Free Flow of Information Act of 2007 - Motion to Proceed - Continued
Floor Speech
FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION ACT OF 2007--MOTION TO PROCEED--Continued -- (Senate - July 30, 2008)
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MONTANA NATIONAL GUARD
Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I wish to begin by noting that, again, it is fire season in Montana.
Right now, major wildfires are threatening homes in a small town called Red Lodge. The Cascade fire has been burning and has burned about 6,000 acres. It is burning uncomfortably close to the Red Lodge Mountain ski area.
The hot, dry weather forecast over the next week means there are likely to be more fires and more acres of rangeland and forest lost.
Fire season in Montana officially runs from August until the first snow in fall. So, once again, we are off to an early start.
Wildfires are becoming a fact of the West. We accept it. We deal with it.
The good news is Montana is blessed with outstanding firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service, Tribal Nations, and the State Department of Natural Resources, as well as first responders from local volunteer and paid fire departments.
When they need reinforcements, they turn to the Montana National Guard. Last year, more than 200 guardsmen were mobilized to help fight wildfires in Montana. While no guardsmen have been mobilized yet this year, it will happen at some point--just as they are mobilized every year to protect people and homes, dig out fire lines, smother embers, and provide all manner of hands-on support to this team effort.
There are not too many jobs in this country where the work is as varied as service in our National Guard. This summer we can expect that hundreds of National Guardsmen in Montana and throughout the West will be mobilized to help fight wildfires. It has already happened in California, where the Governor called up 200 Guardsmen.
This is a vital role in our Nation's homeland security.
And just as the Guard answers the call for homeland security missions, they answer the bell when it comes to national security.
In 2004 and 2005, more than 1,500 of my State's National Guard deployed to Iraq. They did yeoman's work over there, and we can all be very proud of their service and grateful for it as well. Today, there are nearly 23,000 National Guardsmen serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Another 3,000 Guardsmen from all over the country work hard to protect our southern border, helping the Border Patrol get a better handle on securing that border. Four hundred Montana Guardsmen were a proud part of that important effort earlier this year.
So as the National Guard in Montana prepares for the inevitable mobilization fight against wildfires here at home, I think it is appropriate we stop to thank the 3,500-strong members of our Montana National Guard for what they do both abroad and here at home.
As wildfires continue to threaten Montana's countryside and our communities, I wish to pay tribute to all the brave men and women who put it on the line to fight our fires.
ENERGY
Mr. President, I wish to comment on the energy debate we have been having in the Senate. Every
Tuesday morning, for 2 1/2 hours, I get to preside over this great body, and I get to hear folks from both sides of the aisle talk about issues of importance.
The energy debate has been particularly intriguing because I have seen folks on the other side of the aisle hold up signs that talk about drilling more and using less.
They are quick to support oil production. But on the other hand, they will not support alternative energies or conservation methods. They talk about drilling more as if it is going to change the price of gasoline tomorrow.
The fact is, the United States has less than 3 percent of the world's reserves of oil. We use 25 percent of the supply. As far as drilling goes, we are drilling now like there is no tomorrow. In fact, in Montana, you would be hard-pressed to find a drilling rig if you wanted to punch a hole.
In Montana, we have offered over 3 million acres of leasing since 2000. We have increased our oil production two and a half-fold. We have drilled 4,870 wells in the last 5 years. Yet we continually see the price of oil go up and up and up. Why? Well, a lot of it has to do with the fact that the major oil companies last year made hundreds of billions of dollars off the consumers' back.
What can we do? What can we do to help bring the price of oil down? Sure, we are going to continue to drill, and I support that effort. But we need additions to our energy portfolio. If we continue to rely on oil as our chief supplier of energy, we are going to be continuing to be beholden to Saudi Arabia and OPEC forever. That ought not be the direction we go.
My good friend, my comrade, Senator Baucus, put forth a tax extenders bill earlier today. Yesterday, we had a chance to vote on one from the House. They were both defeated. They were not allowed to move forward. There was a majority, but there was not 60 votes.
