believe the senate in prayer us pray almighty an eternal god help us to find ourselves that we may find you and discover one another lord lead us to become part of your family part of one another bound together by ties of your love you n y lawmakers their task requires strength beyond their individual abilities lord they need your wisdom and might for this time of challenge show them the road on which they can make bipartisan progress and give them the courage to do your will remind them that those who so sparingly shall reap sparingly and those who so bountifully shall reap bountifully help them to two leaders or the designees as has been previous announcer will be no roll call vote today there will be though tomorrow as early as eleven a m cry about eleven ten a m will be on voting in relation to the following items to last give or take a few minutes so between now and memorial day recess we have tremendous amount of work to do there are so much unfinished business but let me mention a few things that we're going to complete or give it to  very best first responders collective bargaining bill will be on that tomorrow farm bill conference report we expect the house to consider the conference report as early as this wednesday we need to complete it before we leave here this week which brings me to a point mr president we're going to everything we can to see that we can complete our business fine on friday but that's no guarantee you'll have to build there have to be some cooperation among senators otherwise we're going to work i know this is difficult because people have responsibilities other places outside washington but we very likely could have some work friday afternoon or hopefully not very late in the day but i don't know everyone should be prepared and raise their schedules accordingly we also before we leave here we have this week and next week one of things we have to is appoint conferees to the budget resolution house expected appoint conferees this week disorderly fashion and we only have ten hours to be dis orderly we also will have a statutory direction to complete a resolution of disapproval either yes or no regarding f c c media ownership rule making is present this the reason we're able to do this center gun nickles of oklahoma and i am work during the early ninety's to pass a pass and we did a piece of legislation order we also have even though we can say it quickly it's going to take some time the emergency supplemental will be on the floor next wednesday and we need to complete this before the recess we're not going to be panicked and completeness mr president we know there's an awful money to fund the troops for considerable period after the memorial day recess we want to get it done and we'll do our best to get that done but we're not going to be pushed into doing something we don't think is appropriate and judges i committed some mcconnell i would use my best efforts to have the senate consider three court of appeals nominees before the memorial day recess i've been working with senator leahy to meet that pledge and i'm a republicans on the judiciary committee complain that chairman leahy is moving these too quickly so this president can't have it both ways if i'm going to do what i said i would do we need some co n republicans i can't push the committee to take up nominees they don't want and it's my understanding these two appeals court nominees from michigan have been worked out over a period of six years it's taken a long time to get where we are now so i would hope the republicans would back off their slow walking this otherwise we're not going be able to complete these nominations before the while the recess fin president we're going to do our utmost to get a vote on the energy package before we leave for morial the recess and i repeat we'll likely have to have votes monday we'll i mean i'm sorry but likely have to have votes on this friday we'll do and them as quickly as we can there will be no votes on monday we've had a number of requests over many months for things like have things to do in their home states on that day probably no votes on monday so that's going to make everything a very difficult next week because i don't mind the many different things we have to do as president over the past several days we've seen a terrible tragedy unfolding verna official death toll from cycle on is really unknown but we know it's and not numbers of tens of thousands we have tens of thousands missing international aid organizations fear that we're still in the beginning of a catastrophe so estimated that more than a million a half people remain in desperate need of help are becoming more desperate every day without international aid in expertise many of these men women and children  likely lose their lives to starvation dehydration and disease cholera typhoid among two relationship between the bernese regime and the global community is complicated and that's an understatement but of staggering desperation honda has put aside and accept an outstretched hand that the world extends to them burma is a government run by dictators are non democratic we've had problems with them for years spoke on this floor over the years focusing attention on a non democratic process in burma and how the international community should join the united states in doing something about this today finally one american plane was allowed to land in the country one is the start that is far far a few too many loads of supplies not only are the supplies having difficulty getting in but the military folks in burma are not wanting the international community to help and they're the ones that have the expertise each day that goes by because it's a sad day in that country we've seen the pictures over the weekend of the children playing dads having died from more supplies provide visas dade workers from around the world allow those workers access to regions and communities that are suffering very very much so mcconnell i join together to say the hunter let the world in let this president on friday oil hit yet another record high i don't know what it is today it dropped fifty cents last night to a more than one hundred twenty five dollars a barrel but on friday was about one hundred twenty six dollars a barrel and if it drops down mr president which we hope it does two hundred ten one hundred five one hundred ninety ninety five should be a day of celebration oil is a difficult problem for a country average price for a gallon of gasoline today is now above it all about three dollars and sixty cents a gallon that's the average and the vat is more than three dollars eighty cents a gallon diesel the fuel that moves the goods we buy said four dollars and fifty cents on an average around the country seven years ago when president bush took office average for a gallon of gasoline was about a dollar fifty now it's two and a half times more than now first the steady rise of gas prices was a nuisance then a burden now it's a full blown crisis more than seven in ten americans now say that gas prices have created financial hardships in is are paying an average of three thousand dollars more per year for gasoline and they did seven years ago millions of working people all across america are now spending the first few hours of the work every day just turning back what they've paid for their commute cars more than ever to heat and cool our homes if everything costs more and mr president we have a problem with these people who are paying three thousand dollars in nevada three thousand dollars more than they did seven years ago for gasoline tax their house payments car payments their medicine whether they can send their kids to college it is really very difficult what kind of gross and they buy wipes out most vacations school districts in nevada around the country are forced to make cutbacks in the classroom because the cost of school busses has never been higher i met with the officials of commercial airlines united states short time ago in my office across the hall they said almost fifty percent of the cost of flying an airplane in america today is fuel it's not that way in europe because the dollar is so weak they get much cheaper than we do small business are struggling under the burden of record high shipping costs the sixty eighty dollars or more that americans are paying at the pump means less money for other necessities i've mentioned some of them the gas pump is just the tip of the iceberg almost every part of economy is way down by the price of oil and gas can merican people deserve both short term and long term ends to this crisis last year congress took the first step i passed new energy legislation to raise fuel economy standards for the first time in almost thirty years now car the bush administration to investigate market price manipulation but republicans blocked her efforts to include a mandate for clean renewable ules and we've seen very little action from the white house on market manipulation it's clearly time to take the next step by passing the consumer first energy act which will help lower prices in the short term and continues to curb our addiction to invest in renewable energy to even greater crisis in the long term first this legislation clues a provision that ends the billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil companies whose executives have been hauling record profits while we pay for record prices while executives are making fortunes the companies oil companies the international cartels what i call them are making mr president more money than any companies in the history of the world seven years ago vice president cheney all executives the white house to write our national energy policy some policy has turned out to be so any surprises seven years later the only ones who benefited from that policy are their oil companies second piece of our legislation of course is all companies do their part by investing some of their profits in clean enough for alternative energy if we aggressively promote innovation in solar wind biofuels and geothermal energy we can help lower energy costs create hundreds of thousands of new jobs right here in america and strengthen our national security by reducing our dependence on oil producing nations third provision we protect the american people from price gougers and we all traitors and many of the dark markets part of the reason for the record high prices and oil is that market traders are betting prices for their own amusement and profit you go buy a share of general motors stock e p l margin of fifty percent if you buy one hundred thousand gallons of oil you pay a three to five percent margin they've pushed these prices up remarkably with their speculation they make out like bandits but the rest of us have to face real life consequences this recklessness now gallon when all prices come down significantly from their current levels we can continue filling reserves for now ninety seven percent capacity is sufficient this present we need for tomorrow and our vote we are going to take this fourth provision out of our energy package and we're going to vote on that tomorrow i will be our second vote it's important that everyone not for this this should be bipartisan republicans wrote a letter to the president and senators republican saying this president stop pumping that island reserves i would hope they would join with us tomorrow so that we can get past the sixty vote margin it's required here to pass things finally our plan stands up to opec and countries who are colluding together to keep oil price guy high is a provision that's and pushed by senator herb kohl of wisconsin for a long time and that's in our piece of legislation global commerce requires global leadership all producing nations earning billions of dollars from american consumers for most of these countries oil trade is their overwhelming source of income it's time to use some diplomatic pressure to increase production and lower prices as president our legislation does exactly what it promises it ends more than seven years of bush cheney energy policy that is lined the pockets of modern day or oil barons and let the american people to pay the bill is a sellable it of course not a bill that will solve all the problems of course not but it's a good piece of legislation united states has us three percent of the oil reserves in the world counts anwar and offshore so we can't produce our way out of the problems should we produce more out of the three percent we have of course and we're going to continue to work on that we consume twenty five to thirty percent of all the oil in the world even our population probably doesn't justify that this legislation is an important step will make a difference in the short term and in the long term offers new thinking new investment and a new direction not more of the same so i  republican colleagues to join us in passing this part and piece of legislation starting tomorrow i have passing a law that will tell the president no you can no longer pay one hundred twenty five dollars a barrel  well into the strategic reserve save that for later finally mr president we're going to vote tomorrow on important piece of legislation woven deep within our collective memory of every major american disaster of the images of first responders risk their lives to save others nine eleven years graphically ostrava that fact firefighter goes back into burning buildings even elderly man or woman the medic who tends to victims of ambulance raced to the same place office records often arean redox redirects those in danger to safety every one of these first responders is a hero yet far too often their heroism is overlooked this week we're going to have an opportunity honor their service with legislation to keep them safe and will save lives and also allow them to receive the therapy and benefits they deserve this president senators kennedy and senator gregg have done an outstanding job writing this bipartisan bill their work as a model for what we can accomplish when we abandon partnership and embrace the common good this legislation is a bill that all senators can and should support this legislation provides first responders the dignity and respect the better wages hours working conditions benefits those we count on in times of crisis we may never be able to put a fair price in heroism but this legislation is certainly a start mr president firefighters not just those from new york but from surrounding areas suffer the greatest losses on september eleventh recent tragedies like the fire last summer in charleston south carolina took the life of nine firefighters place called the free library and it was a rainy day and course that cut the crowd down a little bit but the thing that cut the crowd down more than anything else that brought traffic to a standstill is the funeral of a police officer he stopped and some people who robbed a bank and one of them stepped out the car with an assault rifle and automatic weapon not a semiautomatic weapon but an automatic weapon and he was shot many times and county police officers put their lives on the line all the time and do it for us and there's not much that we can do usually to put a fair price on the horizon but tomorrow we can do that this legislation is the start of that this is the but this right to collectively bargain respects state's rights twenty eyes they've already provide the right to collective bargain for public safety officers would not be affected the twenty one states that don't provide for collective bargaining will have the option to start its own systems or they may ask the federal labor relations story to assist in the process th legislation guarantees fairness and public safety by expressly elling strikes lockouts in all forms of work stoppage that's why this is a good bipartisan bill by guaranteeing collective bargaining and promoting better wages and working conditions  this will improve public safety to about any question that first responders who are paid fairly and treated with respect or keep their jobs longer and perform more efficiently and save the taxpayers money when he's across america can rest more easily knowing that their local police fire paramedics and other first responders have long stain ties to the neighborhoods in which they work i met with police and firefighters from nevada and around the country discuss this legislation they like their brothers and sisters across all of them america are just like those in about it i talk about they want us to do everything we can to urge all senators to take action they welcome this opportunity to receive support to do their jobs more effectively and help them provide for their families and protect our families i urge my colleagues to