Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004-Conference Report

AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004-CONFERENCE REPORT

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I thank Senator Boxer who was entitled to go next. Before she got down here, we intervened and asked her if it would be possible I go ahead of her. So I will be next. We are trying not to break the commitment of one side and then the other side, but I will not be here if I cannot speak now. I am on my way to New Mexico to meet the President, ultimately in Roswell, NM.

Mr. President, I said yesterday to a large group of Senators that it is about time now to speak about the energy situation in America since we have a bill before the Senate that missed, in terms of filibuster, by two votes. That means that in normal times that bill would have passed handsomely.

What is happening around here, if you do not get your way, instead of voting on a bill, you threaten to filibuster. The American people have probably seen more 60-vote issues in the Senate in the last 5 years than in modern history. Almost every issue is turned into a 60-vote issue by a threat to filibuster. That was done on the Energy bill.

My friends, I can state what is happening but most of it is right in front of your face. We have the worst case scenario in much of the energy-consuming areas of the country, from the Rockies to New England, with the coldest 10- to 20-day period since the winters of 1977 and 1978. It was 14 degrees at my house this morning a block and a half from the Hart Building. Accuweather is predicting within 2 weeks we could have the coldest weather we have seen in 25 years.

Some people love the cold. Some people love the snow. But the point is America should not be brought to its knees economically and otherwise because we have a cold winter. We are looking at a point in time not too far down the line when the major sources of energy for Americans will be so expensive that the American people will wonder what happened.

I am stating what is happening: Three or four Senators will not let us pass an Energy bill. That is what is happening.

Yesterday, natural gas was over $6.50. To put that in perspective, when I first came to the Senate people-people can look at me and guess how long that was; some would say I look as if I have been here 100 years; some might say 15 years. I have been here 31 years. Ten years after I came here, we were talking about deregulating natural gas and the price of natural gas was 38 cents. Compare that to $6.50.

We can look around the world and see what is happening. The great big monster economy called China has decided they do not have enough energy for their growth. They cannot find a way to quench their thirst for oil. Nobody knew that. It just came upon us. China, the fastest growing economy in the world, has put the word out: Buy oil. And even more than that: Buy the oilfields. Go invest money with oil companies and start owning the oil in the world. The underlying theme is China's thirst for natural gas, as well as to fuel its industrial revolution.

Yesterday, China reported economic growth of 9.9 percent. When there are over a billion people-1.3 billion or 1.4 billion-and they finally decide to take on some aspects of capitalism, they are producing overwhelming amounts of goods and services for themselves and for the world. Whether their leaders call themselves Communists or not, they love dollars and they love to produce things and sell to the world. They are a huge problem. But China is not alone. The population and economic growth is creating a voracious new demand for energy and the world is following in our footsteps.

The bottom line is we are allowing ourselves to become increasingly dependent upon imported energy. We used to say "imported oil." Now I can say "imported energy" because we are beginning to import, or will have to soon, natural gas, liquefied natural gas. We will have to buy that from overseas. And we ourselves will become dependent upon foreign natural gas just as we have grown dependent on oil but it will happen quicker and be more devastating.

Yesterday, unknown to most, a terrible event occurred with reference to the production of LNG, natural gas's substitute. A plant blew up in Algeria. Who would have been worried about it? Why would a Senator from New Mexico even have read about it 10 years ago? Well, we did not care about it because we did not use it. But a plant blew up. Forty-three people died, and all the production of LNG went out the window. Now, that is not our production. I should not be here crying about their losing it. But what I am telling you is, they are not producing LNG to give it away. They are producing it to sell and to sell to us.

The bottom line is, we are allowing ourselves to become dependent upon imported energy. The EIA predicts that 36 percent of all our energy will come from overseas by the year 2025; up from 26 percent in 2002. Just think of that.

I believe some of my colleagues who do not like the current Energy bill and who want to duck and hope the energy prices will come down are going to just wait and see. They will not be coming down; they are going to go up. And when the question is asked, what did we do about it, it is going to be easy for some of us. We are going to say there was a chance to pass a bill, and because of two Senators it did not pass. Two Senators decided they would not vote for cloture, so the Energy bill, which would have done a lot of things which I will quickly outline in a moment, was not passed.

