profits, and the greater demand and the less supply, the higher their profitability.

We have tried in the past to reduce dependence on oil. We have a renewable portfolio standard so our utilities will not just depend on oil and fossil fuels. We have tried to push tax changes, take the tax breaks away from big oil and give them to wind, solar, bio, thermal, and cellulosic ethanol. Again, we are blocked by the other side of the aisle. In other words, if big oil wants it, that is good, says our colleagues. If big oil is against it, we are against it. We will come up with some reason.

But what we will be doing on this Energy bill is looking at the future, not at the past. What we will be doing on this Energy bill is recognizing that 10 years from now, demand in America should go up for energy because we have to grow, but it cannot come from oil. What we are looking at is a future where our cars do not need gasoline. We are looking at a future where our homes are powered by the Sun and the wind and other more natural forces. We are looking at a future where we conserve, an issue of passion to me.

In 1978, California passed building standards to increase energy efficiency in homes and buildings. Do you know California has the lowest per capita consumption of energy--even with all their car use--in these United States? It is not New York with our mass transit; it is California because so many of their buildings are now efficient. Forty percent of the energy we consume goes into heating and cooling buildings, 35 percent into gasoline, of total energy consumption.

I have been advocating that we adopt California standards nationwide. It is a rather painless way to go. Where are we? It is not going to produce results in 6 months, but it sure will in the next several years. California has led the way.

Why don't we do the same for appliances? Why don't we do the same for utilities and require them to be more efficient? We cannot be profligate. We can grow and live better and consume less energy at the same time.

There are so many breakthroughs about to occur, and we should be encouraging them with Government policies and tax breaks, and instead we hear from the other side: Do what big oil wants; just drill.

The bottom line is we cannot drill our way out of the problem, I say to my colleagues, we cannot, and we must have an energy policy that looks at the future.

In conclusion, I say this: Republicans equal big oil equals the past. Democrats equal alternative energy. We are the future.

I yield the floor.

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