Enhanced Energy Security Act of 2006

Mr. President, I yield myself 20 minutes.

Mr. President, the Senate today is considering the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act. I believe this legislation is not appropriate energy legislation and also not responsible fiscal policy for the United States, as we face a Federal deficit of $8.4 trillion and looming cuts to many vital programs that the Federal Government must support. Next week we will begin to take up the Defense appropriations bill for this year. As we consider that bill, we will discover huge unmet needs to finance the current operations of our military. If we diminish the Federal Treasury, our ability to respond to that issue and a host of other issues will be contemporaneously diminished.

This legislation would mandate that almost 38 percent of revenue from Federal resources generated by new leases in new areas of production made available by this bill will be given to four Gulf Coast States. Revenues that currently would be provided to the Treasury for the benefit of the Nation as a whole will be diverted to four States. This bill, if passed, will cost the Federal Treasury billions of dollars over time. I am not alone in my opposition to this legislation. Taxpayer advocates and environmentalists share my concerns. I ask unanimous consent that the text of several letters be printed in the Record expressing these concerns.

In 1952, President Truman, speaking about proposals to give coastal States Federal offshore oil and gas revenue said:

If we back down on our determination to hold these rights

for all the people, we will act to rob them of this great

national asset. That is just what the oil lobby wants. They

want us to turn the vast treasure over to a handful of States

where the powerful private oil interests hope to exploit it

to suit themselves.

Those sentiments are not far off from today. In 1953,

Congress enacted the Submerged Land Act. This law provided

that each coastal State would have a seaward boundary of at

least 3 miles and that the Federal Government would

relinquish to the States the interests of the United States

in lands beneath the navigable waters within the State

boundaries. Importantly, the law affirmed the Federal

Government's ownership in lands seaward of the State

boundary. Revenues from Outer Continental Shelf drilling

belong to the American people in all 50 States. The

legislation the Senate is considering today violates this

pact with the American people, and it denies the Federal

Treasury and the American people essential revenue to address

the needs of our Nation.

Again, to quote President Truman, since his comments still ring true today:

I can see how Members of Congress from [affected areas]

might like to have all the offshore oil for their States. But

I certainly can't understand how Members of Congress from the

other 45 States can vote to give away the interest the people

of their own States have in this tremendous asset. It is just

over my head and beyond me how any interior Senator or

Congressman could vote to give that asset away. I am still

puzzled about it. As far as I am concerned, I intend to stand

up and fight to protect the people's interest in this matter.

Proponents of this bill argue that their coastal States deserve to share in the Federal revenues because they have tremendous costs and environmental challenges arising from energy development and production that benefits the whole Nation. They argue, with some validity, that they bear costs, although the benefits are shared by the entire Nation. I acknowledge that. I fully acknowledge that energy development is harming our coastal zones, leading to habitat loss and erosion. For this reason, in 2001 Congress authorized a coastal impact assistance program that provided Federal funding to States and local communities for mitigating the impacts of OCS oil and gas development and production. It is also the reason why I supported an amendment to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that mandated $1 billion over 4 years in direct Federal spending to gulf coast States and other producing States for the purposes of remediating environmental problems caused by the extraction and production of energy. That is the right approach, to appropriate Federal resources, directed to help States address a problem that is caused in large part by production activity.

What I object to is a permanent entitlement that does not state specific eligible uses to mitigate the environmental harm of OCS production. For example, the bill before us today would allow the States to decide to fund a category described as ``mitigation of the impacts of Outer Continental Shelf activities through the funding of onshore infrastructure projects.'' This could cover any appropriate bricks and mortar project in any State along the gulf coast, from schools to highways to community centers, all of which I think could and would be legitimately argued by a State official as somehow mitigating the impacts of outer Continental Shelf activities.

So in a sense what we have opened up here is a general revenue sharing, not a targeted approach to mitigating the specific harms caused by the extraction and production of petroleum and natural gas products.

Nothing in this bill requires the States and communities to report back to taxpayers and the Federal Government how the funds are being used. I don't think there is any appropriate mechanism of routine reporting. I suppose that if you objected to a particular project, you might sue in Federal Court saying they violated the act, but that is hardly an appropriate and routine and rational way to ensure that the spending is appropriate.

Again, reading the very general language in the bill, I would think that you could make a case that a school, community center, and a range of other projects would be infrastructure that would mitigate in some way the broad effects of production of energy in these States. An argument may be made that a vote against the bill is a vote against the communities and people harmed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I don't think that is true. This debate has to be about responsible national energy and responsible fiscal policy.

We in this body have voted to provide $123 billion to help the gulf coast recover. That money, because of our difficult financial situation, is literally being borrowed. The interest on that debt and the principal of that debt will be paid by all Americans. It is an example of why we need Federal resources in difficult times, because there will be other occasions where other Americans will see the same kind of suffering, the same kind of destruction that was visited upon the gulf coast, and we as a Congress have to be able to stand up, not just with words but resources, to help these people. As

we diminish the Federal resources by a very narrow revenue-sharing plan for four States, we diminish our capacity to respond.

We have also directed and voted recently for a $2 billion authorization for Louisiana's coastal restoration program as part of the Water Resources Development Act. If more money is necessary to restore the gulf coast, then more money should be provided, and that is not the sentiment of just the people who live there, that is the sentiment of the American people because, frankly, if any part of our country was similarly devastated, we would all be here asking our friends and colleagues to help us, and I think they would respond. What they may not be able to do, if we pass this bill, is respond with the same kind of financial clout because we will have already given Federal resources for the benefit of only four states.

There are other aspects of funding that inure to the benefit of these coastal communities. Section 8(g) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act provides coastal States with a share of the revenues received by the Federal Government from leases on Federal tracts that are adjacent to and within 3 miles of a State's seaward boundary. That is a specialized source of revenue which goes to coastal States. Between 1986 and 2003, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas received nearly $2 billion in revenues from the Federal Government under section 8(g). This funding is precisely the type of funding that could be used to mitigate the impacts of OCS production.

Further, the Coastal Zone Management Act's ``Federal consistency'' provision ensures that Federal actions, such as OCS leases for energy production, that are likely to affect any land or water use or natural resources of the coastal zone must be consistent with a coastal State's approved coastal zone management programs. That means that if Gulf Coast States put into place strong coastal zone management plans to protect against erosion and the loss of wetlands and environmental complications, the law would require a Federal OCS lease to be consistent with these plans and make these States less vulnerable to storms. So not only is this an issue of funding, it is an issue of States taking action to ensure that they have strong environmental protections, and these plans, in turn, according to the law, will be imposed upon the OCS leases.

Now, we understand that energy production is a burden to the States, but it is also, in many situations, an economic benefit to these very same States.

The oil and gas industry is central to Louisiana's economy, with an estimated $93 billion impact in 2001. Over $1.3 billion worth of oil and gas is produced annually in Alabama. The State receives direct benefits of approximately $285 million annually in the form of lease bonuses, royalties, trust fund investments, and severance taxes. In 2005, Texas petroleum and coal were valued at $8.89 billion. All of these revenues provide a strong and powerful force of economic progress for all of these communities. I daresay that, as much as a burden is imposed, there would be great reluctance for any of these States to try to curtail this economic production because it benefits the community.

Now, what is also troubling about the legislation is not only the fiscal implications, but also it is proposing a permanent entitlement that is unnecessary to generate new domestic natural gas and oil supplies. There are over 40 million acres of Federal Outer Continental Shelf under lease, but the oil and gas industry is sitting on over 33 million acres of undeveloped leases. They have less than 7 million acres in production, and there is 328 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas in the nonmoratoria areas.