stand for america's brave first responders by supporting the public safety employer employee cooperation a the previous order the leadership time is reserved under the previous order the senate will proceed to a period of morning business until five thirty p m with senators permitted to speak broke the ten minutes each with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designate that the order of speakers be the following senator harkin myself for twenty minutes senator sessions for fifteen minutes senator bingaman thirty minutes senator allard ten minutes senator levin twenty minutes thirty minutes senators burr and dole fifteen minutes together senator dorgan twenty five minutes senator kyl ten minutes senator cardin ten minutes senator cornin fifteen minutes sent him and then this ten minutes senator bond ten minutes senator kennedy ten minutes senator alexander twenty minutes senator cantwell twenty minutes senator collins seven minutes direction without objection to order molding shaping putting together finally passing going to conference and and having conference for about three months the the farm bill what is presently called the farm bill later this week hopefully wednesday the senate will take up hopefully pass by a wide margin the final farm bill conference report which we have called the food conservation and enter she act of two thousand and eight i'd like to just  critically critically important to farming families to world communities and the nation as a whole this is a strong bipartisan farm bill that benefits every american from my hometown of cumming i will population one hundred sixty two to new york city five creation eight million this bill provides a strong farm income safety net so it's good for farmers ranchers producers consumers will like it because it will increase the number of farmers markets ensure a safe dependable supply of high quality low price food it expands initiative providing fresh fruits and vegetables to america's schoolchildren while reforming and expanding other federal nutrition programs and as production increases the farm bill will ensure that our precious land and water resources are protected the final farm bill conference report significantly reforms traditional farm income support programs first mr president eliminates the direct payments to producers of the high just in gross farm incomes and eliminates all payments to those with high non farm incomes now on wednesday or when we get to debating this bill will probably get into it more but i just want to point out that we have come a long way in this farm bill oh maybe not as far as some people want in fact i initially voted for the grassley dorgan amendment on the senate floor but it didn't win which would have cut the level of support even more of to high to high income farmers and so we had to work in a spirit of compromise with the house and i believe we have come up with a good compromise i think of it this way a prior to this farm bill if you had two and a half million dollars in non farm income you would still qualify for farm programs it was only after you had over two and a half million dollars that you wouldn't qualify this bill reduces that to five hundred thousand dollars that is a substantial cut i would submit to anyone and in previous years if you had farm income there was no limit you gotta have five million ten million twenty million dollars in farm income or whatever and you would still get payments this bill reduces that to seven hundred fifty thousand dollars for the head over seven hundred fifty thousand dollars of farm income you don't get any more payments last submit mispresent that is significant significant reform and also  improve transparency accountability we make each farm program payment directly attributed to an individual's direct attribution that means no more hiding behind shields or or  again direct attribution plus we put some pretty tight payment caps up there the conference report also includes a new option for farmers beginning with next year's crop year to choose to participate in a state level revenue protection  a new option for farmers if you want to get in and a participant will accept a twenty percent cut in direct payments and a thirty percent cut in loan rate in return that producer will be eligible for a state based revenue guarantee equal to ninety percent of the national average price now this was a and then genius proposal first brought to us by the national corn growers association we worked it over in our committee in the senate if we took it to conference and i believe we have a good option here for farmers i might also i had a senator brown from ohio a very valuable member of our agriculture committee proposed this in our committee and and it was his earlier at his urging it and i know also senator durbin although not a member of our committee was also instrumental in proposing and pushing for this this option the farm bill also strengthens a milk income loss contract program and continues it for the duration of the farm bill and again here i have to thank our former chairman of our committee senator leahy who has been on this agriculture committee since before i came here is twenty five years ago senator leahy has been really the point person in making sure that our family dairy farmers are protected and to make sure that they have a seat at this table in the previous farm bill in two thousand and two we had set the well let me just put this with the percentage of support under the milk income loss contract at forty five percent i will go into forty five percent of what i can do that later with forty five percent that was knocked down to thirty four percent we have brought it back up to the forty five percent level in this bill where it was by the way five years ago so we didn't increase it we just brought it back up to the level at which i it had been we also used an existing formula that the department of agriculture uses called the milk feed price index to adjust this in the future so that we won't have to have these erosions in the future so that if the price of feed goes up that support will go up if the price of feed comes down that support comes down makes eminently good sense i think it's economically it's reasonable in terms of economics for making sure we included that the new farm bill includes two new titles focusing on livestock and especially crops in the last farm bill that i was privileged to chair as in two thousand and two we added a new title on energy we added two new titles this time livestock and especially crops so this bill provides a billion dollars for special crops investing more in the promote promotion especially across in any previous farm including funding for market research as well support for producers who are transitioning into organics organic agriculture is one of the fastest growing sectors of american agriculture we have recognized that and by putting more funds in there for transition support for farmers markets and for aggregation of of commodities from small farmers the livestock the new livestock title promotes animal health market opportunities contracting fairness and stepped up enforcement oversight of the packers and stockyards act so it's good for our livestock producers at a time of economic downturn rapidly rising food prices for food safe millions of low income americans have joined the ranks of hungry and food insecure for that reason basically all of the added money we added on this goes to the nutrition title bring in the new money in nutrition to ten point four billion dollars in this bill were ten billion dollars over baseline and so the new money that we basically got through the finance committee at ten billion dollars a base it was all put in the haitian program plus we took another four hundred million dollars from inside the farm bill and added to it so you can actually really honestly say that all the new money we've put in this farm bill we put in to nutrition this the new funding will reform and strengthen nutrition assistance if we raise the standard deduction now keep in mind the standard deduction was frozen in one thousand nine hundred six under the president clinton's a welfare reform bill that was frozen and it's wreaked havoc on our low income people since day it would be a hundred and sixty dollars a month hundred sixty dollars a month i'm sorry miss but i made a mistake if that cap that had not been frozen in one thousand nine hundred six the standard deduction they would be a was one hundred eighty four dollars a month not one hundred thirty four dollars a month well we couldn't go  two hundred eighty four we didn't have enough money so we raised it to one hundred forty four dollars a month but we indexed it for the future so we won't have this benefit erosion in the future but to give you some idea again what's happening to low income families just think about this if we had not frozen that benefit level at night hundred ninety six at one hundred thirty four dollars it would be one hundred eighty four dollars a month right now and yet we could only raise it to one hundred forty four dollars so we did our job with the money that we had and also we also provide more money to families with childcare expenses by removing entirely the cap on childcare deductions and we also raise the minimum benefit by fifty percent and we index that also to future inflation and the asset level of the amount of assets that you're going to have we were unable to raise it because of money concerns but we did index it for the future so no longer will erosion take place because of inflation we increase the food bank supplies for food banks by one point two billion dollars we provide a billion dollars in new funding for the fresh fruit and vegetable snack program for kids in schools this program which i started in the two thousand and two farm bill when fully implemented will serve nearly all children in our poorest elementary schools that is the schools that have at least eighty percent kids eligible for free and reduced price meals and no skill and no skills when we fully implement this almost every poor kid in those schools or is going to get free fresh fruits and vegetables during the day to meet soaring worldwide demand for food and energy crops millions of acres of production are land is being brought into production now a lot of this land is environmentally fragile so to address that challenge we authorized nearly four point four billion in additional funds for the environmental quality incentives program and the conservation of a chanst conservation stewardship program over the next ten years again this is payments to farmers to incentivize and to get them to be good stewards of our soil our water air soil composition wildlife habitats and working lands not taking land out of production but are you a good steward of the soil in your production practices that total spending on these two programs alone the eclipse program as it's known in the c s p program would be more than twenty seven point seven billion dollars in the next ten years now with this support the conservation stewardship program enroll nearly thirteen million acres each year and to participate producers will have to maintain and expand in byron mental benefits by adopting rigorous conservation and management practices the wetlands reserve program a number of improvements and we get one point three billion dollars additional money to implement them and we have simplified and stamped and streamline the process of getting into the wetlands reserve program over the next ten years this money that we provide will have told enrollment of in the wetlands reserve program of over three million acres now this bill also creates a new initiative focused on restoring the chesapeake bay this this money covers that to ship a watershed so that we're treating land and stuff upwards of the chesapeake bay this being very important to kind of members of congress in the senate from virginia delaware maryland pennsylvania we put four hundred thirty eight million dollars new money into the conservation needs of the chesapeake bay initiative now on the energy side all time gasoline prices as we know wreaking havoc with family budgets but as studies are shown without the inputs of ethanol biofuels prices at the pump would be as much as forty cents a gallon higher without  farm bill will dramatically ramp up the agricultural sector skep fasti to produce a clean renewable energy we provide more than a billion dollars to expand the supply of biofuels made from bio mass and crop products other than well spread it like any compromise bill resulting from hard bargaining among regional another interest this farm bill i suppose it's far from perfect perfection being in the eye of the beholder of course i don't think any one person either on the democratic side of the republican side would say they love every little thing in this bill but as the chair of this conference committee i can tell you it's been a long and difficult road but the end product is a bill w significant reforms urgent new investments in nutrition conservation energy and the health of our school kids that's why i was disappointed when agriculture secretary and schaefer held a news conference say the president would veto the bill well the administration said we did cut payments to farmers in times of high farm income but this administration itself actually proposed increasing direct payments which are least  prices and income by contrast congress determined that it makes more sense to ensure that the programs that help producers manage risk if revenue is destructive because of price or production shortfalls we have only added to income support if revenue declines that is the right approach the administration said no we'll put more money in there even if i even if you have high prices they want to put more money in there we said that's the wrong approach the right approach countercyclical and that's what we do we have the support in place so it's available if needed what the administration and u proposed would have increased pay much regard lesser prices congress correctly rejected the administration's proposal funny when the senate passed the farm bill then december here on the floor of the senate the bill was approved with seventy nine votes the largest go accommodate the president's wishes and concerns well you know he said that the payments were low enough while the administration proposed two hundred thousand as i said earlier for four or  and a half million we brought it to five hundred thousand that's way over halfway in meeting with the president had proposed so again like any compromise bill this bill has things in it which i suppose any one of us could say is not quite right but as a compromise bill it includes real reforms major advances in conservation renewable energy really rural economic development nutrition health for our kids in schools and mr president i'm proud of this bill i hope we have a strong vote here in the senate for i still hope the president will sign it but if he doesn't i'm hopeful that we will have the votes to override the veto and put this bill in place for the future of our country discretion how much time do i have remaining two minutes remaining well mr president those two minutes i just want to discuss briefly the matter of the collective bargaining for for our firefighters and public safety employees i'm an original co sponsor of ash twenty one twenty three bargaining laws in iowa we have just successfully negotiated five contracts this system has great checks and balances with binding arbitration and a no strikes laws it causes both sides to come to the table to make meaningful concessions we have done so in bettendorf quite successful mr president that's all we're asking for this legislation to give public safety officers elsewhere this kind of opportunity many of our federal workers such as capitol police border patrol agents custom agents immigration enforcement officers they have the right of collective bargaining it helps them to serve our nation's security interests and again mr president i think it's time that we provide this now to the twenty one states where these where our public safety people are not allowed to bargain collectively and hopefully that this bill passed the house by a vote of three hundred fourteen to ninety seven i'm hopefully that will pass the senate with an equally large vote mr president with that i would ask consent to that the full statement regarding regarding the bill s twenty one twenty three of mine be printed in the he would agree with some of the statements i think the bush administration has made with regard to the question of ethanol that it is not the cause of the drought