Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act

Floor Speech

COMPREHENSIVE AMERICAN ENERGY SECURITY AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT -- (House of Representatives - September 16, 2008)

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I thank the gentleman for yielding and his recognition of the fact that this legislation is indeed a compromise. It isn't the bill that any one of us would have written individually, but it brings us together in consensus. I want to thank the distinguished chairman of the National Resources Committee, Mr. Rahall, for his extraordinary leadership on this bill.

This is a difficult bill because we all had to come from different directions on it, and we've come to agreement.

I want to also acknowledge the important work that was done by Gene Green, Congressman Gene Green of Texas; by George Miller, the Chair of the Education and Labor Committee; and John Dingell, the Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, all of whom who are cochairs of this important legislation.

I would like to acknowledge Charlie Rangel, the Chair of the Ways and Means Committee for the provisions from his bill in this bill, and Neil Abercrombie who really tried to bring as many of the provisions of the legislation he was cosponsoring into this legislation so that it really did reflect the thinking of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle, if not to get the support from both.

I also want to acknowledge Congresswoman Slaughter for her input. And Mr. Abercrombie has joined us. Thank you, Mr. Abercrombie. I'm pleased to acknowledge your great leadership on this, this step in the right direction with certainly more to come.

I want to remind our colleagues or inform, for those who may not have been born yet, that in 1973 during that energy crisis, President Nixon became the first President to call for American energy independence. In his 1974 State of the Union address, President Nixon said that the United States should ``not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need to provide our jobs, to heat our homes, and to keep our transportation moving.'' He promised energy independence within 6 years. That would be by 1980. In 1974, he had that vision.

President Nixon was the first to make such a call, but certainly not the last. Practically every national leader in the intervening 33 years has called for energy independence.

Today, this House of Representatives has the opportunity to take this country in a new direction on energy and make that energy independence happen. We have this opportunity with the comprehensive, I call it All American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act.

The legislation we debate today is a bold step forward that will help us end our dependence on foreign oil and strengthen our national security. And protecting the American people is our first responsibility, and so I list that first among the goals and the provisions of this legislation.

The legislation is a result of reasonable compromise that will put us on a path toward energy independence by expanding domestic supply of oil drilled offshore, and expanding domestic supply of energy by investing in renewable energy resources. It will protect consumers with strong action to lower the cost of energy and to protect taxpayers by making Big Oil pay for its fair share of our transition to a clean, renewable energy future.

It will ensure a clean, green energy future through energy efficiency and conservation. It will commit America to renewable energy and help create millions of good paying green jobs. It will do so by rearranging the financial relationship between the American people, their oil, and Big Oil.

Right now I think that the arrangement is a real rip-off of the American taxpayer and the American consumer. And so we say in this legislation to Big Oil, if you want to drill--and to others, but particularly to Big Oil--if you want to drill in the Outer Continental Shelf, let's talk about that.
We're in the position that we are today because for 8 years, President Bush has requested a moratorium on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf.

In recent months, he reversed his policy. And this is a reversal not only of his policy but of decades of policy that had prohibited drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf.
So as a result of his lifting the moratorium on drilling, starting after September 30 at the end of this fiscal year, it will be possible for the U.S. Government to provide leases to companies to drill 3 miles--3 miles--off the coast of our coastal States with no consent from the States. It will be 3 miles, leases given by the Federal Government.

And that's why in order to remedy that, this legislation strikes a compromise and a balance by saying, yes, if you're going to drill offshore, it has to be 50 miles offshore and it has to have an opt-in by the State. The State has to agree that you can drill. The Federal Government can give leases to the private sector to drill 50 miles offshore.

And it also says the following in terms of the financial arrangement. Right now, the status quo, which is what some of our Republican friends want to perpetuate, the status quo is the following: the oil belongs to the American people, and yet Big Oil drills for that oil subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer. At a time when Big Oil's enjoying record and historic profits, they still insist that the U.S. taxpayer subsidize their drilling and have had royalty holidays of paying the taxpayer for the taxpayers' oil which they have been drilling.

