Energy
Floor Speech
ENERGY -- (Senate - July 29, 2008)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from North Dakota, who has come to the floor almost every day to talk about the energy crisis. But if the American people had their choice, all of us would be talking about it every day of the week. It takes anywhere from an hour to 2 hours to go from downtown Chicago out to O'Hare. I have made the trip a lot. But recently, the fellow who was driving me said: I have noticed something strange. Even during rush hour, there are fewer cars out here. I know a lot of people are on vacation, but something is changing.
I have noticed it all over my State, and I think people are noticing it all over the country. What is changing is people are looking at gasoline that costs $4.50 or $4.30 a gallon and saying: I will drive less. I am going to look for a car or truck that is more fuel efficient. People are understanding in their daily lives that things are changing, not always for the better, because as the price of oil goes up and the price of gasoline goes up, we may make energy-conserving decisions, but some of those are forced on us. Some of those are painful, painful when we pay for the gasoline each week and painful when people find their family budgets wrecked by the cost of gasoline.
They are not alone. The major airline companies have now announced dramatic cutbacks in scheduling and in employees. They can't keep up. The price of jet fuel has gone through the roof. I have met with the CEOs of these companies. The stories they tell are very sad. They can't afford to fly people anymore. They can't charge enough. They can't make enough. They are charging us now for everything in sight, $15, $20, $50 for a second bag they check, trying to keep the airlines afloat. And some of them will fail, I am afraid, unless something dramatic happens.
So it is no surprise that on the floor of this Senate we have talked a lot about this energy issue. There are two distinct points of view, and I think they tell the difference between outlook. Senator Dorgan of North Dakota talked about ``yesterday forever.'' On the Republican side, their idea is to drill more oil, keep drilling, keep finding more oil. Sadly, they have ignored the reality.
The reality is this: If you take a look at all the oil reserves in the world, the United States has 2 percent of the world's oil reserves. Ninety-eight percent, of course, is in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Canada. We have 2 percent of the oil reserves.
The oil consumption by the United States? We consume 24 percent of the oil. In other words, we cannot drill our way out of this. We cannot find enough oil here to sustain the American economy. If you are going to be honest--and you should be with the American people--if we made a decision tomorrow to start drilling in any specific spot, for instance, off the coast of the United States, it takes literally years for that to happen, for it to go into production, and to deliver the oil to the United States. Estimates are 8 to 14 years.
So coming to the floor and saying: Drill more, drill now--well, the reality is, ``drill now'' means drill in 8 to 14 years. That is going to have little impact on current gasoline prices, no matter what we think. That is the reality. The question, obviously, is: Are there places we should go to drill? Well, of course there are. The United States is in control of its sovereign territory as a nation, and its offshore territory as well. The Federal Government owns many public lands, and some of those are used for ski resorts and national parks and mining.
Some are used for oil and gas exploration. We say to the companies: If you would like to drill more oil and gas on our land, the Federal land, pay us a lease, pay us a rental, and we will allow you to do so. The oil and gas companies gobble up this territory. In fact, 68 million acres of Federal land are currently under lease to oil and gas companies for that purpose: to drill for oil.
What are they doing with those 68 million acres? Well, it turns out a lot of them are not being utilized. This is a little map of the Western part of the United States I have in the Chamber. The land you see in red is Federal land leased to oil and gas companies not in production. When the Republicans say we have to put more acres out there for them to drill, the fact is, they are paying us to lease acres they are not touching. I do not know what the explanation might be, but of those onshore, 34.5 million acres have been leased from the Federal Government and go untouched.
It is just not onshore. If we think the mother lode is offshore, as shown on this other map, these are acres we have leased in the Gulf of Mexico, and all those in red are currently untouched--leased, so the oil and gas companies believe there is oil or gas there but untouched.
So to argue there is not enough acreage for us to go searching for oil, there is some 68 million acres of leased Federal land to oil companies, and zero of those acres in production onshore and offshore.
We recently had a lease to offer 115 million more acres of Federal land available to these companies for lease for oil and gas purposes. This was in the last year--since January, I should say, of 2007. Mr. President, 115 million acres were offered.