not the driving force behind the he was in the center of that and i congratulate him for his leadership over the years and i think it's a net positive for the country and i wanted to speak about energy prices because this is a national crisis it's a matter this congress needs to deal with prices are at record highs according to aaa the average price of regular unleaded gasoline this morning was three dollars and seventy one cents a gallon  for an average family with two cars that could well mean seventy to one hundred dollars a month extra money out of their budget they get the same number of gallons they bought two or three years ago and this is a but typically troubling sense them sixty percent of the all we import comes from abroad and a big portion of that money that the american family pays in is going to foreign governments hostile to the united states in some instances and it's just not a healthy thing  also in my cannot be disputed that this well transfer is a major factor in our economic slowdown that we're experiencing today so the question i think we in congress have to ask is what are we going to do about it well i would i believe there is a simple answer with many complex powers the simple answer is let's get busy doing works what we know will work and certainly less not now induce a just don't do things that make the situation worse that are going to drive up the price of energy even more that is being proposed in the senate so it's tanda the long road back to us sound energy policy that can and will bring down the price of gasoline permanently i don't know currently  we see economies around the world growing nations like god shadow that have about one automobile for every twenty people and we average two automobiles per family in the united states they are coming into that they're going to continue to grow more cars south america is growing they are in the world are growing they're using allies in more energy they have bigger houses and they have more automobiles and the supply is not going to be able to continue to increase but i want to talk about the reality today and the fact that i believe that energy prices are higher than they need to be today and there are some things that we can do to improve that congress has done some things we increased fuel efficiency last year we passed and the president signed into law all the energy independence and security act among its provisions this think we can do that and i supported that and i believe that we can get to that goal and i'm confident we can prior to this step of going to thirty five mpg cafe standards were just twenty seven point five miles per gallon for automobiles and twenty two miles for light trucks and s u v s so right doing the standard to thirty five overall will certainly reduce all demand by ensuring that we travel further per gallon of gas we get more benefit from each yalla of gas and i hope that americans looking at the prices and looking at our national interest and not being so dependent on foreign all will see ways and their own families to save money for themselves and help america by reducing unnecessary utilization of energy ye you reducing demand for increased efficiency is not the only solution our population is growing and other factors are at work we're not going to be able to conserve our way out of this problem we'll use more energy as the population grows and his people make more money in order to produce produce this additional energy more must be done to increase the clean american production of energy we can do that the united states has significant reserves of oil here at home and this congress has the ability to allow these reserves to be produce to our carding to the department of interior and the united states geological survey approximately one hundred nineteen billion barrels of all exist  short in the united states remember way produce forty percent of the energy that we utilize today for automobiles that liquid energy and we can but do some more on and it will have an impact on the global to increase the supply and reduce the cost of gasoline united states has an immense supply of unconventional oil called show you the congressional research service that's our independent research service here in congress estimates that this country's all shale reserves to be the equivalent hold your hat the equivalent of approximately two trillion barrels of all we spent the last about five billion a year this is eight times the amount of saudi arabia's all reserves and we also have an abundant supply of coal which can be converted into gas gasoline using technology currently proven in south africa so there is a step we need to work on and the tank now we have  realize that we have to do that clean coal we have to do clean technology in the all shale area and we have to understand that it will probably more c o two then just producing all barrel of all from saudi arabia and burning it in our automobiles because it has to be heated and but in the short term i think we are very unwise if as we transition away from oil that we don't consider a call to all and shale oil both of which i am toe can be brought in for around fifty dollars a barrel half the world price less than half the world price we simply have got to consider that as we go forward according to the congressional research service the united states government the people of the united states spent two hundred  thirty seven billion dollars own import it all in two thousand and seven it is estimated that this year two thousand and eight we will spend four hundred and twelve billion on imported oil and the price seems to continue to go up indeed twelve months from the day it may well be over five hundred billion for imported oil this is money that could be churned churned in our economy paying american workers good wages yet congress has consistently blocked the development of this nation's all resources are been here for twelve years i know how it went down i've been part of the bite of iran war and go off shore drilling way finally the last two years ago  able to open up some areas in the gulf of mexico but we had huge reserves of oil and gas off our coast throughout this america and we need to be doing a better job of allowing that to be available so we don't have to buy so much from a ball braun and biofuels can play an important role in keeping the cost of energy down despite the claims of the detractors ethanol and biology they still do reduce our dependence on foreign oil to a significant degree they keep money at home because this energy has generated here and as i indicated was senator harkin it creates jobs in our in alabama and  keeps that wealth at home the american people and i ask well why aren't we producing american energy if we can if it can reduce the price of gas and i think  improved aif efficiency in and conservation come back in with an increase of supply can have more of an impact in breaking this boom of all prices than a lot of people think it doesn't have to be unprecedented reserves of all coming on the market in a short period of time but a lot of this is speculation a lot of this is a shortage of supply and i margin between demand and supply well i think the opposition to producing more all and gas at home has been hypocritical frankly while opponents of american energy and who come same ones who complain the loudest about how energy costs they also object to producing more gas and all in the united states but they don't object to producing it apparently in places like saudi arabia of venezuela  many areas our country and in alaska citing environmental and concerns that i don't think are realistic and i think are exaggerated they show no regard i suggest for the production of all offshore in places like nigeria or indonesia our production in the caspian sea or the persian gulf or the are off then as well and in the lake in venezuela and they and we have a great record of environmental stewardship far superior than most of these countries and our companies would operate their production on of the strictest environmental rules and the weren't even during hurricane katrina not too far from my hometown of mobile alabama out in the gulf not one of the all platforms leaked and their safety systems work just as they were designed to safely shutting off the wells down below the surface and most of them a back up and running today but using american energy create funding for environmental projects throughout america there are alabama louisiana mississippi and texas these are the four states that have agreed to offshore production and they're able our states are able to obtain environmental monies as a part of that agreement we approved two years ago in alabama this funding has been used for wetland preservation restoration education purposes instead of standing out well to foreign countries there bill palaces there are rich sheiks and and hotels that have few occupants that are some of the vanished in the world and skyscrapers and things of that cabin we're using funds from american offshore production to follow they fund the land and water conservation at find and to complete the much needed environmental projects now tomorrow this senate  suspend filling the strategic petroleum reserve invest money in establishing new batteries that can allow us to move to more fuel efficient electric automobiles plug in hybrids utilizing nuclear power it will produce more offshore and alaska and help reduce that four to five hundred billion dollar wealth transfer that is occurring in our country today and that is mexico this president asked that believe there's thirty minutes in reserve for me to speak and i've asked that when i have two minutes remaining in the chair and vies me that please the chair will do so  president the pending business before the senate disaster twenty two eighty four that's a bill to reauthorize the federal law governing flood insurance our next scheduled vote as my colleague from alabama just pointed out does not relate to that bill our next scheduled vote does in fact not relate to the subject of flood insurance at all the next vote will be on an amendment which the republican leader has filed allegedly to deal with the high price of oil and the high price of gasoline at the pump i will oppose that amendment tomorrow when the vote is cast and i colleagues to do the same high price of oil and gasoline and diesel that are refined from that oil is creating a very substantial economic burden on the american consumer and on the u s economy at the close of business friday the price of oil start about at about one hundred twenty six dollars per barrel on world markets average price of gasoline in this country was around four dollars per gallon this reflects a dramatic increase over prices a year ago the increased cost is difficult for many americans to avoid it because many americans commute to work or they otherwise need to travel substantial distances where there is no ready alternative to the use of their private vehicles to the extent that congress and the administration can take action to reduce the burden of this increased cost we should do so unfortunately the republican leaders amendment is not a credible proposal for reducing that bert we should be honest with the american people about this so called debate on high gas prices this is an election year effort this is election year politics at its ins classic form it is washington finger pointing unfortunately there's it has very little else let's be clear the president set the tone for the debate on april twenty ninth two weeks ago the president went to the rose garden to express his concern about the price of gas and to blame the congress for while he was there in the rose garden he also took the occasion to blame the congress for the rise in fuel in food prices unfortunately as far as i know there's been no effort by the president to sit down with the leaders of congress and to work out a consensus on constructive actions that might actually help either with the high price of gas or with the high price of food republican leaders amendment which will come up for a vote tomorrow continues with the same old blame the other guy approach let's talk about the facts of why oil and gas prices are so high in my view there are supply and demand factors in world all oil markets that explain some of what we've seen and some of those factors are outside our control at least in the short term the simple fact is that the market for oil is a global market the price of oil is reflected on that market united states as the largest purchaser of oil in that market but china's rapidly gaining on this in that regard we are not even close to being the largest producer of oil for that market in fact we import about sixty percent of the all that we consume so if we want to affect the price of oil either by reducing world demand or by increasing world supply our ability to do so is limited by far the most significant step we can take to reduce demand in the short and medium term is to improve vehicle fuel efficiency our cars and our trucks last fall we did just that many of us believe the increase in required m too modest but it was a substantial improvement over what prevailed for the three previous decades and we need to look at other ways to reduce demand for oil in the short and the medium in the long term on the supply side our ability to affect world prices is even more limited that's simply because our of our limited reserves we have about three percent of the world's oil reserves and also because most experts believe that u s production in coming years in the coming years will do well to maintain its current level we can affect that production somewhat by adopting enlightened policies but it impact on world markets and consequently on the world price of oil will be limited but when we look at issues that we in the u s government can most directly and immediately affect i would cite two we can reduce the incentives for speculation in the oil markets that's number one and second we can strengthen the dollar by showing some commitment to getting our own fiscal house in order let me comment briefly on each of these issues committee on energy and natural resources which i'm privileged to chair has held several hearings on oil and gasoline prices in markets this year other committees in the house of representatives have had similar hairiness current high prices are a result of several factors one of them is certainly the tight global supply demand balance but once one thing stands out from all of the testimony that congress both the house and the senate have heard and that is is that a key factor pushing up all prices into the triple digits in recent months is a dysfunctional energy market here's what a senior vice president of a major oil company said at one of these hearings on the house side quote when you look at the fundamentals of our business congressman the supply demand fundamentals our assessment would be the price should be somewhere around fifty to fifty five dollars a barrel there is a disconnect to me there are three factors that contribute to that one is the monetary issue the weaker dollars we've already talked about the other is geopolitical political risk and the third we believe a speculation other key analysts in the government in the private sector have made similar statements although their assumptions about what exact price level was supported by supply and demand fundamentals have differed but it would be fair to say that key energy analysts are in general agreement that around thirty dollars in the current price of a barrel of oil as a result of market pressures unrelated to supply and demand for physical barrels of  oil is general assessment of a significant cause of high oil and gas prices as broadly shared one noted energy economist put it this way recently in the wall street journal quote crude futures prices have de coupled from the forces controlling the underlying physical flows of the commodity in quote in plain english that means that crude oil prices are not connected to supplies if oil prices aren't being driven by supply and demand then why are they being driven by we heard some strong testimony on this in our committee from cambridge energy research associates the firm headed by dan if you're going to use a leading oil expert well known to all in this field here's what their analyst had to say in early april quote crude oil futures trading activity on the new york mercantile exchange the largest in the world is currently about three hundred fifty percent higher than in two thousand and two noncommercial investors have contributed to this increase new fundamentalists new cost structures and global financial dynamics are