Affordable and Sustainable Fuel
The price of gasoline continues to strain family budgets and businesses. In 2012, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects gasoline retail prices to average $3.48 per gallon in 2012. The price of a barrel of crude oil will reach an average of about $100 - $5 more than the average price last year. I supported the Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act, bipartisan legislation to provide the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with the explicit authority to investigate and punish those who artificially inflate the price of energy.
One way that we can lower prices is to increase domestic oil production through additional drilling and exploration. That is why I supported the Drill Responsibly in Leased Lands Act, which would require oil companies to either start using the idle leases they hold or turn them over to someone else.
Improving the fuel efficiency of our cars and trucks is smart policy. It helps both our economy and the environment, while decreasing our dependence on oil produced by unstable, politically volatile countries. That is why I wrote to President Obama to commend him for implementing new standards that raise the average efficiency of passenger cars and trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. These new standards will slash oil consumption by four billion barrels and cut two billion metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution.
I also co-sponsored the Open Fuel Standard Act. This bipartisan legislation requires that beginning in 2014, 50 percent of new automobiles must be alternative vehicles capable of operating on another fuel in addition to, or in place of, gasoline – such as natural gas, electricity, bio-diesel, hydrogen, or flex fuel vehicles that can run on blends of methanol and ethanol. In 2016, the requirement goes up to 80 percent of all new passenger vehicles sold, and 95 percent of vehicles in 2017.
In 2007, I supported the bipartisan Energy Independence and Security Act, which raised fuel efficiency standards for automobiles for the first time in 32 years and required that America use 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel per year by 2022.
In 2006, I led the effort to strengthen the federal government's ability to respond to price gouging during times of national emergency. Specifically, it gave the Federal Trade Commission the authority to severely punish oil and gas companies that unfairly profit from price gouging and market manipulation. Additionally, the plan established a National Strategic Refining Reserve to help bring additional refined gasoline to the marketplace during future shortages like the one we experienced after Hurricane Katrina.