First, let me tell you about a couple things that we hear about often that the bill does not have in it. The bill does not have a change in the CAFE standards on automobiles. Because of that, some of my friends on the other side of the aisle, including the distinguished junior Senator from New Mexico, say this bill should have that in it and we have shirked our duty.

Let me say to all of you, what do you do when one House of the Congress does not want something? And what do you do when you cannot pass it in the Senate, you cannot pass CAFE standards in the Senate, and if you passed it in the Senate, the House will not take it? Let's talk it up. It might be something we ought to be doing, but you cannot do it. Does it mean we should quit, and it does not mean that is enough to kill a bill?

Secondly, MTBE liability. You all know what that is. It is in the bill because the House insisted upon it. Is it the end of the world? I do not think so. Is it enough to kill an energy bill? I doubt it.

A renewable portfolio standard means one group wants to not only give a wonderful tax credit to windmills and solar energy, but they want to mandate a percentage each State must produce. That is what these words mean: renewable portfolio standard. It is a mandate of a percent. Isn't that interesting? Every State does not have wind, but they are mandated to produce a percent of their energy from wind. Can you imagine what is going to happen administratively? They are going to have to buy credits or they are going to have to do something, because this law would do that.

Frankly, the Senate did not want it, and the House did not want it, but a few people said: We will not vote for the bill unless that is included. How do you put it in when over half the people in both bodies will not vote for it? Certainly, the House told us, in 30 seconds: Do not talk about a percentage, a mandate. We will never put it before the House. We do not want it. That is the end of it.

Now, we all know ANWR is still hanging around, we all know the giant issue of offshore drilling is still hanging around, and they are not in this bill.

Like it or leave it, the bill represents the current consensus position of the Congress. If we were looking at 51 votes being necessary, which is what you usually need, this bill would be over with, the points of order would be done with, and we would be on our way to doing what it does.

I believe the deal before us is the only one that does enough, that can currently be reached. I do not believe it is possible to go back to the table and negotiate a different agreement. Why? Because whatever we bring to the floor will be debated ad nauseam.

The last time we tried to pass a bill to go to the House with, you all remember, there were 370-plus amendments pending up there at the desk when we struck a deal with the Democrats to take last year's bill. Remember that? That meant they were not very interested in helping us get a bill then. That is something I direct at a number of Democrats who might not have thought they were doing that, but that is what they did. Luckily, the minority leader said: Why don't you take last year's bill, and I told our leader, BILL FRIST: Take it. I think they could not imagine we would take it. We took it and went to conference. And then, of course, we could negotiate around all the bills.

(Ms. MURKOWSKI assumed the Chair.)

Mr. DOMENICI. I know if we are going to be able to get 60 votes for this agreement-I do not know if we are going to be able to, but, frankly, there is part of me that is quite all right with that. As prices and imports rise, Members are going to begin to reconsider their position. They are going to begin to reconsider their opposition to domestic production. I believe at some point, if we do not take intervening steps, we will be forced to open ANWR.

I say to the occupant of the chair, which you have been advocating since the day you arrived, and for the many days you were in your State legislature, unless we get control of this situation, I think we will find ourselves confronted with that decision, sooner rather than later.

As much as we possibly can, without a new political consensus about energy, this bill addresses the following problems. This is a minimal list.

One, it makes regulation of the electricity grid predictable so new investment can flow into the transmission system. It is a huge part of our problem.

Two, it encourages massive new construction of windmills-60 gigawatts is expected, at a minimum, of new wind power, about 10 times the current amount. Why? Because this bill makes the production tax credit permanent. And listen up. It expired as of January 1. It is not there for those who are building windmills. They know it is gone. It is in this bill. It is there for biomass and a lot of other things.

Now it makes a new generation of clean coal possible through tax credits and research and development. As gas prices climb, we are going to burn more coal. I would like that to be as clean as possible, and this bill makes that possible.

It results in more domestic oil and gas production.

It will result in the construction of perhaps four nuclear powerplants. Some other things have to happen, but it opens the door.