behind the momentum that pushed all prices to record highs around one hundred ten dollars a barrel in the quote that was one hundred ten dollars a barrel in early april so if we want to get at the real question of  around one hundred twenty five dollars a barrel and why gasoline is closing in on four dollars a gallon across the country we will not find the answer in the republican leader's amendment we're witnessing a substantial influx speculative speculative money into energy markets it's spitting up the price of oil beyond any reasonable level that could be explained by supply and demand every consumer can see it at the pump but do we have any serious effort to regulate that speculation or even to notice that a commodity futures trading commission witness told our committee that they did not see any evidence of speculation was a factor in oil prices i thought they were alone in that view but the republican leaders amendment seems to agree in that it fails to acknowledge or deal with the significant part of the problem if we're going to protect consumers we need to have the federal government as an effective overseer to start policing these markets there's a proposal senator reid's introduced that will begin to address the issues that bill require ours monody futures trading commission to start doing the job congress intended for it to do that is to make sure that all trading is done with adequate transparency and to make sure that limits on speculation apply across the board right now it's entirely possible for hedge funds or traders to evade the protections put in place for trading oil in the united states they simply trade u s crude oil in foreign markets that the commodity futures trading commission has decided it will not regulate commodity futures trading commission could regulate the so called dark markets but it has decided not to instead of turning a blind eye to this offshore oil trading senator reid's bill would ensure that the commodity futures trading commission makes a priority of protecting american energy consumers the majority leader's approach is aimed at bringing down the price of oil in the near term by having effective regulation of speculation some big hedge funds will not like that but it will help the average consumer now let me talk for a minute about the second issue which both the congress and the administration ought to be addressing if we're going to get commodity markets of all kinds to act in a more rational way we also need to do something serious about our overall fiscal policy in this country united states is borrowing money on world financial markets because we cannot summon the political will to actually pay for the things that we want our government to do we're fighting a war in iraq on borrowed money to the tune of over a half dollars since two thousand and two a number of us of proposed to strengthen and to extend tax incentives to spur energy production from renewable sources but those are being opposed by others here in the senate for the simple reason that we are proposing to pay for those extension of those tax provisions instead of borrowing even more money from overseas to cover that cost because of the mismanagement of the economy and our high borrowing overseas the value of the dollar has fallen dramatically the price we are paying for international commodities like oil is rising and that is another major factor driving up the price of oil we need to face up to it here in the senate if senators want to lower our high or oil prices getting our budget house in order will do much more to strengthen the dollar and lower and to lower gasoline prices and sooner than any of the new drilling called for in the republican leaders of men i've covered two of the most important things we can do to address high oil and gas prices that is curbing oil market speculation and secondly getting our budget and fiscal policy in order now let me turn more specifically to the republican leader's proposal the amendment is a grab bag of energy related provisions which have little connection either to the current or future price of oil or gasoline although the amendment contains various other disconnected proposals the main thrust of the amendment is to increase the amount of federal land available for leasing for oil and gas exploration and production the areas proposed for leasing are to first the outer continental shelf off the atlantic and the pacific coast of the country and second a portion of the arctic national wildlife refuge the underlying assumption of the hosel is that our lack of supply is a result both of our refusal to permit exploration and drilling on enough of our federal lands and that changing the law to permit drilling in these two specific areas will solve the problem but what about that basic assumption is our ability to produce oil and gas domestically being held back because of our unwillingness to lease the outer continental shelf off the east coast and the outer continental shelf off the west coast and the area known as the arctic national wildlife refuge well let's look at the facts what's happening on the supply side for oil production in the united states last year we saw the amount of crude oil produced in the united states remain constant instead of falling that may not sound like a big achievement but it is an improvement on previous trends it is no doubt a reaction to higher prices but it also reflects bipartisan support to increase production on federal lands in places where it's appropriate i've got three charts that illustrate the general trend of what has been going on in all of these relate to on shore oil and gas drilling and production last year this is a great job new federal all and gas leases in millions of acres last year we leased four point six million acres of federal land for oil and gas production on shore in the united states that's the column on the right that's in places such as my state of new mexico and wyoming and colorado that's almost double the two point six million acres that we put up for leasing in the year two thousand so the trend is for leasing of more acres of federal land for oil and gas production on shore and of course these figures do not include all of the leasing that we did last year in the outer continental shelf let me show another  this chart is approvals of applications for permits to drill a p d s in the in the business they're referred to as a p d s last year we approve seven thousand one hundred twenty four permits to drill oil and gas wells on federal lands again this is all on shore that's the right hand column that's more than double the number the number approved in two thousand this is partly due to the direct funding stream that we put in place for this process as part of the energy policy act of two thousand and five and let me show you one other chart here this one relates to drilling activity initiated on federal lands as a result of the increased number of drilling permits and that was the previous chart we had actual growlings start last year on fifty two hundred and forty three new well of the oil and gas well that's approaching a doubling of the number that were drilled in two thousand which was twenty eight hundred sixty one so these were three charts that made the case for what's been happening on shore similar positive trends are underway in the gulf of mexico is through the overall results although the overall results today are more modest according to the latest report by the minerals management service total production of oil in the gulf of mexico was up slightly in two thousand and seven to one point three million barrels per day that's an increase of about ten thousand barrels per day of oil over two thousand and six levels we've gone from drilling hundred thirty four deepwater wells in the gulf of mexico in two thousand and six to one hundred and forty two new deepwater wells last year there are also eight announced deepwater discoveries in the gulf of mexico in two thousand and seven we are certainly not in decline in oil production in the gulf of mexico but the increase in activity painted by these statistics is not overwhelming either so there's still much more that we could be doing to support the mastic production of oil and gas the most effective strategy we could pursue i believe is something that is not in republican leaders amendment to understand where our greatest opportunity for making progress on increased domestic production lies we need to focus on a significant problem in the management of oil and gas on federal lands including in the outer continental shelf simply put all the policy emphasis has been on having more leigh sales but not enough emphasis has been placed on encouraging diligent development of federal lands once they are least wh generally true that leases must be produced within certain time parameters that all agencies have substantial discretion in managing these provisions and i'm concerned that we may not be following the correct policies to bring about production in the most timely fashion i've asked the general government accountability office to examine this topic let me illustrate my concern with the following charge here  first with regard to on shore production this pie chart on the left shows all of the least acreage on federal land for oil and gas development on shore in the lower forty eight states as you can see about three quarters all of this that this in red three quarters of the federal land that we have leased on shore is not only being produced of the over forty five point five million acres of land that have been leased all companies are sitting on thirty one million acres on which no production is occurring a similar story can be told in terms of the outer continental shelf this is the chart on the right this is offshore of a total of forty one million acres that have been leased offshore thirty three million of that forty one million are not being produced republican leaders amendment proposes to open up the entire atlantic and pacific coast to leasing and development although the amendment speaks to petitions from governors to lease in specific areas the way the amendment written the secretary can open for leasing even areas where no such request is pending by including them in the next so called five year plan from the minerals management service but here's a map of all the leases in the outer continental shelf in the gulf of mexico just to get an idea of what we're talking about here the blue squares represent areas that have reducing leases and we can see there are many of those the much more numerous yellow square and there are more numerous yellow squares they represent least blocks where nothing is happening and the red blocks which are also scattered around the red blocks represent new areas that have been added through recently sales for all of the increase in drilling activity i mentioned earlier in the talk you can see that we still have a great many areas where no exploration or production is ongoing even though those areas have been leased we've recently added even more least areas to this to this map here a second map of the rolling gas producing regions on the north slope of alaska in the middle here is the private and state land that's the tan colored area the small area to the right over here is area ten zero to ten o two area of the arctic national wildlife refuge where the republican leaders amendment would open open this area to leasing the large area on the left in this yellow area here is the national petroleum reserve alaska this area was specifically set aside to be exploited for oil and gas development the national petroleum reserve alaska totals twenty three point five million acres most of which can be developed and drill the main estimate of oil resources in the national petroleum reserve alaska is nine point three billion barrels of technically recoverable oil that's significantly more oil than is estimated to be contained in the federal portion of the coastal plain of the arctic refuge today three point eight million acres of this in p r a have been leased that's twice the size of the portion of the arctic refuge that is being talked about in the republican leaders and men here in a slightly more detail here's a slightly more detailed version of that chart shows where those least areas are you can see that a large portion of the least areas those are the areas that red a large portion of that is on the eastern side of the petroleum reserve are very close to the alpine field which is tied  alaska pipeline system so the infrastructure to take oil from the petroleum reserve in alaska in the north slope of alaska to the lower forty eight is very at hand so with all those favorable factors in place you would wonder how many production wells do we have operating on the three point eight million acres of the petroleum reserve that we have leased and the answer is zero zero current production from these leases should be a substantial cause for concern of those traits more basic problem with our domestic production of oil and gas it's not that we haven't least federal land for exploration and production we have these large tracts of federal land we're leasing more all the time or lng gas companies certainly benefit having these leases on their books and claiming the potential oil as part of their reserves but we need to get these oil and gas resources out of the reserves column and into the production column what does the republican leader's amendment do about any of this absolutely nothing he's calling for more lease sales in areas that are much more remote from oil and gas transportation infrastructure than the acreage that we've already least it would take a decade or more for those resources to come into production at the very best and why should we expect oil and gas companies to rush into new areas to begin production when when they're sitting on literally millions and millions of acres of existing leases without doing any production on no the fact is having a lease sale in the arctic national wildlife refuge will not do a single thing to bring down gasoline prices any time soon opening offshore areas such as off the east coast and off the west coast where there is no infrastructure is also a very ineffective response to the prices that consumers are seeing today these are not real solutions to what is wrong in energy markets today if we're serious about doing something to boost domestic production we need to focus on better management of federal leases let me describe two concrete suggestions in that regard first we might consider imposing a production incentive be on all the federal acres that are under lisa fee that would increase over time but which would be cancelled out by royalty payments that would provide a disincentive for just sitting on leases for purposes of inflating a company's reserve  enacted some specific provisions in the energy policy act of two thousand and five that reduced the pressure on the lease holders in the national petroleum reserve alaska in terms of their responsibilities to develop the oil resources there we changed the law to allow all companies with a lease in that area of the national petroleum reserve alaska to hold it for thirty years or more without produce i oppose those changes to the law but was unable to prevail on that point provisions that allow for decades of additional delay in developing or oil on federal lands that are dedicated for production of oil make no sense when that oil is selling at one hundred twenty six dollars a barrel if anyone in this chamber wants to advocate for all production in alaska or anywhere on federal land then the threshold test is whether they're willing to change the incentive structure that currently rewards delay and inaction that this long tional incentive structure was put in place in a law that we passed in two thousand and five if we're not willing to take action to bring the three point eight million acres already least in alaska into production and there isn't much credibility to the argument that somehow one more lease sale up there will greatly add to our energy security there's another area in which the republican leader's amendment misses the mark on promoting domestic oil and gas production his amendment leaves out the one place offshore where it would be easiest and fastest to get additional production and that is in the gulf of mexico his amendment opens up the entire atlantic and pacific coast lines for new oil and gas production but leaves in place the oil and gas moratoria in the gulf of mexico and that's out of touch with reality the gulf of mexico is the first place we should be looking to for expanded production not the one place we should leave off the list as president