Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Domestic Oil and Gas Crisis Tax Relief and Foreign Oil Reliance Reversal Act of 1999. It is a comprehensive, graduated approach to ensure that the United States retains control of its foreign policy and its economic destiny. I believe that oil is essential to our way of life.
Oil is power.
It has been pointed out by numerous commentators that major oil reserves and political volatility go together. The Middle East has the world's most abundant and cheapest oil , unfortunately, the U.S. does not. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are our current allies, but Iran and Iraq are not. Russia is a major natural gas producer, but reliable Russia is not. Our dependence on foreign oil is reaching 57 percent, projected to reach 68 percent by 2010 if current prices prevail.