What does 115 million acres of land that the Federal Government owns and will lease to oil and gas companies represent? This is the path, as shown on this map, of Interstate 80, which most of us know. It goes from New Jersey all the way to California. This represents a 67-mile-wide swath along I-80. That is the size of the acreage we have offered to the oil and gas companies to drill on for oil and gas. Of that, they have accepted 12 million acres they bid on. Another 103 million acres have gone unclaimed by these oil and gas companies. So it is not as if there is not land available. There is--a lot of it--millions and millions of acres made available to these companies. Some they are paying for, some they could lease. There is plenty of land for them to drill.
So why, then, is the Republican approach that we need to drill more, when the opportunity is there? There are plenty of acres, and we know that even with drilling, we are going to wait 8 to 14 years to see the first drop of oil. Well, here is what it is all about.
For the last 8 years, the White House has been under the control of a President and a Vice President with a deep background in the oil industry--both President Bush and Vice President Cheney. And not coincidentally, the oil companies have done very well. The policies of this administration have been very friendly to these oil and gas companies. They are reporting record profits, which I will get to in a moment.
So the last gasp before this crew leaves town is for the Republican side of the aisle to give to the big oil groups more leased land, give them more land to stockpile inventory for future purposes. That is what this is all about. It is not about solving the current energy crisis. It is not about bringing down gasoline prices. That is 8 to 14 years away, if ever. It is about, frankly, giving big oil exactly what it wants.
If you think I am making this up, take a look at the full-page ads in your hometown newspapers by the American Petroleum Institute supporting the Republican position. What is the American Petroleum Institute? The largest and smallest oil companies in America. They understand this is their last grab under this administration and the Republicans want to give them that grab and take that land and try to convince the American people it will make a difference when it comes to our energy policy. Quite honestly, we know better.
Now, in a short time--maybe a matter of days, maybe this week--the oil companies are going to be reporting their latest profits. This chart will show you what is happening to big oil profits since this administration took office. Starting in 2002 to 2007, you can see a dramatic increase in billions of dollars for oil and gas companies in America. These just are not large increases for this industry, these are the largest reported profits of any business in the history of the United States of America.
The oil companies have done extraordinarily well. Notwithstanding all the other arguments, the fact that the Republicans want to give these oil and gas companies one last grab at this land is an indication they want the profit margins to continue.
But is that what we are all about? Is that why we are here, to make sure wealthy, profitable companies make record profits unseen in the history of the United States, at the expense of families who pay for the gasoline, at the expense of businesses that cannot survive, at the expense of our airlines that are shutting down their planes and schedules, at the expense of farmers in my State of Illinois and across the United States? I do not think so.
Our responsibility has to go further. Our responsibility has to go to the point----
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 2 additional minutes.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. DURBIN. The point I want to make is this: We have to look ahead. If President Bush was right when he said America is addicted to oil, how can we break the addiction? We will never be oil free. That is ludicrous. We will have a dependence on fossil fuels, on oil, for my lifetime and well beyond.
But if we want to be fair to the next generation, we have to be pushing for an energy agenda which sees a source of energy homegrown in America, so we are independent and do not have to rely on OPEC and foreign countries, a source of energy that is kind to the environment, so we do not make global warming worse for kids in the future, and a source of energy that is affordable.
In order to reach that goal--and America can reach it--you cannot look backward, as the Republicans have by saying: Let's keep doing what we have always done. Let's keep drilling for oil.
You need responsible exploration and production of oil, and you need another future agenda: a next-year agenda that says we are going to look to a way to produce energy to keep this economy moving that is affordable.
We have the bill to do it. It is a bill that has lost on the floor of the Senate. It is the energy tax production credit. It is one that will produce energy. We cannot get enough Republican votes to support it. We are going to try again. We are going to keep trying because with this bill we are going to expand tax credits for biomass and hydropower, for solar energy, for biodiesel production. We are going to have tax credits for local governments in renewable projects, advanced coal electricity demonstration projects, plug-in electric cars, heavy vehicle excise tax for truck idling reduction. It goes on and on--a list of ways to conserve energy and look to future uses of energy that are consistent with an American economy that will grow and not be too expensive for the American people.
That is what we have to move to. This afternoon we will give our Republican colleagues a chance to take their signs that say ``produce more'' and turn them into a vote for this tax program that will produce more. I hope they will join us in this effort.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator's time has expired.
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