i see my time is nearly up i'd ask if my colleague would grant me an additional three minutes to complete my gas production in this chamber in two thousand and six we made what i considered to be a very bad bargain we put off limits that is this yellow area here off limits ten times the amount of natural gas that we opened up to exploration and drilling we made available for lease two trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the gulf of mexico while putting off limits twenty two trillion cubic feet of natural gas we also put new areas of the gulf of mexico under moratorium for the first time including portions of lease sale one eighty one area that were closest to the existing oil and gas infrastructure these areas this is yellow area now under current law is off limits until twenty twenty two because of that provision that we passed into law and two thousand and six the portion of the lease sale one eighty one area we put under moratorium for the first time contains a half billion barrels of oil four trillion cubic feet of natural gas the available infrastructure to take it to market is already there and the interest by industry in these resources is intense this weekend i was reading the current edition of barron's the dow jones business and financial weekly there's a column in there by jim mctavish where he quotes president bush's former economic adviser al hubbard as saying if the other forty nine states florida is doing to them they'd be up in arms and quote but take goes on to lament the fact that president bush does not support revoking the lease sale moratoria on the outer continental shelf that were that were first imposed by his father in the hundred ninety s he then states quote bush during the two thousand presidential contest promised his brother jeb florida's governor at the time that he'd maintain the drilling ban so there you have it if we are really serious about increasing domestic production and repealing existing moratoria the place to start is here in the gulf i i think that the republican leaders  e's one area where i very much compliment the majority leader and that is including in his amendment a proposal to to suspend the filling of the strategic petroleum reserve for the remainder of this year sen dorgan has been pushing this legislation for many months i've been glad to be his co sponsor i know senator domenici has recently indicated that he now supports this position and this is a proposal that's in the majority leader re proposal it's proposed legislation it is also in the republican leaders amendment and i congratulate him for that i know that the vote right after we vote on the republican leader's amendment the the large comprehensive amendments that i've been talking about the vote right after that will be on the proposal to suspend the filling of trolling reserve i hope that we'll get a strong bipartisan vote it clearly would be a step in the right direction it's something we should do and i hope that we can at least to conclude that positive action before the congress has to turn to other business tomorrow as it as it plans to when we get back to discussing the the flood insurance is president of the floor and i know my colleague is is waiting to speak praed i'd like to address the heartbreaking humanitarian crisis in burma and the actions of the military junta there which are shocked our consciences over the last few days a government that was swift to mobilize last year against a peaceful protest by on armed monks as astonished us with its sluggish response to the devastating storm of may the third with thousands dead and perhaps two million out risk of further suffering the military junta has treated the sa clone as more of a political inconvenience that a national tragedy focusing on a sham cost to tional referendum instead of relief efforts and the consequences of this callous response  truly tragic as precious time was wasted what was already a terrible natural disaster became a manmade disaster of spreading hunger and spreading disease we've heard reports of aid workers being turned away and a visas for aid workers being refused on the grounds that consulates were closed for the weekend today finally an american c one thirty was permitted into burma carrying desperately needed supplies to more flights are expected from all this is a positive development it but it's also an extremely extremely modest concession it's my hope that these halting steps by the regime in the last day or so on another issue mr president all across the country this week americans will honor the law enforcement officers who keep our nation's safe and paying solemn tribute to those who've lost their lives in the line of duty peace officers memorial day and police week is a time to thank all of those who keep us safe and a time to be grateful for all who have served as the county executive in local kentucky i had a strong relationship with the local police force i was always proud of the department and its leadership in the rank and file officers who work hard to protect and defend local i remember the proud we felt when we brought city and county police together to create the crimes against children unit and the  they made it a model for the rest of the country will it change a lot since then and so has america on september the eleventh we awoke to an enemy that has no regard for human life and that has repeatedly expressed intent to destroy our country we've seen the heart of these people can inflict on our cities and we take them at their word when i say that they plan to do it again it's because of this threat that today we have an even deeper appreciation for the men and women who enforce our laws not just as first responders to crime but as a first line of defense against potential terrorist attacks during this police officers memorial day and police week we honor the contributions of our police officers and other keepers of the peace we remember the sacrifice of those who have fallen in the line of duty including officer jacob chest and detective john gibson who gave their lives right here in the capitol ten years ago it was july twenty fourth one nine hundred ninety eight when day as it now says on the plaque commemorating their heroism bravely gave their lives defending the united states capitol and we express our gratitude to the families of america's peace officers and police who make sacrifices large and small so their loved ones can keep the rest of us say mr president i yield the floor so mr president i come to the floor again today to talk about energy prices yet again each week i think we must finally be at the tipping point where democrats are least willing to address high energy prices unfortunately although energy prices remain at an all time high it seems that we're not there yet the average american uses five hundred gallons of gasoline every year with the average gas price at three dollars and fifty one cents per gallon that means that the average american will spend more than eighteen hundred dollars this year on gasoline that's almost three hundred dollars more than you would have spent a year ago but let's look at a slightly longer period of time let's look at the period of time since democrats took control of the congress and systems that they had all the answers on january fourth a two cent two thousand and seven gallon of gas cost two dollars and thirty three cents that means that the average american has spent nine hundred sixty dollars more on gasoline in the year and a half since democrats took over the question is why are we not producing the domestic oil available in the arctic national wildlife refuge known as anwar  geological survey estimates that the potential or oil and anwar would exceed that which is currently being produced in the lower forty eight states we hear a lot of moaning about how we shouldn't open up in war because that oil won't be available for ten years but i remember hearing that exact same argument about ten years ago if we had opened anwar domestic oil production ten years ago we'd be less reliant on foreign sources for about one million fewer barrels each and every day the question is why are we not producing in the outer continental shelf currently eighty five percent of this area is off limits to production the national petroleum council estimates that if congress no restrictions were lifted we would have access to more than three hundred trillion cubic feet of natural gas this is enough gas to meet all of the current us needs for more than thirteen years i would also point out that current levels of production and the outer continental shelf employs over forty five thousand people to those of us concerned about employment figures opening additional areas offshore will lead to more jobs in addition to increasing domestic energy question is why are we not producing domestic oil from oil shale in colorado for example the democrats ensure that veil am could not write commercialization regulations by placing a spending probation in the fiscal year two thousand and eight on this bill which is being applied this year from last year's action commercialization regulations do not authorize production or even releasing these radio regulations simply allow the department to set out the rules of the road for companies so they can make investment decisions matters such as the length and requirements for oil shale leases the royalty rate and reclamation requirements that would be set by commercialization regulations considering there as well over one trillion barrels of oil locked in the shale beneath colorado utah and wyoming this is not on inconsequential amount of energy one trillion barrels of oil would provide for the current consumption levels of twenty million barrels a day for over one hundred and thirty six years as the numbers seem staggering that's because they are question is why why are we not addressing the restrictive policies on the construction of new refineries that have led to no new refinery capacity and this country since the hundred seventy s we must encourage companies to build new refineries so that not only can we produce while oil domestically but we can refine it into a usable product as well the law of supply and demand tells us that with high demand and low prices prices will increase this seems to have escaped the notice of the democrats controlled democrat controlled congress however oblivious to prices at the pump this congress is failing their duty to the american public each attempt to them employment commonsense solutions to current energy problems are met with loud and the h objections at this point these objections can only mean that democrats want energy prices continue to increase i can think of no other explanation mr president the facts are rather simple  congress has blocked efforts to reduce trillions of cubic feet of natural gas trillions of barrels of oil and prevented the construction of new refineries nuclear power plants and hydroelectric facilities the longer we deny access to domestic supplies the more our current energy shortages will climb and the less energy we produce domestically the more we will rely on foreign and possibly hostile sources  for it's time it's time for congress to step up to the plate and ensure that this country remains one of the safest and most prosperous nations on there that means increasing domestic energy production and decreasing our dangerous reliance on foreign energy sources we will vote in a very short time here whether to increase domestic energy production or whether to maintain the status quo i can only hope that each of us does the right thing and votes in favor of the mcconnell amendment to stop the status quo and to ensure that we can produce more of the energy we need right here at home are hurting millions of american consumers and businesses and unless something is done to make energy more affordable the record high prices will continue to reverberate throughout our economy increasing the prices of transportation  permanent subcommittee on investigations is conducted four separate investigations into how our energy markets can be made to work better most recently last december we had a joint hearing with the senate energy subcommittee and the role of speculation in rising energy prices is a result of these investigations and hearings have been advocating a variety of measures to address the rampant speculation and lack of regulation of energy markets which have contributed to sky high energy prices and some of those measures are first put a cap back on the beat in the energy markets to ensure that these markets are free from excessive speculation and manipulation and that cop has got to be a regulatory agency stop filling the strategic petroleum reserve until prices are lowered develop alternatives to fossil fuels to lessen our dependence on oil and increase excuse me and impose a windfall profits tax on oil companies that have profited from the massive price increases now there's not much we can do not much that we can do about some causes of the sky high gas prices but there are a number of causes that can be addressed one key factor in the in the price spikes of energy is rampant speculation in the energy markets traders are trading contracts for future delivery of oil in record amounts creating a paper demand that is driving up prices and increases and increasing price price volatility solely to take a profit overall the amount of trading of futures in oil on the new york mercantile exchange has risen six fold in recent years as this chart shows from five hundred thousand contracts for future delivery of oil to three million contracts just since two thousand and one now much of this increase in trading a few yours has been due to speculation speculators in the oil market do not intend to use crude oil instead they buy and sell contracts for cru oil just to make a profit from changing prices the number of futures in option contracts held by speculators has gone from around one hundred thousand contracts in two thousand and one which at that time was twenty percent of the outstanding futures in option contracts has risen to one point two million future contracts currently held by speculators in that represents now about forty percent of the outstanding futures contracts in the oil and the new york mercantile exchange and that increase can be seen in this chart that doubling in the percentage of futures contracts which are represented by purchases by speculators on the new york mercantile exchange from this level fifteen to twenty percent in january of zero one to almost double that amount currently that is a massive increase in speculation as a matter of fact is this next chart shows there is now twelve times as much speculation is there was in two thousand and one while the purchase of non subjective futures is up but three times this charge shows the difference these are the future the the purchases of contracts for future delivery of oil bought by speculators vs non speculators the speculator in recent purchases is that white line with that dramatic increase starting in zero three going all the way up to where it is currently and the relatively flat or yellow line which represents the purchases of future delivery of oil by the non speculators since two thousand and one now not surprisingly this massive speculation that the price of oil will increase has in fact helped increase the price of oil to a level far above that justified by traditional forces of supply and demand let me some experts about the role of speculation some people say well speculation doesn't have much of an effect well listen to some of the experts president and c e o of marathon oil said recently quote one hundred dollar oil is not justified by the physical demand in the market it has to be speculation on the futures market that is fueling this close quote mr fidell guy oil analyst for the company describes the oil market as a farce quote the speculators have seized control and it's basically a free for all a global gambling hall and it won't shut down unless and until responsible governments step in close quote scuse me in january of this year as oil hit one hundred dollars a barrel tim evans oil analyst for citi group wrote the following that quote the larger supply and demand fundamentals do not support a further rise and are in fact more consistent with lower price levels close quote at a joint hearing that i made reference to on the effects of speculation that we held last december eduard creepers and financial market analysts said the following of course financials trading speculation affects the price of oil because it affects the price of everything  treat it would be amazing if oil somehow escaped this effect and dr