What was in that tax extenders bill? One of the things that was in it was a renewable energy tax credit extension, a continuation that would put more energy in the marketplace.
As shown on this chart, we can see what happens when we have the wind energy tax credit. The yellow bars indicate that. The orange bars indicate when it does not happen. If we have the wind energy tax credit, wind energy production goes up, and there is more energy in the marketplace. When we don't, it does not.
Because of the vote that was taken earlier today, you will see a decrease in wind energy production--a big mistake for this country, not very visionary.
Because of the vote that took place earlier today, we not only will see wind energy grind to a halt, we will see geothermal--which we have a tremendous opportunity for throughout the country, particularly in Montana--we will see biomass, landfill gas--we have an electrical cooperative in northwestern Montana, Flathead Electric Cooperative, that is talking about capturing methane gas off the landfill to produce energy, getting something from nothing--we will not see any of that stuff go on because of the defeat of the tax extenders bill.
In that tax extenders bill, there were also long-term extensions of tax credits for solar energy and fuel cells. Solar energy: getting our energy from the Sun to help replace some of that oil from the Middle East--not going to happen. Folks talk about corn ethanol and how they don't like it. I am not one of them. But I do think we need to get the second generation of ethanol production, cellulosic ethanol. There was a credit for property in that tax extenders bill that was not agreed to earlier today. That will not happen; a biodiesel tax credit. I have talked about a camelina provision in the farm bill for biodiesel, and there are other opportunities in all sorts of oilseeds out there. The biodiesel tax credit does not happen because we did not pass that bill Senator Baucus offered earlier today.
Carbon capture and storage technology to make our coal burn cleaner. In Montana, we are the ``Saudi Arabia'' of coal. We have an incredible opportunity. But without good technology to capture carbon and store it, we will never be all we can be. It would make us more energy independent.
Talk about producing more here at home: Drilling is part of the equation. But an even bigger part of the equation could have been to pass that tax extenders bill earlier today.
Let's talk about using less.
In that tax extenders bill, there were energy efficiency tax credits to help make our homes more energy efficient. It is not going to happen. There was a credit to reduce idling for truckers--that we all see happen--to save transportation fuel. It is not going to happen.
You want to talk about using less? There was a bicycling tax credit for those folks who want to ride their bicycle to work rather than to drive. It will not happen.
There were incentives for geothermal heat pumps in our homes that use less energy with more consistency. It is not going to happen.
There were energy conservation bonds for States and local school districts. The list goes on and on and on.
I ask myself: Why? Why does it have to be this way? Why aren't we looking to the future? Why are we not talking about more than drilling? The fact is, we are drilling. We are drilling an incredible amount of land in this country. It needs to be a bridge. But it needs to be a bridge to somewhere this time.
If we put forth the renewable energy components that are in the tax extenders bill, we will have a future. We will have a future of affordable energy.
I ask my comrades to pass that tax extenders bill. It is incredibly important. It is not just because of energy that it is important.
SECURE RURAL SCHOOLS
Finally, I wish to talk about the security of rural schools. These are payments to Montana's rural communities and forested counties that have an incredible amount of public lands.
The Secure Rural Schools dollars are important not only for the school but also for our roads and our rural counties. Montana is rich in public lands. Consequently, it puts more pressure on property taxes of private property in those counties. With the Secure Rural Schools money, it gives those rural and forested counties the opportunity to meet the needs of the kids in these rural districts and to meet the needs of the transportation industry in those rural districts. We all know that less money for rural schools means lower teacher pay, bigger classroom size, fewer activities, and students start to fall behind.
County road workers right now are being laid off. I spoke with the head of the Montana Association of Counties. He said to the counties: Take your budgets and utilize them as if this money is not going to happen because it is not until we pass the tax extenders programs.
We had the opportunity in this body today and yesterday to pass a good bill that meets the needs of America's families, small businesses, and the economy. It was not passed. There are all sorts of excuses for it, but they are simply that: excuses. We need to move forward with some proactive thinking in this body. I hope the next time this bill hits this floor, it is passed and passed by a large margin.
I thank the Chair.
I yield the floor.
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