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Floor Statement: Columbian Free Trade Agreement, Judicial Nominees, Energy Policy

Columbian Free Trade Agreement, Judicial Nominees, Energy Policy - Thursday, July 10, 2008 View video | Can't view the video?

I too want to talk about high gasoline prices, but I want to talk about other unfinished business that Congress - that this United States Senate has not taken care of. Fortunately we do have one positive development and that is yesterday we passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after 145 days after it lapsed. So that's a good thing. But we've got unfinished work to do.

For example, the Colombian Free-Trade Agreement - it's been 597 days since our farmers an manufacturers have been disadvantaged by tariffs on goods sold here in America, particularly in my state of Texas, $2.3 billion dollars a year that are charged tariffs when they're imported into Colombia when Colombian goods bear no similar tariff when they're imported into the United States.

There is the matter of judicial nominees waiting for a vote. Some as long as 742 days.

And then, finally, on the matter of gasoline prices, it was about 808 days when Speaker Pelosi said that if she and other Democrats were put in charge, they would come up with a commonsense plan to bring down the price of gasoline at the pump. Well, that was when gasoline was about $2.33 a gallon. Now gasoline averages $4.10 a gallon and we're still waiting for that commonsense plan to bring down the price of gasoline at the pump.

Increasingly, Americans are squeezed by the high cost of gasoline. Of course it's driving up everything from food prices to competing with people's ability to pay for their housing, their health care, transportation. And, obviously the tax bite, which state and local taxes and Federal taxes take up a huge amount. A huge amount, about 111 days of income is used just to pay for that tax burden.

But what we need to do, I firmly believe, is to find more domestic energy as we use less. And what do I mean by that? By using less, we need to conserve, we need to be more efficient. America consumes about 20% of the world's oil supply, and, unfortunately, about 60% of that we import from foreign sources. And we are literally held hostage by groups like OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, countries like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and others, who are charging us about $140 for a barrel of oil. And, of course, that oil is used to make gasoline at refineries. But my constituents in Texas are very worried about the failure of Congress to act by removing the impediments or the moratoria on developing what is 85% of our natural resources here at home. That's what I mean by finding more while we use less.

For example, Deborah from Lovelady, Texas, a town of roughly 600 people just a Texas mile north of Houston, recently wrote me this letter. She said "I'm a teacher in a small rural east Texas school, so my income is very limited. I drive almost 30 miles one way to work each day as do many of my neighbors and my family. We've chosen to stay in small towns for the everyone is family feeling they still give. But it makes it harder to live with the cost of everything rising."

She says, "The cost of gasoline is limiting everything I do. I will not make a trip to town unless it is for my monthly shopping needs or to go to church. There will be no summer trips for me this year as I do not see a way to afford driving anywhere."

She concludes. "I know that there are vast resources America could tap into. Please look into exploring the energy resources that we already have in America."

Well that, I believe, Deborah speaks for a lot of people in this country now. As they see their prices go up, as it drives commodity prices like food costs going up. They're finding it harder and harder to make it even if they do have a job. And even if they have an income. I believe it's past time for Congress to respond by removing the impediments to domestic production. That's why I cosponsored the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008. And that act can be summed up as this chart does, find more and use less. It opens up offshore and shale oil deposits for exploration so that America's energy producers can gain access to Federal lands. This also will create jobs right here in America which is something I would think that we would want to do at a time when we're talking about economic stimulus, about concern for the economy. Don't we want to create more jobs here in America rather than have those jobs created in place like Saudi Arabia or Mexico or Canada or Venezuela?

At the same time this bill increases research and development initiatives for battery operated plug-in hybrid technology. I think it is hard for many of my constituents in Texas with the long distances that they have to drive to imagine a day when they will be driving a battery operated hybrid car. But I do predict the day is coming. And companies like General Motors and the other car manufacturers in 2010 will begin selling these plug-in hybrid cars that you can literally plug into a wall socket at night and recharge the battery and drive 40 miles on that battery before you need a generator to recharge the battery to provide you additional range. This is in our future. Right now we have 240 million cars on the road and the average age of the cars is about nine years. So obviously this will take a long time, about a decade, before we can transition from the gas guzzlers and the cars that we drive now to something that provides an additional alternative.

Well, I think we're beginning to see some cracks in the intransigence of many in Congress to preventing additional domestic production. I know that there's a number of Senators, a fabled group called the Group of 10, Gang of 10, five Republicans, five Democrats who are meeting to try to come up with a bipartisan alternative. I applaud that effort. It's really important because as we all know nothing happens around here unless it's on a bipartisan basis. And I think it's very important, as I saw the Democratic Whip say, that he wasn't opposed to more exploration and production. I would invite those who are worried about exploration and production here in America to fly into DFW Airport where you can see gas wells drilled into the Barnett shale right there at the airport when you land or take off. It is being done using modern drilling technology that is compatible with the safety and security of the neighbors as well as good for the environment.

We need to act in a bipartisan fashion on real energy solutions, a combination of conservation and energy production. It will be good for America's economy and our energy policy as well as our national security.

Find more, use less.