craig was added that as a result of this speculation there is a bubble in oil prices a fair price for a commodity is a price that accurately reflects the forces of supply and demand for the commodity not the trading strategies of speculators who only are in the markets make a profit by the buying and selling of paper contracts with no intent to actually purchase deliver or transfer the commodity and as we've all too often seen in recent years when speculation grows so large that it has a major impact on the market prices get the stored in stop reflecting true supply and demand excessive market speculation is a factor that we can and should do a better job of controlling there's other long overdue actions as well that have taken as part of a comprehensive plan can combat rising energy prices but first is to reining in the speculators the first step is to put a cap back on the beat in all of our energy markets to prevent excessive speculation price manipulation and trading abuses in two thousand and one my senate permanent subcommittee on investigations began investigating our energy markets at the time the price of a gallon of gasoline had spiked upwards by about twenty five cents over the course of the memorial day holiday we subpoenaed records from major oil companies and interviewed oil industry experts gas station dealers antitrust experts gasoline wholesalers and distributors and oil company executives we examined thousands of prices at gas stations in michigan ohio california and other states in the spring of two thousand and two i released  four hundred page report and held two days of hearings on the results of the investigation the investigation found that increasing concentration in the gasoline refining industry due to a large number of recent mergers and acquisitions was one of the causes of the increasing number of gasoline price bikes another factor causing those spikes was the increasing tendency of refiners to keep lower inventories of gasoline we also found a number of instances in which the increasing competition in the refining industry excuse me the increasing concentration in the refining industry was also leading to higher prices in general limitations on the pipeline that brings gasoline to my home state of michigan was another cause of price increases and spikes in michigan the report recommended that the federal trade commission carefully investigate proposed mergers particularly with respect to the effect of mergers on inventories of gasoline in march of zero three my subcommittee released a second report detailing how the operation of crude oil markets affects the price of not only gasoline but also key commodities like home heating oil and diesel fuel the report warned that u s energy markets were vulnerable to price manipulation due to a lack of comprehensive regulation and market oversight following this report i work with senator feinstein on legislation to put the cap back on the beat in the energy markets that have been exempted from regulation pursuant to an enron loophole that was snuck into other commodities legislation in december of two thousand for two years we attempted to close that enron loophole but efforts to put the cap back on the beat in those markets were unsuccessful due to opposition from the bush administration large energy companies and financial institutions that trade energy commodities in june of zero six i released another subcommittee report called the role of market speculation in rising oil and gas prices a need to put the cap back on the beat this report found that the traditional forces of supply and demand no longer accounted for sustained price increases  and gas markets the report determined that in zero six that a growing number of energy trades occurred without regulatory oversight and that market speculation had contributed to rising oil and gasoline prices perhaps accounting for twenty dollars out of a then price seventy dollars a barrel of oil the subcommittee report that i released in june of zero six again recommended new laws to increase market oversight and stop market manipulation and excessive speculation i again coauthored legislation with senator feinstein to improve oversight of the unregulated energy markets once again opposition from the bush administration large energy traders in the financial industry prevented the full senate from considering that legislation in two thousand and seven my subcommittee addressed the sharp rise in natural gas prices over the previous year and released a fourth report entitle excessive speculation in the natural gas market our investigation shows that speculation by a single hedge moran had distorted natural gas prices during the summer of two thousand and six and drove up prices for average consumers the report also demonstrated how amaranth had traded in unregulated markets to avoid the restrictions and oversight in the regulated markets and how the price increases caused by amarin could have been prevented if there had been the same type of oversight in the unregulated markets as in the regulated markets following that investigation i introduced a bill senate bill two thousand and fifty eight to close the enron loophole and regulate the unregulated electronic energy markets working again with senator feinstein and snowe and with members of the agriculture committee in a bipartisan effort we finally managed to include an amendment to close the enron loop hole in the farm bill that was then being considered by the senate the senate unanimously passed this amendment to close the enron loophole last december last week the house and senate conferees on the farm bill reached agreement to include our legislation in the final farm bill and we hope the congress will finally pass that important legislation soon now the legislation to close the enron loophole is vitally important for the energy market oversight as a whole and for our natural gas markets in particular because energy traders have recently moved a significant amount of u s crude oil and gasoline trading to the united kingdom beyond the direct reach of u s regulators we have to address that second loophole now as well the key energy commodity market for u s crude oil and gasoline trading is now located in london regulated by the british agency called the financial services authority however the british regulators do not have any limits on speculation like we do here in the united states and the british do not make public the same type of trading data that we do that means that traders can avoid the limits on speculation in crude oil imposed on the new york exchange by trading on the london exchange it also makes the london exchange less transparent than the new york exchange the legislation that i introduced in zero seven would have required us traders on the london exchange to provide us regulators with the same type of trading information that they're already required to provide when they trade on the new york mercantile exchange unfortunately this provision was dropped from the close of the letter enron loophole legislation in the farm bill the consumer first energy act which the majority leader and others introduced last week to address high gas prices and reduce speculation includes a provision to stop speculation and to increase our access to timely and important trading information and to ensure that there is adequate market oversight of the trading of u s energy commodities no matter where the trading occurs this legislation that was introduced last week in which i am proud to co sponsor would require the commodity futures trading commission the c f t c to ensure that a foreign exchange imposes comparable speculative limits and comparable reporting requirements on speculators that the c f t c imposes on us exchanges prior to allowing allowing traders in the u s trading u s energy commodities direct access to that exchange to a terminal located in this country so the bill introduced last week will close that second loophole which i have identified and one of the presiding officer would to indicate whether or not i have any time left i think the presiding officer i believe that this issue is so important that i've also introduce that section to close that second loophole as a separate bill senator feinstein is a co sponsor of that bill and i would ask unanimous consent mr president that a summary of the bill be included in the record after my state  mr president let me summarize his file skyrocketing energy prices are tying up our already weak economy in knots and causing financial pain to working families throughout this country congress cannot just stand by we should act now to stop the pain and mediate steps include putting the cap on the beat back into our energy markets strengthening our access to key oil trading data in london fixing the key nymex crude oil contracts stopping the senseless fill of the strategic petroleum reserve investing in advanced vehicle technologies and alternative energy sources and imposing a windfall profits tax on the oil companies longer range steps include fixing the fiscal policies undermining the strength of the u s dollar including by eliminating tax cuts for the wealthiest among us reducing the twelve billion dollar a month spending that is taking place in iraq closing the tax loophole like the use of tax havens to avoid payment of taxes to uncle sam those tax havens and that loophole that allows the use of those havens is costing the treasury in the range of one hundred billion dollars a year we can fight back against exorbitantly high energy prices but it will take all of our energy and determination to do it mr president the yield the floor one domestic issue certainly in the minds of americans and that's the price price of energy i was here last week and i think you know folks back home just want to know what are you going to do to fix it what what is the congress going to do on this present tomorrow we're going to have an opportunity to vote on a couple different proposals and i rise with afternoon in support of passage of the american energy production act this is the comprehensive energy bill that was introduced last week by the ranking member of the energy committee senator domenici americans are are at a point i think they're in their patience is wearing thin their  frustration is instead showing but it goes beyond just frustration i think it's fair to say that many many across the country are are in true economic distress over the prices that they are paying now doesn't look much more consoling to the the consumer all estimates indicate that these prices will continue to rise in the future look at look at some of the events of just last week terms of what was happening around the world the rebel disturbances in nigeria concerns about relations with iran and production disruptions over the r production disruptions in iraq all of this plus many other factors including the price of the dollar what's happening with the chinese and indian economies in terms of  additional consumers coming on so many of these factors driving the price of oil to the point where closing last week crude oil topped out at one hundred  twenty six moved down to one hundred twenty five dollars per barrel over the weekend that in price is going to continue to drive the retail prices for refined products even higher above the three dollars sixty two cent national average for unleaded regular that we reached last week fifty two cents higher than just last year talking to folks back home it's just it's literally one horror story after another in terms of what people are paying i know that there are many places in the country today where fuel is is hovering right at four dollars a gallon but but in alaska we're looking at prices that are much much higher than that in ads to deal with costing eight dollars and sixty five cents a gallon last week this is just about a dollar higher than the folks there were paying last year they're used to paying high prices but i'm here to tell you  sixty five cents a gallon is really high in the community it's six dollars and twenty five cents a gallon this is exactly one dollar higher than they paid last year at at these prices mr president  alaskans all americans are having great difficulty making ends meet americans need relief from higher fuel prices and they're asking for it now  i have i have so many opportunities coming from a state like alaska that is a producing state a lot of opportunities to talk about how we can produce more as a nation but i also  very very insistent when we talk about an energy policy for this country that we also focus on promoting energy conservation we also focus on greater energy efficiency  developing the alternative energy so critical for this nation but we also have to make sure that when we talk about an energy policy we recognize that there are different components i liken it to a three legged stool you've got the conservation and efficiency you've got the renewables and alternatives but you also have increased production and increased production in traditional energy sources that are done in an proposes to open a couple thousand acres two thousand acres i don't come from a farming state necessarily but my colleagues from south dakota and some of the big farm states tell me that two thousand acres is pretty much the size of a small farm there where we're proposing to open a couple thousand acres of the arctic coastal plain to oil and gas development we believe this area in the ten o two area  the site of the likely largest on shore oil and gas deposits left in north america and we know we know mr president that if we were to act today to open up and more tomorrow that it's not going to bring new north slope oil to the markets tomorrow but it will affect the psychology of the oil markets it will show that america is is getting serious finally getting serious about producing the forty billion barrels of oil in the hundreds hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of natural gas that we believe exist in the current moratorium area i think we need to recognize and so many of my colleagues have stated this already on the floor and more is about the long term i can't i can't tell you how many times i've heard on the floor if we had only opened an r ten years ago when president clinton vetoed it we would have in that pipeline today that pipeline would now be full instead of instead of half full as we currently see it but anwar really is about  the bridge if you will it's it's a bridge to an energy future that that can get to the alternatives and to the renewables that we keep talking about that those that are so focused on  making sure that we have solid environment in the solid environmental base this is what so many of my democratic colleagues are talking about we need to get to the future of energy which i agree is absolutely the alternatives in the renewables but you just can't flip a switch and have this nation powered one hundred percent by by wind or solar or geothermal or ocean energy we've got allow for that transition and anwar need boils from and more can help us to do just that we had we had many hearings in the energy committee but on the issue of production but earlier this year we heard from witnesses who said that the current run up in world oil prices is caused by so many other factors that i mentioned just a few minutes ago clearly a hike in world demand for oil led by china by india absolutely what is happening with the weakening of the u s dollar which is used to pay for all of the oil and oil becoming becoming the new gold a commodity  down to supply and demand i would suggest that as we look to all of these factors that are influencing the price right now one of the ways that we can deal with that one of the ways that we can tell the american cinema that we're working on this is to produce more energy from non opec nations to help increase our global supplies and to help drive down the world price robert  a columnist and so many of the papers said just last week and in a column that i want to submit for the record that we need to exert long term influence on the global balance of supply and demand for energy and that means we have to actually produce more energy in this country how do you get there how do you get from here to there and increased energy production i want to i want to take a few minutes of the afternoon and talk about anwar anwar and it's ten to sixteen billion barrels of economically recoverable oil according to the u s g s estimates and ten trillion cubic feet of natural gas we recognize that by itself that infusion into the energy market is not going to change the world energy equation but parent with the other things that we're talking about in this energy legislation