SENATOR HUTCHISON DISCUSSES ENERGY EXPLORATION

In January of 2007, when control of Congress changed hands, the price of gasoline was $2.33 a gallon. Today, it is $3.73 a gallon. That is a 60-percent increase, and it is going in that direction even further.

The reason for the record-high price is simple economics. The global demand for energy has soared, especially in fast-rising countries such as 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 and 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 joined the ranking member of the Energy Committee to introduce the bill today that would do exactly that.

First, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Two weeks ago, I wrote a letter to the President, signed by 13 Republican Senators. I noticed it was announced by the majority leader that 51 Senators on his side had signed the same type of letter in March. I ask unanimous consent that the letter be printed in the Record with the signatures of the 13 Senators.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

Mr. President, what we are asking the President to do is temporarily halt deposits of oil into the SPR. Today, the SPR holds 118 days--almost 4 months--of reserve for an emergency in this country.

I wish to stop now to ask unanimous consent to be added as a cosponsor of the Dorgan amendment No. 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 SPR. Halting the daily deposits of 76,000 barrels a day into the SPR 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 SPR, it would be more than the total February 2008 imports from Libya, Syria, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Azerbaijan, and China combined.

The amendment offered today would halt additional contributions to the SPR 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. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there could 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 of 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.

There could be 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 refinement capacity. This amendment encourages refinement expansion to alleviate supply concerns with refined petroleum, which is gasoline.

This amendment 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. That is 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 for our country. The price would not go down. It would just come from foreign sources instead of ourselves. 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.

This year we will spend about $500 billion to import oil. All those dollars could stay in America, creating good jobs in America and making us self-reliant. If there is anything 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 willpower. 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. That is what the amendment we are 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 SPR right now and putting it on the market to start bringing that price down and to let those who are hedging on commodities know America is going to act. The best we can do for America to show those hedgers we are going to act is to say we are going to take the long-term steps. We are going to drill in our own areas that we control. We are going to put jobs in America. We are going to help the States get their royalties if they want to drill offshore. We are going to stand up and say: This is America, and we will take care of ourselves with our own natural resources. That is the vote today.

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