Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCAIN. I thank my two colleagues from North Dakota and Wyoming. There are no two Members of the Senate who know more and have worked harder on this energy issue. There are no two Senators who have worked harder to try to bring to the American people the fact that if we could export energy to these countries, it could literally change the world. This is not only when it actually arrives, but when Vladimir Putin gets the message, within 3 years--as I understand the Senator from North Dakota's context--we could be sending energy to the living rooms.

If you would put the numbers back up with the countries and their dependence on Russian energy.

Within 3 years the people within Latvia, Estonia, members of NATO, would no longer be reliant--and it gets very cold up in those Baltic countries as well. It can have a significant effect on the entire world.

I would also point out if that energy--and I would ask my colleagues from Wyoming or North Dakota--could get to the living room of Kiev--which the Senator showed the different pipelines that cross Ukraine--that has a huge effect.

I would ask my friend from Wyoming to comment.

We have threatened Russians time after time after they absorbed Crimea in violation of an agreement they made in Budapest to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine. They absorbed Crimea. They continue to provoke unrest in Eastern Ukraine.

They have been threatened time after time by the United States and Europe, and I would argue that the handful of sanctions on individuals has had very little effect whatsoever on Russian behavior.

I ask the Senator from Wyoming as well, this is not only about the fact that the United States of America would be an energy exporter--which is a huge effect on our economy--but this could have a huge effect on the entire European Continent, because if Vladimir Putin understands that this energy is coming from a friend of the ally of the United States America, as opposed to them being dependent on Russian oil and energy, I would argue that it could change the entire shape of the world as we know it.

I thank both of the Senators who have been involved in this issue for many years. I don't know how many times both Senators have come to the floor--and I might just say I don't claim to be an expert on energy as my two colleagues are--but I will say the presentation the Senator from North Dakota just made should be understandable and I believe is understandable to every American citizen how we can, within 3 years as I understand it, achieve a level of energy independence and that for Europe that could literally change the entire equation in Europe and in the United States.

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Mr. McCAIN. I say to both of my colleagues, the Senator from North Dakota, Americans understand, I believe, that we need to do what we can to help our European friends become independent of Vladimir Putin as a source of energy.

They also are beginning to understand the United States of America is going to be an exporter of energy, which will obviously change our dependence on Middle Eastern energy and on other forms of energy, but the way the Senator from North Dakota described this, I think every American, if they saw it, would ask: Why don't we move in that direction? Why don't we believe the major energy companies that say within 3 years--and beginning, I understand, next year with some of them--we could be supplying these countries with energy which would then give them not only the ability to have energy without dependency, but it also sends a huge message to Vladimir Putin and to Europe that they are no longer dependent on his largesse. There have been times in the past where Vladimir Putin has shut off the energy in the wintertime, and it gets very cold in some of these countries in the wintertime.

It might also send a message to Vladimir Putin himself that he is not going to get away with the kind of behavior that he has.

I would ask the Senator from North Dakota, what does it require--suppose I am just an average citizen--to capture

that natural gas that is being burned for $1 million-plus a day? What does it require to capture that and then get it to that port where it is going to be exported?

I would finally say I intend to go every place I can in America in the next few months and give the same presentation the Senator from North Dakota did and help the American people understand that we don't have to do a lot.

The energy is there. The question is, Do we have the national will and legislative will to take the action necessary to get that energy to the people who need it so badly, who are literally under the threat of freezing cold this coming winter?

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