that senator domeni introduced parrot with the additional twenty six billion barrels that could come from o c s development in current moratoria areas parent with the eighty to one hundred trillion cubic feet of natural gas there you also take the fuel from coal to liquids development and the oil from u s oil shale development together all these can start to break the stranglehold that opec has on us and to help lower the prices  back back to anwar i have said as i said throughout my public life opening anwar with going to come at the expense of our environment and at the expense of our wildlife i would have to oppos but we have technology we have technology that we have utilized up north in the past thirty years since we've been an active production pulling oil from the north slope that has truly revolutionized what happens in the arctic when it comes to development of our resources this this chart here is  from the new york times science chart and it's it is essentially outlined some of the latest drilling technology in an effort to reduce environmental damage from the oil drilling directional drilling you know it used to be that you would he would sink your drill i think you're drilling reagan you drill straight down under the new directional drilling what you are literally able to do is you think it down but you you you spider out or i think it's spaghetti out under nice the the surface and you can take this in a direction of up to almost eight miles in every direction around you with no disturbance to the surface so you don't see what's going on down below the caribou that are wandering are are oblivious to the activity top but it is a it is a technique that is in place in the arctic that has helped to to literally provide about one hundred square miles of habitats for the caribou for the m ox that then are between the well pads this this technology has i think made the difference for us not only in alaska in the in arctic conditions but truly as we as we develop our technology for oil exploration around the country it also and it's very difficult to to see a lot of the descriptions on here so i'll use other other maps to show you the ice the math on the ground the couch how you utilize the crossing over a river the three d seismic technology how we've been able to reduce the well pad anisha layer when we were when we were drilling in the seventy's the well pads were about thirteen acres in size through the use of this technology you can limit that footprint to about five acres in size and smaller i want to show you a picture here of how we travel across the tundra so that we don't disturb it so that you don't see man's footprints or the or the the trucks that are going over this is this is a composite mass that is literally laid on top of the tundra during the summer months so that you don't damage the fragile tundra below look at a picture here of the of the icebergs we do not explore in in the summer months with exploring in the wintertime and this is a picture here of of exploratory drilling in alpine in the winter you'll see around around the the exploration side you can't really see the ice road from here but there are no roads around it there are no roads that will take you to this site the way that you get there is you build out roads on the ice it's like a big zamboni machine making an ice road that will take you across the tundra in the wintertime only can't go out there during the summer and lay down the ice road so that when summertime tums you have to say that this is this is alpine during the summer months now is the photo is really grainy and i apologize for the quality of it but you can see you don't have any roads that lead to the the exploration site in the in the in the tundra there this is a picture that was taken in in the fall this white box here is is the well site that is waiting actual development we've got a picture here of  rendezvous well number two and this is located in the national petroleum reserve alaska this is done in the winter and you can see here this is the ice road that i'm talking about that literally goes for miles connecting this site to a road system miles away we've got a picture of this same site dan and this is in the summer same site where they have capped off and removed the rigs in the first one was the exploration and then once the exploration is complete they cap it off no sign of impact to the area except for this christmas dams that can be removed if in fact there's no production that is ever likely in that area area so again you look at this news they will you know how do you get there well we get there because we are utilizing techniques that allow us that require us to protect the environment so that the impact is as minimal as absolutely possible the last picture that i want to put up here in this series everyone talks about the character and i think no picture of anwar is complete unless we have our picture of the caribou wandering around at point mcentire field well the is is underway the caribou the wildlife have learned to co exist with the level of development that goes on in in the area there but again i think it's important to point out that we've gotten smart over the past thirty years we've figured out how to utilize technology so that we can gain access to a resource well at the same time preserving and protecting an area a part of the country that we know is fragile that said tundra is is is fragile territory and we know we've got an obligation to treat it right and treat it with respect and be able to allow a level of subsistence harvest for the for the natives that live up there live off the land we've got to figure out how we balance it and we've worked very very hard to do just that now the chairman of the energy committee a colleague that i have a great deal of respect for and has worked very very hard in so many energy issues he spoke just a little bit ago and he made the point that just to the to the west of of the pruett of fields and and to the south we have an area that is known as the national petroleum reserve alaska and his point was how why do we need to open up  where if we have all of this area that is potentially available for oil exploration and development well there's a couple things that are going on with the n p r a it's a huge area it's it's larger than the the anwar area itself and as a consequence the pockets of oil the areas that would be conducive for exploration and and drilling our are further from the infrastructure the existing pipeline and so that adds enormous costs to already very very expensive operations  north you also have some very environmentally sensitive areas in the n p r m around data shoptalk like where we have a great deal of of waterfowl that come through so we are sensitive to making sure that we're not  disrupting two to the first for this extent possible the the wildlife the waterfowl and so that too is is a point of concern but also we recognize that the potential in an war for greater intensity in terms of the oil sign is just that much more real it's estimated that in anwar we could get proximately six thousand eight hundred sixty barrels per acre out of an as opposed to only four hundred eighty barrels per acre in n p r a those are the factors to just kind of consider when we're talking about n p r a and and and more  the and more portion i think it's helpful to put up a map of anwar just so people can kind of put it into context the anwar portion of this bill limits exploration to two thousand acres of the nineteen point six million acre wildlife refuge this is just one ten thousandth of one percent of the refuge it allows establishment of critical habitat zones that requires the use  best commercially available technology to produce the oil no matter what the cost to the company and we believe truly that this new technology can limit the environmental impacts in the north but again look at look at what we're talking about here be the refuge itself all of anwar when people talk about anwar some might get the impression that we are talking about developing in all of the wildlife refuge all the nineteen point six million acres that's incorrect the area that we're talking about developing is within the anwar coastal plain and that is one point five million acres but still look what you still have within the refuge you have an a wilderness area which is absolutely no development of anything at all eight point five million acres that is fully established in the wilderness area and in the balance here about ten million acres is the refuge area so this is the this is area the ten o two that we're talking about opening for produce potential exploration and development and of that in this tiny little red dot represents about what two thousand acres out of one point five million acres could represent so it's important to put that in context we haven't had the end more debate in the month so i think it's always nice to to refresh people's memory of what and more really you'll notice and more itself is about the size of the state of south carolina so we're talking we're talking big territory here but the amendment that was introduced by senator domenici and members of the energy committee does more than just open up and more and more is not the sole answer to the high price of oil anwar is not the sole answer to a balanced energy policy anwar is just one piece of that puzzle demand also permits revenue sharing with states that decide to allow its offshore off of their coastline but for the states that don't want it this also provides new moratoria powers to prevent drilling powers that could be done in just four years so this is actually a plus for those who are somewhat concerned about about o c s development off their coast with the new did technology that we have the old fears of a well  blowout from offshore development should be satisfied the fear of subsidy pipeline leak should be alleviated by the performances that we saw in the gulf of mexico during hurricanes katrina and rita and wilma and back in two thousand and five on oil shale production in the west there's there's great new technology that permits production from in situ piping not requiring open pit mining of the of the oil shale we recognize that here in this country america oil they say that america is the saudi arabia of oil shale oil holding two trillion barrels of potential or oil production also the provision in the legislation regarding call to liquids set the goal of america producing six billion gallons of such fear by two thousand and twenty two one sixth of what we theoretically will produce from biofuel development by then but it requires that the fuel not produce more life cycle carbon emissions and gasoline allows for waivers to protect the environment given that alaska holds alaska loans called the world's largest potential called deposit and that america contains about sixty percent of the world's total reserves of co it's vital that we find some way to to utilize the fuel called the only fossil fuel that we can develop where we know we have the technology currently to capture and store any carbon produced and to keep it out of the atmosphere we believe that this legislation alone this bill could produce another twenty four billion barrels of oil and gas to meet our nation's total needs five years now that will dampen world prices but if we don't take these steps we'll continue to be in this exact same position being held hostage by the world's oil cartel for decades until we have new alternative technologies we've got to stop letting ourselves be held over the proverbial barrel by the world's nationally owned oil company we understand in this country that there's no good reason with our with our technology our environmental advancements there is no there's no reason for this nation to be not producing more of the energy that it needs and now i do want to add a caveat here because i've been talking about anwar and offshore and called to liquids and by passing this amendment it doesn't mean that we should move full speed ahead to promote narn non carbon emitting nuclear power and we should do everything possible to produce more power from wind and biomedical hydro wind solar and geothermal and ocean energy and all the other technologies we need  what it does mean is that america will finally show the world that we're willing to do our part in meeting our own energy needs there there used to be monterey if you will that that nation should think globally but act locally well here in this country we should produce more of the energy that we consume rather than expecting that other nations supply it to us we have the ability to reduce our dependency on imported energy sources we just need to get on with doing it i think that this amendment would help us to cut our prices now but in specially and looking out for the long term helping us to to avoid higher prices for the years to come is present image over the weekend i was reading through the through the local columnist in the anchorage paper there and and one guy had it right he says i think that the republicans need to be more supportive of alternative and renewable the democrats need to be more supportive of increased domestic production and the american consumer needs to just conserve more sounds like it's pretty stage and wise advice to me got yourselves the start of a pretty good energy policy for this country it's president i appreciate the time of my calling and i yield the floor anniversaries are usually a time of joy time to celebrate time to remember happy occasions in one's life this weekend my son's celebrated mother's day with my wife their mom broke many know that this is the hundredth anniversary of mother's day speaking of their mom she and i will celebrate our twenty six wedding anniversary this august anniversary that's very special and it's something that i intend to celebrate every day but today we mark an anniversary that's more troubling than celebrate tory today marks the three hundredth day since judge robert conrad was nominated to serve on the four circuit court of appeals the three hundred day judge conrad was nominated in july of two thousand and seven it's been almost a year and he still has yet to receive a hearing from the judiciary committee advise and consent i don't think it said three hundred days it said advise and consent this is an anniversary that i personally am not proud of and quite frankly the senate should be ashamed of we're telling the american people that we're unable to fulfill one of the most important responsibilities that  elect us as senators for we're telling the american people that we cannot follow through with our constitutional responsibility of the dyes and consent on federal judges this present i'm not going to spend my time today pointing fingers and placing blame on one party or another that be a waste of everybody's time i'm here for quite the opposite reason we need to encourage our fellow colleagues to better utilize our limited time left in this congress and start confirming judges to the bench don't fortunate reality is that our federal bench is suffering and most importantly vacancies on the bench hurt the american people i've often said that there's no area of daily life that's not affected by judges judges make decisions every day that have a long lasting and significant impact on the entirety of the american people unfortunately our society is becomes so extremely comfortable with if not aggressive about filing lawsuits we must try to reduce that problem in and of itself but in the meantime we need to fill these lingering vacancies in order to give judges on the bench the help they desperately need to adjudicate their rapidly increasing case loads today we have a great opportunity for this congress to stop pointing fingers to stop placing blame and to reverse the dreadful trend of under performance on federal judges i encourage my colleagues of is above the bickering and come to an understanding that confirming judges should be about legal qualifications and experience judge bob conrad now waits for the three hundred day since his nomination for judiciary hearing he's clearly clearly qualified to serve on the fourth circuit court of appeals it's almost impossible to think of a more qualified candidate he's and has an excellent reputation as a knowledgeable and fairer district court judge from the western district of north carolina bob has twice twice been confirmed by the united states senate once in two thousand and one to become attorney u s attorney and once in two thousand and five to be a u district court judge a candidate that has been confirmed by this body twice that can't even get judiciary hearing bob received a unanimous let me repeat that