The United States consumes 25 percent of the world's energy, and yet we have less than 3 percent of the world's oil supplies. We cannot drill our way to energy security; yet this bill essentially provides only one way forward--to drill in the Gulf of Mexico. We deserve an energy bill that will reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and strengthen our economy.

On July 20, I joined 40 of my colleagues in sending a letter to the majority leader asking that we consider energy legislation that sets national goals to reduce our overall national dependence on petroleum by increasing fuel efficiency and alternative vehicle technologies, that protects Americans from price-gouging and market manipulation, and that levels the playing field for new renewable and energy efficiency technology and, more specifically to this debate we are having, ensures that new energy proposals that affect spending or revenues must be fiscally responsible and take into account the true long-term impact of these proposals. That is not the bill we are considering today.

I am left wondering why, as the Senate finally takes up energy legislation, we are not debating and voting on a bill to increase fuel efficiency in cars and trucks. Why are we not voting on oil savings provisions? Where are the provisions in our energy legislation to protect consumers from price-gouging or restore lost royalties to the Federal Treasury from oil and natural gas companies making record profits? Where is the mandated Federal funding dedicated to fully funding energy efficiency and renewable energy?

I hope the Senate will get to vote on an increase in fuel efficiency standards. Gasoline consumption in the transportation sector represents about 44 percent of total oil consumption in the United States each year. Including diesel fuel, the number jumps to 57 percent. To bring about any serious reduction in our dependence on foreign oil, we must increase the fuel efficiency of our cars and light trucks, as well as promote the use of hybrids and vehicles that use alternative fuels.

I also hope we will have a chance to amend this bill. I hope we have a chance to have a debate on an energy bill that will include not only supply-side considerations but also demand-side considerations. All of this legislation is important to consider, but I fear we will be constrained to this bill.

Finally, I am concerned that whatever we do in the Senate would open up a conference with the other body. Their legislation, H.R. 4761, the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act, would lift the moratorium on offshore drilling for all of our coastlines, not just the gulf coast. I believe this would be a serious step, putting in jeopardy fisheries and marine sanctuaries, further depleting the Treasury, further eroding States' current positions with respect to drilling, and undermining environmental mitigation for energy development and production. My Rhode Island coastline, like the coastline of every State, is something we want to preserve and protect, and there is a fear that if the House version prevails, these coastlines will be jeopardized.

We are in a situation where we have a burgeoning energy crisis. We just have to go to the gasoline pump to figure that one out. This burgeoning energy crisis impacts our foreign relations. We have scores of troops across the globe today because of our dependency on oil. But this should not be the occasion to entertain legislation that is unwise in terms of energy policy and potentially very damaging to the fiscal integrity of the United States.

Before we open new lands to development, we need to ensure that the oil and gas industries are putting undeveloped leases into production, and we need to take meaningful action to reduce our consumption and increase renewable energy supplies. We need to be more independent with respect to energy, reduce our consumption of fossil fuels overall. This is an energy policy which we should pursue, and as a fiscal policy, we have to maintain Federal resources for Federal responsibilities.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I want 15 minutes as in morning business. We could go back and forth. I think we could accommodate that quite easily if the Senator from Kansas wants to speak. I ask unanimous consent that following the Senator from Kansas, if I could have 15 minutes in morning business, and then go back to the other side.

Following my remarks, if the Senator from Alabama wants to go, I would be happy to agree to that.

Mr. President, I revise my request and ask that following

the remarks of the Senator from Kansas for 15 minutes, the Senator from Alabama for 5 minutes, and then I would be recognized for 15 minutes.

Mr. President, we have waited day after day in the Senate on political issues when we should be taking the Senate's time to make America more secure.

Last week, the majority leader mentioned port security in a long list of issues to be debated before the August recess.

While Senator Frist continues to pay lipservice to this important priority, I remain concerned that with only a week left before the August recess we have no firm schedule or commitment to bring this bill to the floor.

I am worried that while the majority says it wants to act, it refuses to put any action behind that rhetoric.

And here's the bottom line--if God forbid there is an incident at one of our ports--the fingers will point to this Chamber.

And people will want to know: Why did the Senate sit on a bill that passed

the full House and passed the Senate Homeland Security Committee? Why didn't we make these ports secure when we had the chance?

The only thing keeping the GreenLane bill from protecting us is the Senate's failure to take it up. We have to bring up and pass this bill before it's too late.

I am here today because nearly 5 years after 9/11 our country is still vulnerable to a terrorist attack.

Just this week, an article in the Seattle Times showed us that our ports are not secure.

A reporter was able to enter two West Coast ports simply by hiding in trucks that were entering those ports.

The reported walked around cargo containers in areas that are supposed to be secure.

In this case, the security gaps appeared to be on the ``land side,'' but as the article notes--an incident at any port--whether from the land or sea side--could shut down all of our ports. Time is not on our side.

Each year, 6 million cargo containers enter U.S. seaports. And that number is expected to quadruple in the next 20 years. These cargo containers carry the building blocks of our economy.

But without adequate security, they can also provide an opportunity for terrorists to deliver a deadly one-two punch to our country.

The first punch would create an untold number of American casualties.

The second punch would bring our economy to a halt.

Today, we are not doing enough to keep America safe. Standing in this Chamber, it can feel like the dangers at our ports are a distant concern. But given that our ports are connected to our Nation's transportation system and are often close to major population centers, the threat is never far away.

A recent example makes this threat crystal clear. On March 21, a container ship called the Hyundai Fortune was traveling off the coast of Yemen when an explosion occurred in the rear of the ship.

About 90 containers were blown off the side of the ship, creating a debris field 5 miles long. Thankfully there were no fatalities, and the crew was rescued. Fortunately, this incident does not appear to be terrorist-related.

Now I want to imagine this same burning ship sitting just a few feet from our shores--in New York harbor or Puget Sound, off the coast of Los Angeles or Charleston, Miami, Portland, Hampton Roads, the Delaware Bay, or the Gulf of Mexico.

Now imagine that we are not just dealing with a conventional explosion. We are dealing with a dirty bomb that has exploded on America's shores.

Let me walk through what would happen next. First, there would be an immediate loss of life. Many of our ports are located near major cities. If a nuclear device exploded at a major port, up to 1 million people could be killed.

If this was a chemical weapon exploding in Seattle, the chemical plume could contaminate the rail system, Interstate 5, and SeaTac Airport, not to mention the entire downtown business and residential district.

At the port, there would be tremendous confusion. People would try to contain the fire, but it's unclear who--if anyone--would in charge.

Then--when word spreads that it's a dirty bomb--panic would likely set in. There would be chaos as first responders try to react, and residents try to flee.

Next, our government would shut down every port in America to make sure there weren't other bombs on other containers in other cities.

That shutdown would be the equivalent of driving our economy into a brick wall. It could even spark a global recession. Day by day, we would feel the painful economic impact of the attack. American factories would not be able to get the supplies they need. They would shut their doors and lay off workers. Stores around the country would not be able to get the products they need to stock their shelves. Prices for these goods would spike, as demand began to outweigh the supply. And consumers would not be able to afford the items they rely on every day.

In 2002, we saw what the closure of a few ports on the west coast would do. It cost our economy about $1 billion a day. Imagine if we shut down all our ports.

One study concluded that if U.S. ports were shut down for just 9 days, it would cost our economy $58 billion.

Next, we'd realize we have no plan for resuming trade after an attack--no protocol for what would be searched, what would be allowed in, and even who would be in charge. There would be a mad scramble to create a new system in a crisis atmosphere.

Eventually, we would begin the slow process of manually inspecting all the cargo that's waiting to enter the U.S. One report found it could take as long as 4 months to get them all inspected and moving again.

