Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act
REFINERY PERMIT PROCESS SCHEDULE ACT -- (House of Representatives - June 07, 2006)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. MARKEY. I thank the gentleman from Virginia and I thank him for his leadership on this issue.
Let me begin by saying that I have been in Congress for 30 years now and served on the Energy Committee for 30 years, and this is absolutely the worst energy bill I have seen since the refinery bill the House defeated just over 1 month ago. In fact, it is the same exact bill risen from the grave like some horror movie monstrosity to haunt this House and our country once again.
This bill also comes to us, just 10 months ago, as I said, when President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 into law. That bill contained a refinery siting provision. Those provisions were praised at the time by the Republican leadership and the President who claimed that it promotes greater refinery capacity, so more gasoline will be on the market, and it increases gasoline supply by putting an end to the proliferation of boutique fuels. That is 10 months ago, on the greatest energy bill that America had seen in a decade.
But now less than a year after the House passed and the President signed the Republican energy bill into law, as people are screaming at the pumps, as they are being tipped upside down and money is being shaken out of their pockets, as the American people realize that the Republican Party has allowed OPEC and the oil industry to take advantage of every single consumer across the country, this House is now poised to repeal the refinery siting law.
The Speaker, the Republican Speaker praised last summer and replaced it with a brand-new refinery siting scheme. The House Republicans have come up with just another new way of helping the oil and gas industry. Apparently, they do not like the bill they enacted last year; they want a new one. The problem is that the new snake oil that is being peddled in this bill is no more effective than the old snake oil it replaces or the snake oil the Republicans were peddling on the House floor 2 years ago or 3 years ago or 4 years ago.
This bill will not reduce gas prices at the pump, it will not curb spiraling gasoline or home heating oil gas prices. All it does is throw more regulatory subsidies, taxpayer subsidies, at wealthy energy producers who do not need any more government handouts.
Here is what the Bass refinery bill would do: Direct the President to designate no fewer than three closed military bases to be turned over to the oil companies for use as an oil refinery.
Mr. Speaker, this is one terrible bill. I urge the Members to vote ``no.''
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
http://thomas.loc.gov/