Frankly, I believe that for this world crisis I have been talking about, of everybody wanting more energy, there are only a few ways to dampen the impact of that on the world. One of them is going to be new, modern, different nuclear powerplants. No doubt about it, that is going to be one of them. America led the way. We ought to continue leading the way.

This bill will result in encouraging the use of hybrid cars because there is a big tax credit for them. In fact, those companies that are exploring them believe they could never sell them without the credit provided in this bill.

It massively expands our use of domestically produced ethanol, meaning our farmers will be more in command of their future and their destiny than ever before.

Needless to say, bills do strange things. This bill is more for the farmers than anything else we have ever done. Everybody knows it. I asked yesterday in the presence of 30 Senators, those who have big farms and much corn production, would you tell me what the most important issue in your State is? Is it ethanol? Every farm State Senator in that room said it is the No. 1 issue in their States.

How many times have we taken the floor of this Senate since Senator Reid and I have been here, when Senators have come and said: We have to do this for all the farmers? It just happens that the farmers are in this bill. It is going to produce a substantial amount of gasoline because ethanol is an additive that will expand the use of gasoline immensely. So throw it away because you don't like some provision or you believe what many have been saying about this bill-that it has too much pork in it.

Well, I can tell you that if we have time available at another time, we will talk about the pork. I will tell you about one piece, and it has been written many times because one Senator used it on the floor twice. It has to do with a new plant that might be built in my State, which will be the construction of a new plant for highly enriched uranium. We only have one such company in America. Shameful. We used to have all that market. This company that exists now doesn't want a new one built. They have sent to Senators and newspapers around the country an unsigned document where they maliciously and erroneously talk about that plant. Some people have refused to use it, thank you, because they didn't sign it. Nobody signed it. But somebody used it on the floor of the Senate and said that New Mexico stood to gain $500 million to $700 million, and what a shame that such pork is in the bill.

That isn't even in the bill. Read it. It says anybody who wants to build a new plant of that type, two things will happen-it says anywhere, not just New Mexico. The license will be approved in 2 years and, second, if they want to make an agreement for the Federal Government to dispose of their waste, they can make one, and they will have to pay the Federal Government full price. What this company-which wants no competitor to be built-did was price out what you might have to pay the Government, and then said we are giving it to a State-a total unequivocal fabrication.

Many of the other so-called lard matters in this bill have been matters that have been around here for years for States that produce much of our oil and gas. They finally got a chance to have some equity done to them. When you finally get there and you have the best package you could ever put together, I don't know why we have Senators who find excuses. I think it is because they don't believe there is anything that can be laid to rest on their shoulders in terms of what they have done for this great country and what they have failed to do.

I actually believe that of all the things domestically that the President of the United States mentioned, and all the things we will be debating, there is nothing more important than what we do about our energy availability for future generations. It is No. 1 in my book. You have not heard much from me because, after working for months on it, I was shocked that I could not get 60 to vote to get around a filibuster. I believe sooner or later those who have done this to this bill will pay the piper politically. I say to our President: I believe you ought to be pushing this bill a lot harder.

Some worry about its cost. Let me tell you, the cost of this bill is infinitesimal compared to the cost to future generations of not producing natural gas from Alaska, leaving it up there instead of bringing it down here, and all the things like that which are in this bill. It is absolutely crazy. Costs, say some, are too much. If everything has to be paid for, and it goes the way it says, it is $1.6 billion a year. Do you know what that means? Americans spend $400 billion a year on energy. If that is going up 10 percent, when the rest of the domestic product is only growing at 2 percent, that would be an 8-percent differential. Just do the arithmetic. Eight percent times 400 is $32 billion a year in cost growth being put on the backs of hard-working Americans.

It is time we talk real sense about this. I will not let it go. But you all know there is only so much you can do and only so much of yourself that you can give to an issue. You have one thing growing up after another that people invent and argue about, and that same person just fails to want to argue about the validity of the entire bill. It is truly something that we would look at America and say we love democracy and we love to vote, but this is one that it sure would be good if some of these things could be done by the President of the United States. Not so. Can't be. We have to go do it.

I yield the floor.