Finally, we'd have to set up a new regime for port security. And you can bet that any new, rushed plan would not balance strong security with efficient trade. Unfortunately, the scenario I just outlined is not the stuff of fantasy. Rather, it is a realistic portrayal of events that could happen tomorrow.

Nearly 5 years after September 11, we still have not closed a major loophole that threatens our lives and our economy. Time is not on our side. We must act, and we must act now.

I approach this as someone who understands the importance of both improving security and maintaining the flow of commerce. My home State of Washington is the most trade-dependent State in the Nation. We know what's at stake if there were an incident at one of our ports.

That is why I wrote and funded Operation Safe Commerce to help us find where we're vulnerable and to evaluate the best security practices.

It is why I have worked to boost funding for the Coast Guard and have fought to keep the Port Security Grant program from being eliminated year after year.

Right after 9/11, I started talking with security and trade experts to find out what we need to be doing to both improve security and keep commerce flowing.

Last year, I sought out Senator Collins as a partner in this effort. I approached Senator Collins because I knew she cared about the issue, I knew she had done a lot of work on it already, and I knew she was someone who could get things done.

Since that day, we have worked hand-in-hand to develop a bill and move it forward. I am also grateful to Senators Lieberman and Coleman for their tremendous work.

We know we are vulnerable. Terrorists have many opportunities to introduce deadly cargo into a container. It could be tampered with anytime from when it leaves a foreign factory overseas to when it arrives at a consolidation warehouse and moves to a foreign port. It could be tampered with while it's en route to the U.S.

And there are several dangers. I outlined what would happen if terrorists exploded a container, but they could just as easily use cargo containers to transport weapons or personnel into the United States to launch an attack anywhere on American soil.

In fact, in April, 22 Chinese stowaways were found at the Port of Seattle. They had reached the United States inside a cargo container. In that case, they were just stowaways. Imagine if they had been terrorists sneaking into our country.

The programs we have in place today are totally inadequate. Last year, thanks to the insistence of Senators Collins and Coleman, the Government Accountability Office found that C-TPAT, the program in place, was not checking to see if companies were doing what they promised in their security plans. Even when U.S. Customs inspectors do find something suspicious in a foreign port, they cannot force a container to be inspected.

We have a very clear and very deadly threat. We know today that current programs are inadequate. What are we going to do about it? We could manually inspect every container coming into this country, but that would cripple our economy.

The real challenge is to make trade more secure without slowing it to a crawl. That is why Senators Collins, Coleman, Lieberman, and I have been working with all the stakeholders and the experts to strike the right balance. The result was the GreenLane Maritime Cargo Security Act. It provides a comprehensive blueprint for how we can improve security while keeping our trade efficient.

At its heart, this challenge is about keeping the good things about trade--

speed and efficiency--without being vulnerable to the bad things about trade--the potential for terrorists to use our engines of commerce.

I am happy to do that if I can have additional time to answer the Senator's question.

Mr. President, the GreenLane Maritime Security Cargo Act does five things.

First of all, it creates tough new standards for all of our cargo. Today, we don't have any standards for cargo security.

Second, it creates the GreenLane, which provides an even higher level of security. Companies have the option to follow those higher standards of the GreenLane, and their cargo--those companies which agree to that--will be tracked and monitored from the moment it leaves a factory floor overseas until it reaches the United States. We will know where that cargo has been, we will know every person who has touched it, and we will know if it has been tampered with. The GreenLane will simply push the borders out by conducting inspections overseas before cargo is ever loaded onto a ship bound for the United States. And we will provide incentives for companies to use those higher standards of the GreenLane.

Third, our bill sets up a much needed plan to resume trade quickly and safely to minimize the impact on our economy.

Fourth, our bill will secure our ports at home by funding port security grants at $400 million. That funding will help our ports and our port operators to develop and implement security plans. They can use this funding to strengthen their perimeter of security, which would have helped prevent a number of security lapses that were highlighted this week in the Seattle Times article.

Finally, our bill will hold DHS accountable for improving cargo security. The Department of Homeland Security is long overdue in establishing cargo security standards and transportation worker credentials. We need to hold them accountable. The bill we have written provides the infrastructure to ensure accountability and coordination.

I take a minute to thank Senator Collins for her tremendous leadership on this critically important issue. I thank Senator Coleman for his leadership and work as chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Senator Coleman has helped expose our vulnerabilities, and he has worked with us to develop solutions. I also thank Senator Lieberman for his leadership on this issue. I commend all the other cosponsors of our bill: Senators Feinstein, Snowe, DeWine, Salazar, Santorum, Graham, Cantwell, Durbin, and Byrd.

We are seeing tremendous progress on the House side with the Safe Port Act. I thank Representatives Dan Lungren and Jane Harman for their bipartisan leadership.

Finally, I thank the numerous Federal, State, and local officials as well as all the industry representatives for their tremendous assistance in crafting this legislation. Those people truly are the front lines of securing our Nation's ports. I have been very proud to work with all of them.

Right now, today, we have a choice about how we deal with cargo security and the challenges facing us. If we wait for a disaster, our choices are going to be very stark. We should make those changes now on our terms before there is a deadly incident.

Let's protect America before an image like this hits our television screens. Let's not wait until a terrorist incident strikes again to protect our people and our economy.

Earlier this year, the American people woke up and spoke out when they heard that a foreign government-owned company could be running our ports. That sparked a critical debate. Now we need to set up a security regime that will actually make us safer. Until we do, none of us should be sleeping well at night. A terrible image like this, a burning container ship with a dirty bomb in one of America's harbors, could be on our TV screens tomorrow.

This Congress needs to act today. We have heard the majority leader say we need to address port security, but words will not protect us from terrorists, words are not going to help us find a bomb that is hidden in a cargo container, and words won't help us tell which containers could be holding a group of terrorists who are trying to sneak into our country. We need more than words. The Senate needs to take up and pass the GreenLane Maritime Cargo Security Act. We only have a few days left before we can do this. We need to act. I urge the leadership, before the August break, to finally bring up and pass the GreenLane Maritime Cargo Security Act before it is too late.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, recognizing that our colleague from the other side is here, traditionally, we

switch sides on recognition. I ask that after our colleague from Wyoming speaks, that I have 20 minutes to make mine.

Mr. President, today we heard some interesting news. I would have used the term startling, but based on the news we are seeing from the various war fronts, it is hard to find anything more startling.

The reference I make to this news is brought about by a report. I come out of the corporate world, so I am interested in corporate performance in this

country. I saw the report. If you watch television or read the papers-- ExxonMobil, I would say, had a pretty good year. Their profit for this quarter was $10.4 billion--for the quarter. That is up from $7.65 billion the same quarter last year.

That is pretty stunning news. It is the largest quarterly earnings of any corporation in America, save one. That is in the history of this country. In the history of this country, ExxonMobil, the quarter just ended in June, was the second highest in the history of the country.

If they were selling widgets or some product, we would say: OK, that is a pretty good job. But when they are selling a commodity that people are literally begging for by way of availability, it is a different picture.

This oil and gas is so much a part of our life that it is almost like the air we breathe or the water we drink. It is incredible.

That then spurred my curiosity. I am, going to file an amendment to the Energy bill. I send it to the desk.

I am sorry?

I am not offering the amendment, Mr. President. I am simply filing it.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

This amendment is to change the bill's title, to call it the ``Lee Raymond Oil Profitability Act.'' I propose that we rename the Energy bill to reflect Mr. Raymond's profitability courtesy of ExxonMobil.

