Soaring Gasoline Prices

SOARING GASOLINE PRICES

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, before I make comments on a different subject matter, I commend my friend and colleague for addressing the issue of energy-energy production and energy costs-while he is still on the floor. We have probably close to 200,000 American troops in the gulf area to protect and preserve the countries in those regions. It seems to me it would not be asking too much of our President to jawbone those leaders to increase production. We can see what an increase of production of 1 million barrels per day and 2 million barrels a day would mean. It would have a dramatic impact and effect on consumers in this country. It is difficult for me to understand why we should not expect that kind of leadership from the President of the United States when every day we learn young Americans are losing their lives in that region, and tens of thousands of troops have been serving over in that region for years in order to protect the security of those nations.
Now we come to an issue of enormous need in our country-an important part of that because of our responsibilities in meeting the defense needs and security needs for our forces overseas. We have silence by the administration when they are asked why they aren't jawboning these countries in the Middle East.

I don't know whether the Senator could make some comment on that, just briefly. I listened with great interest to his other comments. I hope the Senate as a whole will take him to heart.

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I very much appreciate the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts coming to the floor because he has done so much to help the consumer in this area. My concern-and I would be interested in the Senator's reaction-is I think the consumer is about to get hit by a perfect storm with the combination of failure to push OPEC, as the Senator has said, to try to help on the production issue, plus the refinery cutbacks that apparently are primarily to boost profits, plus filling the strategic petroleum reserve. With these factors coming together, it seems to me a perfect storm is going to push the consumers' gasoline price at the pump to $3 a gallon.

I would be interested in the Senator's reaction, and I am anxious to work with him in this effort to push the administration to go after OPEC.

Mr. KENNEDY. The Senator is sounding the alarm. I think his predictions are self-evident. Thankfully, he is providing the leadership before the full impact of these different events, the confluence of these different events taking place. Clearly, they will take place over the course of late spring or early summer.

I commend the Senator for bringing this to our attention. It is an enormous service, not only to the people of his State but the people of my State and the people all over this country. As we are coming into the late spring and summer, constituents will be wondering where we have been as representatives in dealing with this issue. The Senator from Oregon has outlined a very critical problem and made splendid recommendations. I look forward to working with the Senator to achieve these recommendations.