Date: 2000-03-22
Speaker: GARY MILLER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I am concerned over the recent rise -in prices being paid for gasoline at the pump. Right now. my constituents are facing extremely high gas prices. I have received letters and emails from many of.the people I represent informing me they have recently paid as high as $1.90 a gallon for the lowest grade of gasoline at the pump. Predictions from the Department of Energy have indicated that unleaded gasoline could get as high as $2.25 a gallon by June. at the same time my constituents will be taking their families on summer vacation. As we all know. the reason for the recent price spike is the result of OPEC deciding to decrease production to raise the price of oil. OPEC made this decision last March. We have been well aware of the possibility that a price increase would occur from that. But. because the Clinton administration lacks a definitive national energy policy. and according to the Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. the administration was caught napping. Americans were not shielded from this crisis. I am the first to admit there is no overnight solution to .the problem. But I will be the first to say this problem would not have been as costly if President Clinton would have also shown leadership. Instead. the President jeopardized the economy and.national security of this country. Now Congress is forced to act on this problem. My amendment to H.R. 3822 would require the Secretary of Energy to prepare a report for Congress on how we can strengthen the United States national security by increasing domestic oil production. The United States is the number one consumer of oil. Even if we increase domestic production. the United States will still rely on foreign oil. But we must diversify our sources of supply so we do not find ourselves in a compromising position should OPEC decide to decrease production again down the road. Moreover. by requiring the Secretary of Energy to report to Congress on how to increase domestic oil production. a blueprint can be provided for future administrations to avert this problem. In addition. future Congresses would not be in the position that we are currently in where Congress is forced to react to a crisis that arguably could have been foreseen and averted. Because the environment is very important and should not be neglected in the decisionmaking process. my amendment would also require the Secretary of Energy to work with the administrator of the EPA to determine how domestic oil production can be increased without harming the environment. Since President Clinton has taken office. Americas dependency on foreign oil has almost doubled to 55 percent. Furthermore. President Clinton has reduced access to Federal lands in the western United States by nearly 60 percent. This is where nearly 67 percent of our onshore oil reserves are located. If Federal. lands had been opened to exploration. we may never have been in this position we find ourselves in today. L_ President Clinton has also been responsible for increasing regulations on U.S. oil refineries without consideration of the economic impact these regulations may have on their ability to produce oil. In many cases. independent. refineries are forced to close up shop because of the burdensome regulation imposed on them. For every refinery that goes out of business. this is a decline in the domestic oil produced. Although I will withdraw this amendment. I will continue to push the administration to come up with a strategic national energy policy that can thwart another situation like this again and strengthen U.S. national security. I plan to offer this amendment again at a more appropriate time. I hope that my colleagues will support this amendment when I reintroduce it at a later time.