Energy & Environment

Yesterday I introduced legislation called the "Plug-In Hybrid Electrical Vehicle Act of 2006." The bill encourages government and private industry to work together to develop new technologies that will make plug-in hybrids more cost effective. Through research and development grants, scientists will focus on producing cars made of light-weight materials and longer-running batteries. The bill also establishes a pilot program that will award 25 grants to help local governments purchase fleets of plug-in vehicles. Plug-in hybrids save money, conserve energy, protect the environment and reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. For economic, environmental and strategic reasons, it makes sense to encourage automakers to go beyond their already popular hybrid vehicles and to develop and produce plug-in electric hybrid vehicles.

The Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act legislation addresses the basic fact that our nation's demand for refined products outstrips supply by a growing margin due to the lack of domestic refining capacity, which has led to the predictable result of higher and higher prices for all Americans. An uncertain and disorganized system of regulations and approvals has strangled the planning of all new refineries since 1976. A growing shortfall increases our reliance on imported refined products and causes prices to rise accordingly. This legislation will streamline a badly disjointed approval process and assist local, state, and federal officials in untangling the confusing and sometimes contradictory regulations and permitting required by various regulatory agencies. A primary goal of the legislation is also to promote new biofuel and petroleum refineries being constructed outside of the Gulf of Mexico.

Currently, half of all our domestic refinery capacity is concentrated in the Gulf States, a region too vulnerable to natural disasters. That in turn puts the U.S. energy security at risk and causes periodic supply disruptions and price increases. Simply expanding our current refineries fails to address this concentration and indeed makes it worse. Moreover, such expansion only increases our over reliance on crude oil as a feedstock. Constructing new refiners in other regions provides needed geographic distribution and also creates the opportunity to utilize locally available biomass and other renewable fuel feedstocks. Our agricultural and forestry resources are currently sufficient to sustainably displace more than one third of our transportation fuel needs, and we should support domestic supply over protecting the import-dependent status quo.

We need to improve the current system that has led to tight supplies, high prices for consumers, a risky concentration of capacity in the Gulf region, and an over dependence on foreign crude oil.

Republicans are at it again, bringing up bills they claim will help average consumers, but which are actually just handouts to big oil.

This week, House Republicans offer the Refinery Permit Process Act, which takes decision-making power away from local and state governments when it comes to oil refinery construction and expansion, and gives it to the federal government instead.

Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle say that current health and environmental regulations are getting in the way of oil companies increasing their refining capacities - but that is simply not true. In fact, several refiners have announced expansion plans totaling over 1.1 million barrels per day of capacity - all under current law.

Even the CEO of Shell testified before the U.S. Senate last November that "we are not aware of any environmental regulations that have prevented us from expanding refinery capacity or sitting on a new refinery."

This legislation is clearly not needed. It is time the House Republican leadership bring bills to the floor that will actually decrease our dependence on foreign oil and relieve the price burden on consumers.

Today, we are set to continue our efforts to address high gas prices by voting on the "Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act," an important bill that will increase our domestic ability to refine crude oil by reducing bureaucracy and streamlining the permit approval process. We must increase the production of refined petroleum here at home rather than importing it from other countries whose interests are not necessarily in line with ours. As member of the House International Relations Committee, I can tell you without hesitation that we do not want to be dependent on countries like Venezuela for refined petroleum. One way to end that dependency is to increase the amount of refined crude oil we create here at home. It is hard to increase that domestic supply when we have not built a refinery in the U.S. in thirty years. Getting refineries online is important to increasing production here at home, but that also needs to be combined with an increase in domestic exploration. This is why I am glad we recently took another vote on opening up a small portion of the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) to oil exploration. Oil exploration in ANWR is essential to helping drive down gas prices in the long run. In fact, at peak production levels, development in ANWR could deliver us an additional 1.5 million barrels of oil per day. It could become the single largest conventional energy resource in America. And it can all be done while we protect the natural beauty of the Refuge.

The passage of the "Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act" today will be another key step toward weaning our country off of foreign oil. Hopefully the Senate will follow our lead and take up this important bill and the ANWR bill. We have the ability to drive down gas prices over the long-term and it all starts here at home.

One of the few ways Congress can do something, really anything, to affect high gasoline prices is to increase the supply of products. To increase supply we must increase our domestic refinery capacity. The Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act that the U.S. House will vote on this Wednesday would simply establish a federal coordinator to work with the federal government agencies responsible for issuing permits in the development of a new refinery.

This would help eliminate some of the needless delays that beset any large project, such as a refinery. The bill also looks at closed military bases for possible sites for a refinery, including at least one biofuels refinery. In addition, this legislation would benefit coal to liquid refineries, which I strongly support.

The bill does not exempt a refinery developer from any regulations or environmental standards. It simply gives them a single point person to assist in running the maze of the permitting process and tries to keep government agencies on a time schedule for making their decisions.

Bringing new biofuel and traditional refineries online outside of the Gulf of Mexico region is the fastest and best way to increase our energy security and restore lower cost supplies for consumers.

As elected leaders, we have an obligation to do all we can to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, which is why I've made energy one of my top priorities in Congress. But Washington recently passed an energy bill that gives the same oil companies that made $100 billion in profits another $2 billion in tax cuts. We need to repeal those lavish cuts and pass my legislation that gives grants to local governments that pass Clean Energy Bond Acts and municipalities that have clean action plans.

We must take every possible step in an attempt to meet our energy needs through all available sources within in our country. If we don't go after our domestic sources of energy, we will continue to be at the mercy of world supply and demand and uncertain international political situations. We can sit back and watch gas prices rise and rise, or we can do something.

Every time the price of oil goes up, drilling proponents reflexively propose more drilling in wild places such as the Arctic Refuge.The unique wilderness values of the Arctic Refuge deserve to be protected, not plundered.Allowing drilling and development in the Arctic Refuge would destroy one of kind wilderness yet do virtually nothing to ease our energy problems.

At best oil from the Arctic Refuge would meet America's energy needs for a few months. Drilling in the Arctic Refuge will not help consumers at the pump. The Bush Administration's Energy Department's own figures show that drilling in the Arctic would not lower gas prices by more than about a penny a gallon, 20 years from now.

Instead of fighting over our national parks and wildlife refuges, let's work together to craft the kind of energy policy the United States really needs - one that truly will enhance our security and independence from foreign oil by tapping into the virtually inexhaustible potential of non-polluting renewable fuels.

We need an energy policy that does more than run on empty; one that puts us on the road to real energy security and benefits all Americans, not just the special interests.

 

 

Instead of misleading our children with the nuclear waste version of Joe Camel, the Department of Energy should tell the truth about the real dangers of dumping toxic nuclear waste in Nevada and the real risk to communities in 43 states that will result from thousands of shipments of radioactive garbage on America's roads and railways. I am proud that more than 140 of my colleagues voted to dump Yucca Mountain Johnny and against the use of taxpayer funded propaganda to fool our children into believing that burying nuclear waste only a short drive from Las Vegas is good for Nevada families.