So what we're saying in this legislation is that day is over. Now if you want to drill, you're on your own. In the private sector, in the free market, you're on your own. The American people are not subsidizing that drilling. And, by the way, we want our share of the royalties. And lifting the subsidies and getting our royalties, including going back to the royalty holidays of the 1990s, by doing that we will be able to invest in America's energy future by using those funds to invest in renewable energy resources, whether it's wind or solar, biofuels, other clean alternatives.

We'll be able to use that money from that offshore drilling, by now finally getting the taxpayers' fair share, to invest and provide more support for LIHEAP, the low income heating initiative, so important to so many, many families in America and even more so in this time of economic uncertainty. And to invest in our lands and conservation fund, some of the provisions which were in the original bill that Mr. Abercrombie was supporting. So we took up some of the investments that he would make from the royalties that we would recoup and also from not providing subsidies to Big Oil.

Many of us have thought for a long time that there was something wrong with this relationship. Our oil, their profits, we subsidize, we don't get the full benefit of that. But it was only recently that we saw how wrong something was with that relationship. It tells us again and again why it is time for a new direction. And nothing demonstrates that more clearly, I think, than the recent scandal in the Bush Interior Department.

On the Republicans' watch, Interior Department officials accepted football tickets, ski trips, golf outings, and other favors in return for rigging contracts to benefit Big Oil. They engaged in illicit behavior that gives new meaning to the words ``cozy relationship'' between the Republicans and Big Oil.

These Republican officials, one of whom pled guilty just yesterday to corruption charges, were in charge of collecting billions of dollars' worth of oil and natural gas last year alone from companies allowed to drill on Federal lands and offshore. It just isn't right.
So when I said earlier that this was a rip, it's a rip and it's corrupt, and it must be changed. I think all Americans believe that it's time for an oil change in America.

The Democrats stand for that change. Democrats demand it. Republicans are demanding the status quo, but not all Republicans. Many have been involved, though they may not specifically approve of this particular bill, many of the provisions in this legislation were provisions advocated by Republicans in their bipartisan legislation with Mr. Abercrombie.

The status quo, as has been suggested by some, will not bring down the price at the pump. The status quo will not protect taxpayers from subsidizing Big Oil, and the status quo will certainly not make America energy independent. It's time for a new direction. It's time for us to set aside partisan politics on this issue. This should not be an issue on which we are divided.

The protection of our country by assuring energy independence, the creation of new jobs through a new energy green industry in our country with renewable energy resources, the assurance that we will never be in this position again because not only are we expanding the domestic supply of oil, but we are also investing in renewable and other alternatives; and also that, again, security, environmental protection, economic entrepreneurialship in this legislation and a moral responsibility to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and on fossil fuel, to do so in a way that reverses global warming, which in my view is a moral responsibility if you believe, and I think everyone does, that this beautiful planet is God's creation and we have a moral responsibility to preserve it and preserve it in a way that is fair to all of the people who inhabit this planet. And in our case, we're talking about the American people.

So, again, this comprehensive energy package is a result of compromise in favor of sweeping and innovative solutions to America's energy future. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join together to support a clean, renewable energy future by supporting this comprehensive legislation.

Once again, I salute all of those who participated in bringing us to this compromise: some intentionally, some by the basic work that they've been doing in the Congress for a long time and may not, again, support this legislation today but have put their stamp of approval on many of the provisions that they had suggested in other legislation and which we have been pleased to pick up where we had bipartisan agreement.

So I'm very excited about this. This is a very important day in our energy story for America. And I commend all who worked so hard, and so many people did. But we recognize it's only a first step. There are many more issues to be dealt with, more progress to be made, but we cannot wait for that to happen.

In the meantime, I'm pleased that in this legislation we have our legislation related to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve which, if the oil is released, which we have asked the President to do, will immediately bring down the price at the pump within 10 days instead of 10 years--which would be the length of time it would take to bring the price down for 2 cents. Two cents, 10 years; 10 days, our bill.

The President originally resisted. Now he says he may release from the SPR not because Congress asked but because Big Oil asked.

It's about time we got the leverage back to the American people, recognized our need to meet their needs, to protect the consumer and the taxpayer, to keep them safe with energy independence, to grow our economy through good green jobs, and to make sure that we never find ourselves in this situation by making investments in renewable energy resources.

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