It is quite a thing. As we look at the turmoil this country is going through while people struggle at minimum wage jobs and we see the kinds of profits that are being made off the backs of working people, it struck me, as I dug further into the history of the company--it is a pretty well-run company, but it is so profitable because Americans are going to the pump and buying gasoline at over $3 a gallon typically. I have seen it as high as $3.35 a gallon. People who work in these gas stations can't even afford to buy the gas they are pumping. That is how extraordinary this pricing is.

I come from the corporate world and I ran a very successful company. The company is called ADP. It has been in business 50 years. I started it with a couple of other fellows, and we watched our profits carefully. So I know how to read a financial statement.

When I see this, while people are stuck at minimum wage of $5.15 for 9 years--I am going to detail some of the extraordinary results Mr. Raymond got as a result of his leadership in that company. The profits, I think, are unconscionable. I don't understand where Board of Directors' conscience is, as I read his benefits program. There is no conscience, and there is no soul at all.

At the end of 2005, Mr. Lee Raymond retired from the chairmanship and CEO position of ExxonMobil. He was working and got a decent week's pay. I think his salary was running about $500,000 a week. That permits a lot of things to be acquired. But he also then held $151 million in stock options and holdings. His total compensation for 2005, including salaries, stock options, and pension, totaled $140 million. He made $140 million running a gasoline company where prices typically have gone, since January 2002, from $2.24--and any of the audience that sees this should mark it in their mind--it was $2.24 at the beginning of this calendar year; it is now $3. That is the average price. So it has risen some 36 percent I think is what the number works out to be.

It is incredible that during this period of time, while the average working person is struggling and things are getting harder and harder, the cost for gasoline, which is a requirement for virtually every family in this country--whether they have a car or are using fuel oil in their homes--it is outrageous that Mr. Raymond, in addition to those things I just mentioned, has seen his package of stock ownership and stock options go from $151 million in this period of time--$151 million he had at the end of 2005--to $250 million now, so it is a $100 million boost. Remember, he made $25 million in salary. But the absurdity of it all and the offensiveness of it all, is that Exxon's board also agreed to pick up Mr. Raymond's country club fees so he could make sure he could buy enough golf balls for a round of golf. Country club fees, use of the company aircraft, and still pay him another $1 million to stay on as a consultant for another year. Where is their conscience? I don't understand it.

So that is why my amendment would rename this bill the ``Lee R. Raymond Oil Profitability Act.'' That is what it ought to be called, so everybody knows what is happening in this country of ours. People are struggling for a living with a $5.15 minimum wage, which has been in place for 9 years. Those people are making $206 a week, if they are working at minimum wage, and they haven't had a raise in 9 years. That doesn't matter. Big business is the interest served by this Government and by the Bush administration. It is incredible.

When President Bush took over, gas was $1.06 a gallon. That was back at the end of 2000: $1.06. Now it is over $3 a gallon. Two years ago, President Bush threatened that if John Kerry was elected President of the United States, he would tax gasoline. Look at this: From $2.24 up to $3, this year alone. There is no limit. But that doesn't bother the conscience of the board members of ExxonMobil, and it doesn't bother the conscience of Mr. Raymond. If he asks for country club dues to be paid on top of everything else, to have an airplane for his private use, he feels entitled to it. These are company expenses, and because they are company expenses, they are tax deductible. It is shameful, I think, and I hope we will do something about it.

I rise to speak against this so-called energy bill. The bill is simply another gift to the oil industry. It is dressed up as some kind of benefit to consumers. I know the media likes to talk about who is winning the debate on this issue or that issue. But you don't see these commentators saying: Let's look back at the effects of legislation after it is passed. So here we are considering a second Republican energy bill. We should ask: What was the effect of the first Republican energy bill? My colleagues across the aisle said of the first energy bill that it would lower gas prices as it goes into effect. Well, here is what we have seen happen in just this year alone: up by 36 percent.

A few months after President Bush signed the first Republican energy bill, gas prices started to soar. So now we know what happens when you take care of the oil companies: Tax breaks and subsidies, and everyday Americans get charged more, pay through the nose, as we say, and now we are ready for a repeat performance.

Will this bill help get gas prices over $4 a gallon? Think about that, for the average family. Spend 80 bucks to fill up your gas tank. Right now you have to spend over $60 to fill up a 20-gallon tank. We have to do a reality check about who is writing these bills. President Bush and Vice President Cheney are both former oil company executives. They focus on helping their friends in the oil business. Big oil companies want to open up our coastline to oil drilling, to platforms, pipelines, and tankers.

Everyone jumps to attention in the Cabinet room there and they say: Yes, sir, as they do here on the Republican side of the aisle. And the oil companies' profits continue to explode.

Just this week, BP announced its largest quarterly profit in their history: $7.27 billion. BP is a piker compared to Exxon, which made over $10 billion. This was 30 percent more than the same period a year ago.

I remember hearing in the Commerce Committee when we asked about price gouging and so forth, and the oil company executives denied it: Oh, we don't price gouge, no. Well, somebody is making a heck of a lot of money while people who struggle for a living have to pay more than they can afford just to buy gasoline. Other big oil firms continue to enjoy record profits as well. Royal Dutch announced second quarter profits of $7.3 billion, almost $2 billion more than the same quarter a year ago. While Shell's profits increased 40 percent, its total revenue increased less

than 1 percent. So look what has happened. Their profits increased 40 percent, but their revenues increased less than 1 percent. I would like to hear an economist or an accountant explain how wonderful their management is, how good management must have been to pull that trick. In other words, sales were relatively constant, but profits jumped significantly.

Then there is our favorite, the poster company, ExxonMobil. In 2005 ExxonMobil raked in a record $36 billion in profits. That translates to almost $100 million a day in profit and more than $4 million every hour in profit for one oil company. And while all of these oil companies profit, consumers pay.

Now, as this Congress winds down its work for the year, the majority and the administration have proposed nothing that will lower gas prices at any time in the near future. They have nothing to offer in the way of a serious idea or a plan to reduce consumption, to improve efficiency, or to develop renewable sources of energy.

Whatever the question, the answer for this administration and the majority in this Congress is always the same: Hand over some more money to their friends in the oil industry, and give them more opportunities to drill and explore in environmentally sensitive areas. What do we get in return? Higher and higher gas prices. And now they want permission to drill in areas that are sensitive, areas where an oil spill could be disastrous. We had an oil spill in the Delaware River that separates Pennsylvania from New Jersey, and it didn't look too bad, but the cost to clean it up was $267 million. So there are a lot of risks with drilling in these areas. Higher prices aren't the only negative consequence of this bill.

The bill is going to harm our grandchildren's birthright to enjoy the natural beauty of our coastlines and beaches. I have seen the worst of oil spills. I was sent to Alaska with the Coast Guard 3 days after the Exxon Valdez ran aground. Exxon paid approximately $4 billion in compensatory damages and the punitive award was $5 billion, and that was in 1989. So we are looking at 17 years ago, and Exxon has yet to pay a dime on the punitive damages. The company has smart lawyers, and they have kept it bottled up in court. They say: Don't pay the bill, whatever you do. ExxonMobil makes $10.4 billion in a quarter, and the company is still trying to get out of paying the $5 billion that resulted from the court decision.

It is clear the plan is to pass this bill in the Senate, and then combine it with the House bill that opens up the coastal waters of New Jersey, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, California, Oregon, and Washington State to oil and gas drilling.

The effects of even one spill off the shore of New Jersey would be devastating. Tourism, a principal business for us, is a $26 billion industry in New Jersey, and it supports 390,000 jobs. My State has already seen how much economic damage can result from threats to our shore. In 1988, a bag of medical waste washed up on the New Jersey shore. The incident was widely reported in the media and we lost a third of our tourism revenues that year--one-third of our tourism revenue.

