Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act

Floor Speech

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

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I thank the chairman for his leadership.

Today we have arrived at a moment of truth on energy policy in this body. For weeks, our Republican colleagues have claimed they want a comprehensive piece of legislation, an all-of-the-above piece of legislation when it comes to energy policy. Now we have just such an initiative before us on the floor of this House, and they won't take ``yes'' for an answer.

It turns out that they want all of the above with a big asterisk next to it. It turns out it is all of the above, except let's not take away some of the taxpayer giveaways and subsidies to the big oil and gas companies and use those moneys instead for renewable energy and energy efficiency.

I think the American people know what a cozy relationship there has been between the Bush White House and Big Oil. I think last week we learned just how cozy that was between the Bush Department of the Interior and the oil industry.

This bill does two main things. First of all, it greatly expands opportunities for responsible offshore drilling in our country, and uses the royalties and proceeds from those drilling operations to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

But let's not try and fool the American people. The Department of Energy has made it clear that even if you drilled on every square inch of this country today, you wouldn't see a drop in price of gas at the pump for a very long time and the price impact would be minimal. Why? The United States has 3 percent of the world's oil reserves and guzzles 25 percent of the world's oil.

You cannot drill your way to energy independence, which is why we have the second part of this bill, which is a huge increase in renewable energy and energy efficiency, why we establish a national 15 percent renewable energy standard by 2020. That is why we redirect the subsidies away from the oil and gas industry, who are making record profits, and invest that money instead in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

It is too bad that in listening to the debate today, that our Republican colleagues will not cease this opportunity to move forward together on what is a comprehensive plan. It is too bad that they refuse to break that connection with the oil and gas industry as a result of the provisions in this bill that say let's redirect those subsidies.

This is a serious challenge that our country is facing. This is a serious proposal that is put forth to bridge the differences and try to move forward together on an important piece of legislation for the American people. It is unfortunate, just listening to the debate, that some of our colleagues want so badly to have a political issue to take to this election that they refuse to come together as one in this body to actually get something real done.

Mr. Speaker, the American people deserve better than that. They deserve a piece of legislation that will move us forward on this very important issue.

They deserve for this House to support this bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source