Clean Energy Act of 2007
CLEAN ENERGY ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - January 18, 2007)
Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I was pleased to cast my vote today for the CLEAN Energy Act of 2007.
Some of us have been urging energy independence for decades. In fact, President Jimmy Carter had it right over three decades ago when he said the Arab oil embargo was the moral equivalent of war. But America lost sight of his compelling vision for energy independence. We need to give birth to a new sustainable energy age that is bold and develops alternative energy supplies and the infrastructure to support it.
President Bush suddenly realized last year that we have become addicted to foreign oil, of course, most of it coming from the most undemocratic regimes in the world. But during his administration, we are importing 1 billion more barrels of oil from those very undemocratic places since he assumed office. Simply put, his rhetoric doesn't match reality.
I am pleased today that we took some important steps in shifting how Federal resources are dedicated, taking them away from preferential treatment to an oil industry with record profits and little social conscience. Instead, we must incentivize a domestically owned energy industry that has record potential, a shift that America wants and we must take.
While $14 billion over 10 years is nothing to ignore, it is still far too little, especially since more than a third of this amount, a little more than $5 billion, doesn't become available until the 10th year. According to the Government Accountability Office, this government has spent more than $130 billion on subsidies to the oil industry over the last 3 1/2 decades. So today's step forward is the first rung of the ladder to energy independence.
As this country spends billions on oil addiction, 75 percent of it being imported from the most undemocratic places in the world, I might repeat, consider an estimate by the Congressional Research Service which shows the recent increase in oil prices accounts for an additional $60 to $75 billion rise in our country's abysmal trade deficit.
While the oil companies manipulate the market, they continue to rake in billions. During President Bush's tenure, their profits have been record. From 2001 until the first quarter of 2006, ExxonMobil, alone, made $118.2 billion. Now, in the bill today we talk about $14 billion over 10 years. They made $118.2 billion over the last 3 years. Shell has earned $82.3 billion. Shell, one company. BP has made $67.8 billion. Our bill today had $14 billion over 10 years. Chevron Texaco has made $43.1 billion, and Conoco Phillips made $31.1 billion.
We are talking $14 billion over 10 years, with $5 billion in the very last year. Recognizing that those companies' profits were beginning to infuriate the public, does it surprise you that gasoline prices just happened to drop 75 cents a gallon during the run-up to last year's election for Congress?
As we consider this bill today, prices across our Nation, conveniently, are dropping. Imagine, in a place like Toledo, Ohio, they dropped from $2.40 a gallon to $1.75 a gallon. Isn't that strange during the week that we considered this bill?
Imagine an industry earning so much in profits it can manipulate the world and manipulate every single person in our country. Imagine the jobs we could create if we were to dedicate $14 billion, not over 10 years, but each month, rather than spending that money on oil wars in far-flung places, invest it in solar, in wind, in geothermal, in photovoltaic energy, in fuel cells and hydrogen and clean coal production and distribution. Imagine the jobs we could create if we had vision.
These accomplishments that we seek will require not just real imagination, but real leadership. Hopefully this bill today offers a glimmer. America will, at long last, at long last, take seriously what President Jimmy Carter envisioned. He was right then. He remains right today: America must become energy independent. Our people want it. Why shouldn't this Congress deliver it?
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