We can be sure of one thing: If we drill for oil, we will spill oil, and New Jersey and other States cannot afford to have oil washing up on their shores or polluting their water. States that depend on beaches and marine recreation and clean water for fishing and other activities can't afford to have oil spills along those shores. Our commercial and recreational fishing industries in New Jersey are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. An economic catastrophe would result from an oil spill that reaches our shores, whether the drill rigs are located in the waters off New Jersey or Massachusetts or Virginia.

In short, it is absolutely certain that the current bill can only go from bad to worse. This bill is a Trojan horse and it should be rejected by any Senators who are concerned about protecting their coastlines and their coastal economies. It also should be rejected by Senators who care about developing a long-term, sustainable energy policy, and by any Senator who has a vision for our country which says we owe our children and our grandchildren a clean environment. We owe them relief from what we see now. I have not even discussed fossil fuels and global warming.

In the Netherlands last week, they reported the hottest temperature in June--this past June--ever since temperatures have been recorded: 1704, I believe, was the year. The hottest month ever since that time, since 1704. We see evidence of global warming all over the place. I don't hear anybody on the Republican side standing up here and saying: My gosh, we have to find a way to get these temperatures normalized. We have to find a way to reduce the number of hurricanes. We have to find a way to reduce the ferocity of these hurricanes. We don't want any more Hurricane Katrinas. But here we are, big oil companies are soaking the public with $3 per gallon for gasoline. It is not fair. We can do better than ``more of the same.'' I hope my colleagues will hear from their constituents back home and oppose this bill.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask to be recognized on the minority time relative to the debate on S. 2711.

Mr. President, pending before the Senate is a bill that will allow us to drill in areas of the Gulf of Mexico that currently are not being explored for oil and gas. There is some controversy attached to this proposal--whether this is an environmentally sound decision to go into these areas. The fact is in many parts of the Gulf of Mexico there is currently exploration and drilling for oil and gas, so it is not the same as the debate on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, where the administration was proposing that we drill in areas that have been protected for over half a century.

This area of the world and off the coast of the United States has been explored for quite some period of time, and oil and gas have been brought out of it.

It is going to be an interesting debate and a legitimate debate over whether this is the appropriate amount of exploration and whether it is environmentally responsible to do it in this fashion. But we should never believe that this debate is about creating America's energy policy. Sadly, America today--with gasoline prices going through the roof, with no certainty about our future when it comes to energy--does not have a national energy policy.

This administration, for 6 years now, has had an opportunity to come forward with a proposal that would move America away from dependence on foreign oil, but the administration has not done so. The only proposals we have received from them relate to very isolated, narrow issues. One of them I referred to earlier, whether the United States should now start drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The House and the Senate have rejected that idea on a bipartisan basis. Their belief, which I share, is that we have reached a rather desperate moment in American history if the only way we can look forward in terms of energy self-sufficiency is to start drilling in some of the most environmentally sensitive places in America. That is why I have opposed drilling in ANWR in Alaska. That is why it has been defeated. The majority has felt this is not the way we should go.

This is a different issue. This is about drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

We will debate it this week and vote on it next week. But we should not believe that passage of this bill is the creation of a national energy policy. The fact is if we pass this bill next week, it will have literally no impact on gasoline prices today and no impact on our dependence on foreign oil. If we are going to address that, we have to do it in a larger context. On the Democratic side of the Senate, we have proposed a bill that will move us forward, looking at the national energy picture and moving us toward breaking our dependence on foreign sources of energy in the future. That is important for us to do.

Today we are so dependent on foreign sources of oil that we are at the mercy of the OPEC cartel, and at the mercy of the major producers we are doing business with in countries around the world buying their oil and gas--and these countries are virtually our sworn enemies. There are many countries in the world that we send billions of dollars to as we buy their oil and gas that turn around and use the money we send against us in the war on terrorism. That is as horrifying as I can think of at the moment, that we would send American dollars to these countries to subsidize terrorist activities. Yet it is happening because we are so dependent on these foreign sources.

What can we do? What should we do? First, we should look at the obvious. Sixty percent of all the oil we bring into the United States of America is used for our cars and trucks. All of us are burning that oil as we drive around America. Sadly, the vehicles we drive in are less fuel efficient and get less fuel economy every single year. The vehicles are heavier, less fuel efficient, and we burn more gallons of gasoline each year to travel the same number of miles we went last year. I am speaking on average. There are some people who have fuel- efficient vehicles, but by and large, when you look at cars and trucks in America, that is the story. It doesn't have to be this way.

In 1975, we faced long lines at gasoline stations with the prospect that OPEC was going to cut off oil to the United States, and our Government made a decision that the first thing we needed to do was to have more fuel-efficient cars and trucks. At that moment in time, the average fuel efficiency of the fleets across America was about 14 miles a gallon. The Government mandated that over the next 10 years manufacturers had to have an average fleet fuel economy of cars that would virtually double to almost 28 miles a gallon in 10 years. The manufacturers of cars and trucks--particularly those in the United States--said it was an impossible goal which we could never reach, and that if we did, it would compromise the safety of the cars we would drive and would invite importation of automobiles into the United States. We did it anyway. We imposed the standard to increase fuel efficiency in America. Between 1975 and 1985 the average fuel economy of cars in America went from 14 miles a gallon to 27.5 miles a gallon. We achieved our goal. We did it without all of the terrible outcomes the opponents had suggested.

What has happened in the 21 years since then? What has happened since 1985 when we reached an average of about 28 miles a gallon for cars in America? Sadly, the fuel efficiency of cars in America has gone down progressively. Now it is around 22 miles a gallon, or 21 miles a gallon, meaning we are driving less fuel-efficient cars today than we were 21 years ago. And, of course, there was the truck loophole. We said when it came to fuel economy we would make an exemption for trucks. Someone invented the concept of a sports utility vehicle, SUV, and we called it a truck. It escaped the requirements of fuel efficiency. We all know those SUVs we are glutting the used car lots in America with, have some of the worst fuel efficiency of any vehicles we drive. They have helped to drive down our efficiency in America and driven up our dependence on imported oil.

A national energy policy has to include more fuel efficiency and fuel economy of cars and trucks we drive--and it can do it.

Recently, my wife and I made a decision about a car. We wanted to buy American and we wanted a hybrid. So we bought a Ford Escape hybrid. It is a good car, clean burning. We get about 28 miles a gallon, which is good but not great. I think we can do a lot better. Many of the cars that are coming in from overseas manufacturers get much better mileage. The people who make cars in America tell us there is no appetite for fuel-efficient cars in the United States. How wrong can they be? Toyota is about to come out with a Camry with a hybrid engine which will get better fuel mileage than most cars in the United States, and there is a 10-month waiting list to buy their cars. It tells me there is an appetite for obvious reasons. People understand gasoline is extremely expensive. If they can reduce their consumption of gasoline, they not only save money, but I think they know intuitively it is a good thing. It reduces the pollution and the greenhouse emissions.

Our failure to have a national energy policy leaves us in a position where we have foreign automobile manufacturers making fuel-efficient cars and hybrid cars and bringing them into the United States and selling them to American consumers who are anxious to buy their products.

The obvious question is, Why don't we have the leadership in Washington on a bipartisan basis that would create standards for fuel efficiency and fuel economy that would move the United States in the right direction on national energy policy? That is an important question. It is not addressed by this bill.

If we are talking about a national energy policy, this bill is not a national energy policy. There are other things which we should do as well. We have a situation in the United States where the oil companies are making outrageous profits. You can always tell when they have stepped over the line because when you open the morning paper, there will be a full-page ad where the major oil companies are explaining that they warrant that profit. Really?

