To combat record gas prices at $4.03 a gallon, the House has just voted on the Consumer Energy Supply Act, H.R. 6578. The measure received strong majority support with a vote of 268 to 157, but failed to receive the two-thirds necessary to pass under suspension of the rules. All Democrats present voted for the measure, while 157 Republicans voted against it. The bill would temporarily release nearly 10 percent of the oil from the government’s stockpile (known as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)), and replace it later with heavier, cheaper crude oil. This could bring gas prices down, strengthen our national security, and be a good deal for the American taxpayer. The SPR has been tapped or suspended before by President Bush, President Clinton, and the first President Bush and each time oil has been released the impact on prices has been dramatic and immediate. In 1991, oil prices immediately dropped by 33 percent. The 2000 exchange drove oil prices down by 19 percent. And the release by President Bush in 2005 resulted in a 9 percent drop.
Speaker Pelosi: “Every time it’s been done, the price of oil has come down. So it’s a proven, it’s a proven way to bring the price at the pump down… So we’re saying to the oil companies, use it or lose it. Use your permits, drill for oil, but don’t say I don’t want to drill there where I have an environmental permit to drill, I want to go drill in some protected area which is going to take longer for me to do, by the way, and the reason I’m not drilling so much where I’m allowed to is I don’t have the equipment to do it. So see this for the hoax on the American people that it is. Yes, we’re saying drill, use it or lose it. As a way to increase domestic supply. We’re also saying you increase domestic supply by investing in renewable energy resources, wind, solar, biofuels and the rest.”
Select Committee Chairman Ed Markey: “And the Republican Party and President Bush and Vice President Cheney are talking about anything but using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to protect the American consumer at the pump today. And there’s a good reason. Because the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is to the oil industry what kryptonite is to Superman. It saps them of their strength immediately. It decreases dramatically their power over ordinary citizens across our country and that’s why they object to it.”
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (MD-08): “And if we responsibly just put a little bit of this oil away we can provide relief at the pump today. Unfortunately, the President’s resisted this call, just like he resisted our call to stop filling the strategic petroleum reserve which he finally relented in doing so. We need to pass this legislation. This is not a long-term policy. We need to work together to make sure that on a long-term basis we tap the ingenuity of this country, our renewable energy, renergy efficiency and esponsible drilling. But Americans are hurting now. This is not a so-called mental recession, as we heard from former senator Phil Gramm. The pain is real, and we need to address it now. You know, a few months ago I think we all saw a spectacle that made us shudder. We saw President Bush travel to Saudi Arabia to plead with their king to pump more oil. The Saudi king turned him down cold…”
Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR-04): “It’s as if the first six years of the Bush Administration never existed. The Republicans controlled the House, the White House, and the United States Senate. Vice President Dick Cheney at the President’s behest met secretly with the oil and gas industry and other energy producers and proposed an energy policy, a Republican energy policy. That policy was passed by the Republican House of Representatives, adopted by the Republican Senate, and signed by the Republican President. We’ve been living under it now for a couple of years. And it’s having the predictable results… They didn’t mandate increases in fuel standards. They didn’t mandate development of alternative fuels. They had a few pretend things about hydrogen which was far enough off in the future that it didn’t upset their benefactors in the oil industry, because they know hydrogen is 20 or 30 years off… Now suddenly they’re all for action, they’re all for action. ”
This entry was posted
on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 1:23 pm by Jesse Lee and is filed under The Environment, Energy Independence.
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