Cornyn: This is Not an Energy Strategy, This is a Public Relations Strategy

Statement

ust before the Senate voted down the Democrats' proposed energy tax legislation by procedural vote, U.S. Senator John Cornyn spoke on the Senate floor and announced his opposition to the legislation:

"This is not an energy strategy," Senator Cornyn said. "This is a public relations strategy. This is a "how do I get re-elected strategy.' It does not solve the problem or the pain that Americans are feeling at the pump."

Excerpts from Senator Cornyn's remarks are below:

Mixed Messages

"If you pay attention to what the President and this Administration have said about fossil fuels and energy, it'll give you whiplash… there are so many apparent inconsistencies between what is said and what is actually done."

"In March of 2010 {the President} proposed expanding offshore drilling along the Atlantic Coastline, the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, near my home in Texas, and the North Coast of Alaska."

"At that time he said as follows, "The answer is not drilling everywhere all the time, but the answer is not also for us to ignore the fact that we're going to need vital energy sources to maintain our economic growth and our security.'"

Over-regulation

"But as you know, following the deepwater horizon incident the Administration overacted in a way that discouraged jobs and energy production here at home… After that the Administration was not through. Where the former moratorium no longer existed, there was a permitorium. Only 12 Deepwater permits have been approved in the last months. Only 12. There were in addition, cancellation of the dozens of lease sales in Utah and Montana and exclusion of new areas in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the Atlantic Coast. That to me, is completely inconsistent with the President's Statement just in March 2010."

"Then we know there are numerous examples where the environmental protection agency has thrown up roadblocks and impediments to energy production right here at home."

"Because the President has not had an adequate response or at least his actions have been inconsistent with his words, he reversed himself again this Saturday and said, now he supports more domestic oil and gas production, like he did more than a year ago."

Democrat Energy Tax Bill

"We know why the Senators who introduced this bill have done so: because they've been getting so much heat back home because of high gas prices, their constituents are demanding that they do something. But what they are proposing we do has nothing to do with bringing down the price of gas at the pump. In fact, it will likely increase the price of gas at the pump. In fact, the chairman of the Finance Committee, on which I sit, he said--you know, this is not going to change the price at the gasoline pump. That's not the issue. I don't see that as an issue at all…the Majority Leader himself said, "it's not a question of gas prices. It's a question of fairness and priorities"…

Well, Madam President, if gasoline prices being paid by Americans all across this country aren't the priority, and if jobs that are created and sustained by producing domestic oil and gas right here in America aren't the priority, my colleagues who are proposing this legislation have the wrong priority."

"The very people that our friends across the aisle are going to be punishing are the retirees and the pension holders, the people who hold stock in these oil and gas companies who are going to be forced to pay higher prices and ultimately be passed along to the consumer, I believe, in higher energy costs."

"They want to punish people who produce American energy right here at home and they're going to leave OPEC and these other countries to pay lower effective relative rates. So if you raise taxes on American producers and you don't do anything to similarly raise taxes on their competition, what's going to happen?

"We're going to raise taxes on the people who produce it at home, and to make it in effect cheaper on foreign energy producers to produce it and sell it to us. It makes absolutely no sense. It's punitive. It's discriminatory and it's not going to solve the problem that most of America is complaining about today, which is high gasoline prices."

"But my conclusion, Madam President, is that this is not an energy strategy. This is a public relations strategy. This is a how do I get re-elected strategy. It does not solve the problem or the pain that Americans are feeling at the pump."

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