ExxonMobil's second quarter profit jumped to the second highest level for any company in the history of the United States. ExxonMobil said today that it earned $10.36 billion in the second quarter, the second largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company. The earnings figures were 36 percent above the profit it reported 1 year ago. High oil prices, according to this Associated Press story, helped boost the company's revenue by 12 percent to a level just short of a quarterly record.

Think of this when you go to fill up at the gas pump. You reach into your pocket, pull out your wallet or your purse and pull out the credit card to pay for the gasoline, and the money that is coming right out of your checking account is going to record profits of the oil companies across America.

What has been done in Washington to try to contain these profits, to try to

say that the oil companies are going too far by creating burdens and handicaps on individuals and families and businesses across America? The answer is nothing. Nothing has happened informally. The President has not called in the leaders of these oil companies and said it is not healthy for America's economy for you to be taking so much money out of this economy, driving up inflation, making the cost of business go up so that they have to lay off employees and can't expand if they would like to, and making the burdens for families who have to drive on a regular basis unbearable. The President has not done this. Other Presidents in history have. This President refuses to.

When it comes to the more formal means of turning to those Federal agencies that have the power over these oil companies, they have been virtually silent as Americans and consumers are fuming over what is happening at their gas stations.

I would say to my colleagues in Congress when they go home over this August recess to take some time and talk to the people they represent. Gasoline prices, frankly, are one of the biggest issues that trouble the people across America.

ExxonMobil's report of earnings comes a day after ConocoPhillips said it earned more than $5 billion in the quarter at a time when many drivers in the United States are paying $3 a gallon for gas--and more. ExxonMobil, the world's largest oil company by market cap, said earnings amounted to $1.72 a share in the April-June quarter compared with the profit of $7.64 billion or $1.20 a share a year ago. These results top even Wall Street's expectations. The oil companies are raking in this money at the expense of consumers and businesses across America.

If we want a healthy business climate in this country, we cannot allow one industry--the oil industry--to make outrageous profits at the expense of other businesses as well as the families and individuals across America.

I think what we have before us is a bill that is worthy of debate about drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. It is something we will debate, but we shouldn't believe at the end of the day, even if it is passes, that we have addressed the most serious challenge facing America. We still need a national energy policy.

We should remember two numbers as we engage in this debate. The numbers are 3 and 25. If you look at all of the energy available in the world, the United States has access in the continental United States and offshore to 3 percent of the energy reserves of the world. Yet every year the United States economy consumes 25 percent of the energy that is produced in the world.

We cannot drill our way out of this situation. We have to have environmentally responsible exploration and production, but we also have to deal with conservation and efficiency. It is not just a matter of reducing costs and reducing consumption. There is not another issue that is as important as energy. It is the issue of the environment. We have to understand that as we burn energy, as we destroy this energy for our economic purposes--carbon fuels, for example--we are releasing emissions into the environment. Carbon dioxide, for example, which ultimately form a cloud over our globe, this greenhouse effect which captures the heat of the Sun and warming the planet we live on to the point where we are seeing dramatic climate change in America and around the world. We are finding from those in the private sector who look at this in cold economic terms that decisions are made which suggest we are facing serious problems if we don't do something about it.

When the major insurance companies announce they are not going to write property insurance for many businesses on the gulf coast of the United States because of the severity of the hurricanes we have seen in the last few years, it is a wake-up call to America. When we know that the glaciers are melting, when we know the temperature is going up on this globe we live on, when we know species such as the polar bear are doomed to extinction if we don't make some serious changes, we have to combine this debate on a national energy policy with the national environmental policy that sets a standard--that says to the world engage us in this effort to protect the planet on which we live.

S. 3711 is an interesting and important bill. I am glad we are debating it. But make no mistake; it is not a national energy policy.

I reserve the remainder of my time and yield the floor.

Mr. President, I yield myself 20 minutes of Senator Bingaman's time.

Mr. President, I rise in strong opposition to this bill which would do little, if anything, to improve the energy situation in this country. It would end up costing the Federal Government tens of billions of dollars in the long run, and it would create an opening for those who want to eliminate coastal protections that tens of millions of Americans want and enjoy.

My primary concern with this bill is the fact that it does absolutely nothing to protect New Jersey. I don't think it does anything for 44 other States, either, but I am here to represent the people of New Jersey, and they are ill-served by the legislation.

We do have a large chemical industry in the State, and I am sensitive to the problems they are facing with the high cost of natural gas, which is a critical feedstock for them. I have received letters from the industry urging me to support this bill, saying we must pass this bill to lower gas prices and put ourselves on the path toward energy independence. But this bill will do nothing of the sort, particularly in the short term. I believe the outside groups supporting this bill know this, and they are hoping this is a ticket into a conference with the bill the House of Representatives passed last month, a bill that is stunning in its disregard for environmental protections.

The bill passed by the House would immediately eliminate the long- standing moratoria that protect our coastlines, not just in one part of the country but everywhere along the Atlantic, along the Pacific, the Arctic, and gulf coasts. Then it would be a free-for-all. States that wanted to could allow drilling a few miles off their shores. Neighboring States that could be heavily impacted by the drilling, particularly in the event of a spill, would have almost no say in the process. States that didn't want to drill would be given 50 miles of protection, way down from the 200 miles we have now. If a State wanted to get an extra 50 miles, it would have to apply to the Federal Government every 5 years for that privilege.

The House bill also has a provision that opens national parks and marine sanctuaries to drilling. As long as your rig is parked outside of a protected area, you are free to directionally drill into that region. No thought is given to the environmental damage that might be occurring, the drill cuttings and toxic metals that can litter the sea floor. But then again, some thought must have been given, because the House bill also provides broad waivers for a number of environmental laws.

One of the fundamental flaws of the House bill is an idea that we can split up the ocean into administrative boxes with each State controlling its offshore territory. But the ocean has no boundaries, and an oil spill will not respect any artificial lines we draw. There is territory off the eastern seaboard less than 75 miles from the coast of New Jersey the administration has already proposed opening to drilling. The House bill is yet another opportunity for that to happen. It is another assault on the Jersey shore, one of the most ecologically sensitive and economically important parts of the State of New Jersey.

Our beaches are part of our $222 billion tourism industry, which is responsible for over 10 percent of the jobs in the State. The New Jersey coastal counties are home to over 1.5 million people.

New Jersey is also home to a huge fishing industry. According to the American Sports Fishing Association, there are over 800,000 recreational anglers in the State, contributing over $1.3 billion and 12,000 jobs to the State economy. Our commercial fisheries are critical as well. The port of Cape May and Wildwood is the fifth largest commercial port in the country, by value. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, New Jersey landed over 185 million pounds of fish last year, worth over $139 million.

The waters off the coast of New Jersey are home to over 300 species of fish and 300 species of birds, and our beaches are crucial stopping points for countless numbers of migratory birds, including some endangered and threatened ones such as the red knot.

The House bill is a direct threat to all of this, and if S. 3711 passes, the House will have an opportunity to move their bill forward another step toward becoming law.

I know we have been told that the Senate will try to avoid a conference--and I certainly appreciate that--and that we may be able to get the House to accept this bill as is. I have not heard any sort of commitment to that effect from the majority leader, and no one has presented a clear way to this body to avoid a conference with the House. The House, meanwhile, seems quite clear that it doesn't find this bill satisfactory at all. Richard Pombo, the chairman of the House Resources Committee who would lead the House delegation in a conference, has been fairly blunt about this. Here are two of his quotes:

Given the fact that the House bill passed with overwhelming

support, it is unlikely that the House would accept the

Senate bill without having the opportunity to debate at least

a couple of provisions, if not the opportunity to bring it up

to par with the House bill.

