Energy Policy Act of 2004

ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 2004 -- (House of Representatives - June 15, 2004)

Mr. HALL. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 671, I call up the bill (H.R. 4503) to enhance energy conservation and research and development, to provide for security and diversity in the energy supply for the American people, and for other purposes.

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.
Does the Republican energy bill help the American consumer? Does it have any meaningful help whatsoever? Well, the answer is no. And who do we get the answer from? We get the answer from the Department of Energy, the Bush administration. Here is what it says.

It says, "The impact of this bill analyzed in this report on total primary energy consumption is small on a fuel specific basis; changes to production, consumption, imports and prices are negligible."

What else does it say? It says, "In 2015 the average gasoline prices relative to the reference case are 3 cents per gallon higher and average reformulated gasoline prices are 8 cents per gallon higher than in the reference case," meaning today.

So this bill, according to the Bush administration's own Department of Energy, is going to lead to gas prices that are 3 to 8 cents higher than today. The American people are thinking, I wonder what Congress is going to do about high gasoline prices?

Well, according to the Bush administrations's own Department of Energy, this bill will increase them by 3 to 8 cents per gallon. That is a travesty.

This bill will have a negligible impact on energy production, a negligible impact on energy consumption, a negligible impact on energy imports, will increase the price of gasoline by 3 cents a gallon for regular. It will increase gas prices by 8 cents a gallon for reformulated. It provides $23 billion worth of special interest tax breaks for the oil, gas, coal, nuclear, utility industry. It weakens the Clean Air Act. It weakens the Clean Water Act. It repeals the protections against cross-subsidies amongst these big energy giants.

But what is not in here? SUVs, automobiles, vehicles, where we put 70 percent of all oil in our country. Not a word. We will not be doing anything about that in this bill. We now import 60 percent of our oil and we have 135,000 young people over in the Middle East. This bill does not do anything about that. We are coming back in 15 more years importing 80 percent of our oil as the next generation of young men and women go over to the Middle East to protect the oil lines coming into our country.

This bill does not meet the challenge of those 135,000 young men and women over in the Middle East. It does not meet the challenge of the 24 million children and adults with asthma in our country from all of this pollution. It does not meet the challenge of 60, 70, 80 percent of our oil being imported into our country. It does not meet the challenge of the day. We have young men and women over in the Middle East. This bill does not reduce our dependence upon imported oil. It raises the price of gasoline at the pump, and it leaves the next generation wondering when they will have to go over to the Middle East.

This bill is a failure. It does not do the job for the American public. It must be rejected as historically inappropriate for the challenge this generation faces to meet the challenge of the times that we live in.

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