FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 13, 2008
CONTACT: Matt Mackowiak
Sen. Hutchison Supports Halting Deposits to Strategic Petroleum Reserve
Amendment Passes Senate 97-1; Sen. Hutchison Urged Halt of Deliveries April 29
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, today voted in favor of an amendment to halt deposits of petroleum into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPRO). Before the vote on the Republican-offered American Energy Production Act, Sen. Hutchison delivered these remarks on the Senate floor:
“Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the bill that we are going to vote on starting at 11:00. We have an amendment filed by the distinguished republican leader. The Senator from New Mexico is the prime sponsor of this amendment. And I commend Senator Domenici for his continuing leadership in the energy -- for his continuing leadership in the energy arena.
“In January of 2007 when control of congress changed hands shall the price of gasoline was $2.33 a gallon. Today it is $3.61 a gallon, that's a 55% increase and it is going in that direction even further. Mr. President, the reason for the record-high price is simple economics. The global demand for energy has soared, especially in fast-rising countries like China and India. Meanwhile, the supply of energy has remained largely stagnant. This is a simple, classic economic principle -- the law of supply and demand. When the demand goes up, the supply stays the same, the price goes up. Knowing that, the best way for Congress to reduce the price of energy is to increase the supply of energy. We need more American oil, more American natural gas, more American clean coal, and we need more American nuclear power. That is why I join the Ranking Member of the Energy committee to introduce the bill today that would do exactly that.
“First, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Mr. President, two weeks ago I wrote a letter to the president signed by 13 Republican Senators. I notice that it was announced by the Minority Leader that -- the majority leader, excuse me, that 51 Senators on his side had signed the same type letter in March. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the letter be introduced into the record.
“Mr. President, what we're asking the president to do is temporarily halt deposits of oil into the SPRO. Today the SPRO holds 118 days -- almost four months -- of reserve for emergency in this country. Mr. President, I'd like to stop now and ask for unanimous consent that I be added as a cosponsor of the Dorgan amendment, number 4737.
“Because what the Dorgan Amendment does and what is also included in our bill is to ask for a temporary halt on any more oil going into the SPRO. Halting the daily deposits of 76,000 barrels a day into the SPRO would allow 3 million additional gallons of gasoline to be available on the market. If we halted the 13 million barrels of oil the Department of Energy has sought contracts for to go into SPRO, it would be more than the total of the February 2008 imports from Libya, Syria, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Azjerbaijan, and China combined. It would halt additional contributions to the SPRO for 180 days and ensure that these resources could be utilized immediately in the marketplace.
“In addition, we would open the grassy plains of ANWR, which is unavailable for drilling today, and the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that there can be as much as 10 billion barrels of oil in ANWR. This would be almost enough oil to replace what we import from Saudi Arabia every day. What would be drilled in ANWR isn't near a forest or a stream. It is a grassy plain. It is 2,000 acres, about the size of national airport, in an area, ANWR, which is the size of the state of South Carolina. So drilling in this grassy plain would be environmentally safe and it would make America much more independent, much more reliant on ourselves and our resources for our energy needs.
“A place we need to go, another area, the outer continental shelf, could contain as much as 115 billion barrels of oil in the outer continental shelf. That is more than Venezuela's proven reserves of 80 billion barrels.
“We need more refinery capacity. This amendment encourages refinery expansion to alleviate supply concerns with refined petroleum, which is gasoline.
“Mr. President, this amendment that we are voting on today would not do much to bring down the demand because, in fact, we can't control what China and India are demanding in oil and natural gas resources. But it can affect supply. And that's what congress has turned a blind eye to doing.
“All they talk about is a windfall profits tax on oil companies. We tried that once before, and what happened? Jobs went overseas, we had to import more from overseas, so we became more dependent on foreign sources, and we lost jobs in our country. The price would not go down. It would just come from foreign sources instead of ours.
“So let's don't talk about things that will not help. Let's talk about supply, which we can help by working together to increase our utilization of our own natural resources, Mr. President. This year we will spend $500 billion to import oil. All of those dollars could stay here in America, creating good jobs in America and making us self-reliant. If there is anything that America stands for, it is the spirit of self-reliance; of knowing that if we are running into a crisis, if our economy is down, that we would be dependent on ourselves, because we have the resources to meet this demand. We have the resources. Now we need the will power. We need the good, old American spirit to say “we can prevail.” We can reduce prices, we can help the American family get over the hump, we can do something by relying on ourselves, Mr. President, and that's what the amendment we're voting on will do.
“I hope the American people will look at these votes. Do they want political rhetoric, windfall profits taxes that send jobs overseas or do they want real solutions, short term by not putting any oil in SPRO right now and putting it on the market to start bringing that price down and to let those who are hedging on commodities know that America is going to act? And the best thing we could do for America to show those hedgers that we're going to act is to say were are going to take the long-term steps too. We are going to drill in our own areas that we control. We are going to put jobs in America we’re going to help the states get their royalties if they want to drill offshore and we're going to stand up and say, this is America. We'll take care of ourselves with our own natural resources. That's the vote today.”
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