Referring to the Senate bill:

It is a third of the bill that the House passed

overwhelmingly in a bipartisan fashion just two weeks ago,

Pombo spokesman Brian Kennedy said yesterday:

The House passed a comprehensive national solution.

Here are two news reports from this week:

House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, the lead

advocate of the House plan, has scoffed at the idea of simply

accepting the Senate plan.

Richard Pombo said that if the Senate passes its bill this

week, he plans to work in conference to add as many of the

House provisions as possible.

Then yesterday, in an AP report:

Representative Richard Pombo, a key sponsor of the House

bill passed last month, said Tuesday he saw no way the House

would accept the limited Senate legislation as a substitute

for its bill--no way.

Any Member of this Chamber who believes we can get the House to accept this bill as is should listen to these statements and think again.

But I also don't believe this is all that great a bill to begin with. First, the fact is it doesn't do that much. Let me show you this map of the region we are talking about.

This region outlined in black, the contours of it are lease sale 181. The purple lines are the existing pipelines in the gulf over here, and the gray squares are the oil and gas platforms that already exist. This orange rectangle right here has already been opened. So S. 3711 would open this red area in the middle, and these two tan areas, but the red area is already likely to be open next year by the administration anyway. Congressional action isn't necessary here at all. It is not under a moratorium, it is not under withdrawal, so there is no need for us to act to get that gas.

The only new areas the bill opens are these two tan areas here, a wedge-shaped area in 181, and a bigger area called 181 south. They may look pretty big, particularly this one here in the south, but combined, these two areas have less gas than this red region alone.

Look how far these new regions are from the existing infrastructure in the region. Even if they were opened today, it would take years for companies to start developing them. And once they do start developing them some years down the road, there is not all that much gas there to begin with.

Here is the claim the proponents of this bill make: 5.8 trillion cubic feet of gas opened in this whole bill, which would be enough to heat and cool 6 million homes for 15 years. It would take care of the Nation's needs for 3 months. That is what they say. But how long will it take to get that gas?

Here are the estimates that the Mineral and Mines Management Service say even going out 50 years--even going out 50 years--we only get about 80 percent of that 5.8 trillion cubic feet, about 2\1/2\ months' worth.

Looking into the median term, in the next 15 years, this whole bill would open half a trillion cubic feet of gas. That is about 9 days' worth. The new areas, the areas that wouldn't be opened, anyway, provide less than half of that, enough to take care of the country for a cozy Thanksgiving weekend.

But in the near term, in the next 10 years, we get almost nothing out of this bill, and there will be absolutely nothing until 2011.

Take a look at these numbers from the Minerals Management Service and ask yourself, will this have a real effect on natural gas prices, with this type of supply? Will this have any effect on natural gas supply?

Nothing in the short term. But, in exchange for that ``nothing,'' we give away 37.5 percent of the royalties, money that could be used for homeland security, defense, housing, education--or actually helping the coastal States in this region to actually meet their challenges. I do believe we should help them meet their challenges, particularly Louisiana. Senator Landrieu has made a powerful argument on behalf of her State and those needs. But the question is, How do we best achieve that? Money for these other priorities we cede to four States, and for those four States it is a great deal, but for New Jersey and the other 45 States, I don't see how it is.

There are some people who might support this bill because of the money that will go directly to the Land and Water Conservation Fund stateside program. But the amount of money in that fund that we will get in the first 10 years is a trifle. These are the funding levels for the stateside grant program for the past 6 years--see where they are-- and the amount in this year's Senate Appropriations Committee report. The average over that time is about $82.3 million.

Under the bill we are debating, this new direct funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund would provide a small fraction of what it had been getting in the past and barely even meet the lower funding levels of recent years. While this does not replace the appropriations process for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, it could make it harder in the future to get appropriators to provide additional funds to this program, beyond that which is allocated in this bill. This is no windfall for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and it certainly doesn't make up for the giveaways from the Federal Treasury.

Finally, this bill provides statutory protections for Florida's western coast until 2022. That is unprecedented and treats Florida differently from all other coastal States. I do not begrudge Florida their attempts to get statutory protections to 2022. They deserve the right to try to protect their coastline. But New Jersey also deserves the right to protect our own. While we must fight each year for a 1- year extension to the drilling moratorium and are beholden to the whims of the executive branch which could remove the Presidential withdrawal at any time, Florida would be protected.

We simply seek the same protections Florida is being offered, a continuation

of the moratorium until 2022. So I will be filing an amendment, cosponsored by a broad, bipartisan coalition of Members from both coasts, including Senators Snowe, Feinstein, Lautenberg, Boxer, Collins, and many others, that would put the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans off limits to oil and gas drilling until 2022.

While we file those amendments, we are being told, unfortunately, that we will not be given the opportunity to offer any amendments to this bill. I believe that is wrong. We have record-high gas prices. We face even higher ones in the future due to instability in the Middle East. We are putting a squeeze on families around the country while allowing oil and gas companies to report new record profits this week. We also have an electric grid in California that is straining under a record heat wave, and global warming threatens to bring us even more heat waves like this in the future. Yet this is the only piece of energy legislation which is likely to move this year, and we are not likely to be given the opportunity to address any of the real energy problems this country faces.

There are a number of excellent amendments that are being filed by people on both sides of the aisle, amendments that would raise fuel efficiency or provide for a real plan to cut down on the amount of oil we use or create new incentives for renewable energy. I will be filing amendments to encourage the production of biofuels and the development of new vehicle technologies, increase the amount of renewable energy the Federal Government is required to purchase, spur the growth of transit-oriented development corridors to help reduce people's dependence on cars, and others.

But at the very least, we should be allowing other coastal States, such as New Jersey, the opportunity to protect their own beaches the same way Florida has already been taken care of in this bill. The complete lack of protections for the New Jersey shore in this bill and the lack of guarantees that something much worse will not come out of a conference with the House forces me to oppose this bill. That is our fundamental problem. I certainly hope, if the bill is to pass the Senate, it certainly does not come back in any way other than its present version, or else we will clearly be forced to do anything and everything necessary to achieve its defeat.

I yield the remainder of my time. I yield the floor.

Mr. President, if I could inquire of my colleague from Washington--and I have my colleague from Alabama who seeks recognition--maybe we can get some order set up here. I have a 15- minute presentation. I believe my colleague from Alabama is seeking recognition, if I could inquire.

I would inquire of my colleague from Washington a timeframe she would want, in an effort to establish some order.

If my colleague from Washington would be willing to allow 5 minutes for my colleague from Alabama to finish up his comments? Is that asking too much? I don't want to press it too far.

I thank my colleague from Washington in particular for allowing us to do this. It is very much appreciated.

I am happy to yield to the Senator from Texas.

I believe I am to be recognized for 15 minutes. If the Presiding Officer will notify me when 2 minutes remain?

Mr. President, I rise to speak on the pending business before the Senate, the Gulf of Mexico Energy Act, S. 3711. I wholeheartedly support this bill. We face a dire situation in this country regarding our energy dependence.

I believe this debate is about two numbers and those numbers are 3 and 75--$3-a-gallon gasoline and $75-a-barrel oil. That is what this debate is about, 3 and 75.

We are reminded about this every day. There are probably places in this country paying well over $3 a gallon for gasoline. The price of oil hit $75 this past Friday. There is a good possibility it will even go up from there. We need more domestic drilling to take place. We must reduce our foreign dependency, our dependency on foreign oil. In the future and in the near term as well we have to reduce our dependency on oil.

Things are striking. In the United States we burn 10,000 gallons of oil per second. The United States uses four times more oil than any other nation. Relative to economic output, the United States consumes 7.5 gallons of oil for every thousand dollars of GDP. Oil imports cost us--this is a 2003 number, so they are higher now--oil imports cost us $10 billion a month, as a nation. Those are 2003 numbers.