well qualified rating by the american bar association we don't have every nominee who receives a unanimous well qualified bob's nomination to the four circuit court it's been endorsed by the charlotte observer the asheville citizen times the charleston post and courier it's not the papers that are keeping him out of office it's the united states senate and specifically the judiciary committee judge conrad's nomination is also extremely important north carolina my home state must get more representation on the fourth circuit for circuit court our state has just once that judge even though we're the most populous state in the circuit judge conrad's been nominated for circuit court cannot fulfill its obligations to put a core a judge on this bench it is now a judicial emergency by the administrative office of the federal court system i could continue on the list of judge conrad's outstanding credentials and qualifications and more importantly why it's critical that he be confirmed of the four circuit court but really this distinguished body could use a little less talk and a little more action time to act on this nomination it's time to give judge conrad a hearing and a vote on the senate floor he's been waiting patiently patiently for over three hundred days and that's inexcusable some might think they're helping their political party by blocking qualified presidential nominees from being considered for the federal bench but what they're really hurting is our country and the american people it's not just one or two of us or the one hundred us senators that suffer from this lack of progress it's all of us i remind all of my colleagues they shouldn't celebrate this three hundred diana virtually they should act on it they should act to get bob conrad a hearing carolina mr president i come to the floor today along with my colleague to speak on the pending nomination both judge robert j conrad but i also want to speak about the nomination of thomas alvin far to be a district court judge in the eastern district of north carolina as my great friend and colleague senator burr from north carolina has pointed out these nominations have reached the number of troublesome and frustrating milestones in the past few weeks bob conrad has now been waiting more than three hundred days three hundred days for hearings and tom fars nomination has languished for nearly unprecedented duration of over five hundred days five hundred days without a hearing in fact he now holds the un in view of all this thinking of being the longest current spending district court nominee bob conrad and tom far have both received the american bar association highest rating of unanimously well qualified and still they await a hearing bob conrad and tom far have the full support of their home state senators both of their blue slips were long ago returned and still they await a hearing the eastern district seat to which tom is nominated in the fourth circuit seat which bob conrad has been nominated have been declared judicial emergencies by the judicial conference i would add that north carolina as my colleague mentioned the most populous state in the fourth circuit has historically been significantly under represented on the court and presently complained only one judge the honorable allison duncan when we should have four or five and still mr president these accomplished and capable candidates continue to wait hundreds of days without receiving a hearing the chairman of the judiciary committee the distinguished senator from vermont has taken time to meet both tom far and bob on read and we thank him for the courtesy despite the chairman's having met these two salt full and an impressive men having heard them pledge their commitment to the law and its impartial administration they have faced an action by the committee on the judiciary mr president tom far and bob conrad are two of the most distinguished and respected legal professionals in the state of north carolina for his part tom graduated at the top of this plant summa cum laude from hillsdale college and went on to receive his j d from emory university and his masters of law and labor from the georgetown university law center tom spent a year as the late u s senator john east labor committee counsel he also has clerked for judge frank bullock of north carolina's middle district served as an adjunct professor of labor and employment law chaired the magistrate judge merritt selection committee in north carolina's eastern district and he is a permanent member of the fourth circuit judicial conference tom far has spent the majority of his career practicing employment law in raleigh with two of our state's most important law firms recognized as a leader in his practice area tom has been selected as a top one hundred super warrior for two years running by his colleagues and his legal elite for five years running by business north carolina he's listed in the martin dale hubbell law directory the listing of the country's leading attorneys and he has maintained their preeminent ranking for more than a decade and regarding the impressive qualifications of judge bob conrad is a magna cum laude a graduate of clemson university and received his law degree from the university of virginia his career and credentials are known to many in this body the senate has confirmed him by non controversial jle voice vote as a judge in north carolina's western district in fact he's been confirmed twice and he's serves a purpose since two thousand and six is that court's chief judge bob conrad is recognized as a judge and judicial scholar of the first order mr president by the attorneys who appear before him and the judges with whom he works and deed both the conrad and far nominations are supported by a wide array of their colleagues republican and democrat many of whom have written the chairman to express for these nominees and belief in their fitness for the federal judiciary mr president in this body we often speak of judicial nominations in terms of numbers number of nominees confirmed number of days pending while these numbers are important let us not lose sight of the fact that these nominees are real people with careers and families real people who have made sacrifices and those careers in time spent with their families for the opportunity to serve their country as a federal judge yes appointment to these high offices is an honor representing the entrustment of an awesome responsibility and the senate's constitutional duty of advice and consent is not to be just charged lightly but our duty must be discharged bow wow ing an up or down vote on these nominees i ask my colleagues to move forward and bring some measure of relief to the people of north carolina's eastern district and the fourth circuit it is a simple and reasonable request and action action on the nominations of tom far and bob conrad is long come to speak about energy and respond a couple things i've heard on the floor and talk about what we're going to be doing tomorrow but first i want to say that i just finished a two hours chairing a democratic policy committee hearing in which three people testified two from the u s state department previously with the u s state department serving in the country of iraq and one major general nash who has a great deal of experience internationally but i come away from that hearing listening to hours to some very patriotic americans at judge brennan mr mcneil who talked about their experience working for the state department in baghdad and what i heard was unbelievable almost unbelievable they were there to try to be supportive of the anti corruption efforts that were underway by our government and by judge al roddie who headed the commission on public integrity in the country of iraq and what they told me makes me almost furious they told me that our state department yes our state department here in the united states did everything they could to undermine the efforts of judge already the commission of public integrity and the this is the section in the state department that was in iraq trying to root out corruption and support those that were engaged  corruption activities billions and billions of dollars have literally been stolen the witnesses today who work for our state department in iraq told us that money that has gone through the hands of the iraqi ministries an unbelievably corrupt government and up in the hands among other places of the insurgents which then fuels the war against our soldiers and our state department they say  testimony and i would encourage people to write to us and the and get a copy of this testimony they say that our government and those in charge in baghdad not only did nothing about it but tried because the iraqi government full of corrupt ministries were upset with the commission on public integrity investigating them and it was our government that decided to be helpful to throw judge already out of that country this is a man who they tried to kill they didn't like him investigating corruption in iraq so they tried to kill him and yet our government paved the way for the iraqi government to get rid of him to throw him out of the country and in fact in my judgment we're going to on thursday this week we're going to write a bill in the appropriations committee the president asks for i believe it's one hundred seventy two billion dollars that's w b one hundred seventy two billion dollars additional mostly for the war in iraq and afghanistan the question is how much of that one hundred seventy two billion dollars going through the defense department and then some into the  iraqi ministries how much of that is going to be wasted how much of that is going to stick in the hands of corrupt officials in the country of iraq if we could die that money purple and track it through those that stuff it in their pockets in these iraqi ministries and then pass it along to insurgents as part of the take who would we see that's stealing this money from the american taxpayer and who would we see that's undermining the work every single day of soldiers in iraq we can't leave the country of iraq we are told by this administration until there's stability there is not going to be stability until you address the issue of corruption and as long as we turn a blind eye to corruption which t people from the state department who worked in iraq told us today as long as we turn turn a blind eye to corruption as has been done and as long as we beat trey those yes betray those who were standing up in iraq and risking their lives to get rid of corruption we don't stand a chance of making an answer ground in iraq and in fact the witnesses today said the special inspector general for iraq in reporting to us the congress the american people about progress made in rooting out corruption that special inspector general was given information from those in charge in our government in iraq that was inaccurate because those those responsible for providing the information sent the right information inspector general then it was pulled back by the state department and they sanitized it rewrote it to give a completely different message we're not even getting the truth we're being deceived and i want everyone to read the testimony that came today from judge brennan and others and understand what's happening because as we start on thursday on this issue of whether we're going to provide another one hundred seventy two billion dollars we ought to understand how much of that money is being stolen how much of that money is going to actually support the insurgency and what's being done about it and i'm going to send letters as a result of the hearing that i and my colleagues found today to officials in the state department to secretary rice and others demanding to know what she knows and what they know and who's doing something about this and demanding accountability from those in the state department relative to the test when it was given today was president comes talk about that but i just came from chairing that hearing for two hours and  it is an unbelievable tale that that is very distressing and very pointing and just cries out for action by the congress and action by the president and this administration  anwar is one of those pristine areas that we've set aside we've set that aside and there are some who want to drill as a first resort if ever there is drilling in that part of the world that we've set aside as one of the few pristine areas left it ought to be a last resort but why would you go there as a first resort mr president if you take a look at the outer continental shelf and where the reserves of oil and gas really are gulf of mexico the west coast california in the west coast or alaska they rank this way one two and three number one is the gulf of mexico number two is california and the west coast number three is the outer continental shelf off of alaska i was one of those that with four of my colleagues or i should say three of my colleagues senator domenici senator bing myself and then senator talent that introduced the legislation to open up at least one eighty one of the gulf of mexico to get new production of oil natural gas and i'm proud to say that was the law we got that passed now it got narrowed well they got it passed so i've actually introduced another bill to expand that i think we should be there producing more and we are going to be there as a result of my efforts and the efforts of senators domenici bingaman and talent so don't don't tell me about you know anwar is going to solve our problems we're  trying to open up even more in the gulf of mexico for additional production but with respect to the price of oil at this point bouncing around at the top with like a roller coaster mostly up here is what's happening with the price of oil nearly double in the last year i don't need to tell people that if you drive a car you know what's going on nearly double the price of oil in the last year now mr president my judgment there's nothing that justifies that and i want to talk about that a little bit there's nothing in the fundamentals of supply and demand that have justice that would justify doubling the price of oil in one year steven simon senior vice president of exxon mobil they're making profits they've got perma grand i mean they can't they can't help but smile all the way to the bank profits highest profits in history but mr simon senior vice president says april first just last month the price of oil should be about fifty or fifty five dollars a barrel gate senior energy analyst oppenheimer and company thirty thirty five years in this business here's what he said to the star telegram there's actually no shortage of oil i'm absolutely convinced that oil prices should be above fifty five dollars a barrel i call it nice talking about the futures market i call it the world's largest gambling hall it's open twenty four seven unfortunately it's totally unregulated this is like a highway with no cops and no speed limit and everybody's going one hundred twenty miles an hour the jersey star ledger experts including the former former head of exxon mobil say financial speculation in the energy markets has grown so much over the last twenty to thirty years it now adds twenty to thirty percent or more to the price of a barrel of a an example of increases in the speculation in the futures market as opposed to commercial contracts speculation as you can see it's gone up near the forty first mark we'll see where it's gone just in recent years up up way up so what does happen is we have much much much more speculation in the futures market that determines the price of this commodity now who's making money with all this when i said the other day i don't know this guy from a cord of wood his name is andrew hall is the story in the wall street journal trader hits jackpot in oil as commodity boom roars on you know my guess is that that this fellow doesn't actually want to buy oil or actually acquire oil he's speculating in the futures markets will rogers said you buy things you'll never get from people who never had it and you make money right i mean so you've got these speculators neck deep hedge funds are neck deep in the futures market investment banks neck deep in the futures market speculating so here's a guy that made a quarter of billion dollars in the last five years speculating in the futures market now mr president some say well the futures market you need that i agree a need that you need that for liquidity you need it for hedging absolutely but you don't need a futures market and should not allow a futures market for energy that ratchets up the price of energy in an unbelievable way solely due to speculation fact is it does great damage to our economy and does great damage