Date: 1985-05-22
Speaker: ST GERMAIN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. today I am introducing legislation expressing the sense of the House that hearings should be held to review the implementation of Federal laws designed to ensure that each region of the United States has an adequate reserve of crude oil. residual fuel oil. and refined petroleum products. Coming from New England where we continue to import a high percentage of our residual oil. my own experience with the chronic fear of disruption of those supplies has convinced me that the psychological benefit alone that could be drawn from having a portion of our strategic petroleum reserve located closer to our region or within it. makes the argument for its regionalization even more attractive. As I have said on a number of occasions in the past. the reserve is a bit like an insurance policy. You hope you never have to use it. but you sleep better just knowing it is there. Regionalization of a portion of that reserve makes very good sense if you consider the following: First. along the east coast (and in New England in particular). we import an average of beteen 50 to 60 percent of our residual oil. Under existing law. we are qualified for regional storage. yet those provisions have never been fully implemented. Second. any oil shortage brought on by interruption of imports would have a devastating effect upon the Eastern United States. and especially upon the sixState region of New England. Our electrical power generation systems and our industrial production base rely very heavily on imported residual fuels. Loss of those oil sources (now largely from the Mideast) would result in further widespread unemployment. increased probability of power outages. and chaotic economic dislocation. Third. Mr. Speaker. is the fact that we. no less than our colleagues in all other regions of the Nation. must be able to drawdown on the current SPR. refine it. transport it. and relocate it in the product form we need. and we must be able to do this in the necessarily short period of time we would have between disruption and cutoff of our supplies from other sources. From New Englands viewpoint. that means assurance that SPR oil will be there and will be accessible when we need it. especially in view of the fact that it might take upward of 45 days to get SPR oil from Louisiana to New England. Mr. Speaker. this administration does not appear to be disposed to undertake or support the regionalization of the SPR. Their argument is classic in form: The effect of additional outlays on the budget far outweighs the national security advantages to be gained. This. coupled with their message that the private sector will assume a share of the cost and the responsibility for emergency preparedness. suggests but one thing to me: Regionalization of the SPR will require a congressional initiative. That is the problem as I would see it. That is the underlying task of the Congressa task that can begin through congressional review of the implementation of Federal laws designed to ensure that each region has an adequate reserve. I urge the interest and support of all my colleagues in the furtherance of this objective.*