FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 13, 2007
CONTACT: Matt Mackowiak
Sen. Hutchison: Failed Energy Legislation Would Decrease Supply and Raise Gas Prices for American Consumers
Voted Against Tax Increases in Energy Bill
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) today delivered remarks on the Senate floor in opposition to a Senate energy bill with $21 billion in tax increases, will raise energy production costs, decrease supply, and cause gas prices to soar even higher. Sen. Hutchison voted against cloture, which would have cut off debate on the bill and effectively cleared it for Senate passage. The motion to invoke cloture failed by a vote of 59 – 40.
Here are excerpts from Sen. Hutchison’s floor speech, delivered before the cloture vote this morning:
“I rise today to urge my colleagues not to vote for this bill and to insist that we have an energy bill that will create more energy supply for our country. The energy bill that is going to be before us today for a cloture vote will not increase supply of energy.
“…I cannot imagine the United States Congress trying to pass a bill that will decrease supply and increase our dependence on foreign sources for our energy needs. 60%. We're the greatest nation on earth. We should be addressing this aggressively to increase supply. The good part of this bill is the CAFE standards, which have been agreed to in a bipartisan way. That will go a long way toward conservation and beginning to make our automobiles more efficient and environmentally friendly. But the $20 billion in taxes on oil supply take away the increase in supply that is so important to bring down prices.
“…This takes away those incentives for refinery capacity to increase. It also will drive overseas the production of oil because we are penalizing our oil companies with this $20 billion in taxes. So what this will do is decrease supply, increase price. I cannot think of a worse message that we would be sending and worse tax policy that would say to the world and to any business that wants to do business in our country that you can count on tax policy for a year or two, but you cannot make long-term plans in America because we may change policy if we change congress.
“…Let's stop the games in Congress. Let's do something that will help our energy supply that will bring prices down. Let's take the good parts of this bill, like the CAFE standards and the incentives for renewable energy and clean energy. All of those things are very good. I want clean energy, I want solar power, I want wind power, I want biofuels; I want cellulosic ethanol and corn-based ethanol.
“Mr. President, I hope that we will provide adult leadership in the United States Congress. Let's not pass cloture on this bill. Let's do an energy bill that the President will sign, that will have bipartisan support that will make CAFÉ standards much more environmentally friendly, that will increase our supply of renewable and environmentally friendly energy needs for our country and supply that. And, let's keep the bread and butter energy supply by increasing refinery capacity by bringing the cost down to consumers and keep our economy on a more even keel. I hope my colleagues will vote no today so we can put an energy bill forward that will have the support of a bipartisan majority in congress and get the President's signature. That should be the goal, not political game playing which we are seeing this week at the very last minute in congress.”
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