Energy economists estimate that since World War II, oil price spikes have cost the economy 15 percent growth and $1.2 trillion in direct losses. There is a $7.4 billion increase in the U.S. oil bill per year for each $1 increase in the price of oil. Imagine what that adds up to when you push $75-a-barrel oil. A $1 increase in the price of oil costs U.S. companies and consumers about $828 million in trucking costs each year.

In addition to these facts, we get a large amount of our oil from regions that are unstable at best and unfriendly at worst; 65.3 percent of the world's proven oil reserves are in the Middle East. The Middle East OPEC States already supply the United States with 2.5 million barrels per day, 25 percent of our daily imports.

Further, every day, 26 million barrels of oil flow through two points. One of those points is the Straits of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. We know the instability that can happen there. A few targeted strikes against one of these two states or against oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, which holds a quarter of the world's oil reserves and essentially all spare capacity--if you can consider any of the capacity spare today--it could take several million barrels of oil off the global market every day for months and send oil prices soaring.

These facts, coupled with the increases in demand that are taking place in countries such as China and India, do not bode well for our national and economic security.

There will be very difficult if not potentially disastrous consequences to our economy if we do not reduce our dependence on foreign oil and, in the future, oil period. If we remain so dependent on foreign oil, we court disaster.

Currently, we have these two mega numbers, 3 and 75; $3-a-gallon gasoline and $75-a-barrel oil.

This bill, the Gulf of Mexico Energy Act, will help lessen the dire situation we are currently in. It opens up 8.3 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and natural gas exploration. It is something we need to do, we must do now to be able to help reduce our demand for oil products, for foreign oil.

I want to also talk about the midterm of what we need to do. This is something we have to do now to mitigate the situation we are currently in. We really need to do it. But on a midterm basis, we have to reduce our dependence on oil, period. That is why a bipartisan group of 28 Senators has put forward the Vehicle and Fuel Choices for America Security Act, S. 2025. I urge my colleagues to look at cosponsoring this legislation. I think it is the most bipartisan and comprehensive energy legislation pending in front of the Senate today.

We filed it as an amendment on this bill, but as I understand the procedural situation we are in, it is unlikely this is going to come up now. It is still important that we look at this legislation and others to reduce our long-term dependence on oil. It is appropriate Members of Congress from every region of the country and every political stripe-- conservative, liberal, everything in between--have all arrived at this same point. For our national security and our economic security, we must reduce our dependency on oil.

It is common sense to reduce our oil consumption, and it is doable. This bill uses new ideas and does not visit old debates or fights. We know the edges of this debate where we divide this body. This doesn't go there. It says what areas can we agree upon, and let's press forward there. For too long our foreign policy has been dictated in part by our need for foreign oil. It is in the interest of America's security for us to look at ways of lessening our dependence on foreign oil, and it is also in the interests of our economy. The pocketbook of every American is affected when the price of oil goes up.

We can create market incentives to use the technology available today to deal with the problem that we are facing right now. We don't have to wait for any new inventions. We can start solving the problem today simply by sending the marketplace the correct signals. There is broad public support for reducing our oil consumption.

This, to me, is one of those American-type problems. We have a problem and it needs to be addressed and we can do it with good, old- fashioned American ingenuity. It exists. The great thing about this bill, S. 2025, is that our 10-year goal is for reduction in oil consumption of 2.5 million barrels per day. That is roughly 10 percent of our total oil consumption and the same amount we import daily from the Persian Gulf region.

How do we do it? Ethanol and renewable fuels must play a clear role in this fight. They are homegrown. We need to be more dependent on the Midwest than the Middle East. Therefore, this helps keep the money at home. We ventured down this road before, but we have never fully committed as a nation to renewable fuels. Now is the time to do it.

I am encouraged by the fact that so many people are literally buying into ethanol today, and into biodiesel--soybean-based diesel fuel. Bill Gates has invested over $100 million of his own money into ethanol. Richard Branson of the Virgin Empire, famous for his success in venture capitalism, is investing in ethanol. These are great signs for the future of renewable fuels, as it is an industry that needs capital investment.

As a government and as a people, we need to fully commit to make renewable fuels a viable alternative to petroleum-based fuel. As long as oil remains above $70 a barrel, the economics of renewable fuels makes good sense. It makes sense for us to continue to push its development, and it makes clear sense regarding our foreign policy and security needs.

Biodiesel is another renewable fuel option and is a farm success story. After Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s, soybean farmers were struggling to maintain profitability. I was the Secretary of Agriculture in my State of Kansas at that time. Because

of high energy prices and low commodity prices, the farmers were struggling. The soybean farmers started investments in the development of biodiesel. It was a priority for farmers eager to contribute to our energy supply and develop a new market for soybeans. Farmers invested more than $50 million of their check-off dollars. These are dollars they tax themselves to be able to promote their industry. They did this to be able to conduct research and development in biodiesel.

As a result, the biodiesel industry has shown slow but steady success since the early 1990s. However, in the past 2 years it has grown exponentially. In 2004 there were approximately 25 million gallons of biodiesel sales. That increased to 90 million gallons in 2005, and currently it is on track to exceed 150 million gallons this year.

Likewise, we went from 22 biodiesel plants in 2004 to more than 60 biodiesel plants currently, and there are over 40 more plants currently under construction.

Congress has, and continues to put in place, policies that enhance our Nation's energy security. Renewable fuels are playing a significant role in helping to achieve this objective while providing economic benefits to farmers and rural communities.

Another key element to freeing ourselves from our foreign oil dependency is to introduce electricity as a transportation fuel option. Recently, I and many of my colleagues in the House and Senate test drove plug-in hybrid vehicles on Capitol Hill. These cars drive exclusively on electricity for the first 30 miles of every trip. After 30 miles, these cars switch to a normal combustion engine. Over 50 percent of all Americans drive less than 30 miles each day. That means we could have over half of our drivers in America driving exclusively on electricity, not using any oil at all.

The good news is that our electricity generation is produced here in America, whether it is coal, natural gas, nuclear, or renewable sources such as water power and wind. We would be fueling a majority of our transportation sector with American sources of energy as opposed to foreign oil. Plugging in your car during offpeak hours when power is in a surplus and cheaper would soon just become part of the modern daily routine like plugging in your cell phone before you go to bed. Offpeak electricity can be the equivalent of 50-cent-a-gallon gasoline.

The car I sat in, and other Members drove, went 100 miles a gallon by using the plug-in technology, the hybrid technology in the car, and fuel in a combustion engine--100 miles to the gallon, a car available today.

This was a modified Prius. I don't want to tell everybody that this is broadly available. But the people who have modified it to include plug-in technology were using this hybrid vehicle.

Not only will we be sending out money to countries that dislike us, but we will be buying American-made power instead.

Another great bit of news is that we already have the infrastructure in place to produce electricity as a transportation tool. All you will need is an extension cord and a wall outlet. We can't drill enough domestic oil to break our addiction to foreign oil.

However, this bill takes an innovative market-based approach to solve these problems. We can provide tax credits for the production and purchase of advanced technology cars. We expand the renewable fuels infrastructure through a variety of means. We also expand research and development in critical areas such as light-weight materials and cellulosic ethanol. This ethanol, instead of being made out of grain, is made of plant fibers or out of woodchips. We amend the Federal fleet requirements to reduce oil consumption by allowing electric drive technology to qualify under the EPA act.

We require 30 percent of the Federal fleet requirements to be met by advanced diesel, hybrids, or electric plug-in hybrids by 2006.

We also provide tax credits for companies that have fleets of 100 or more vehicles to purchase more fuel-efficient vehicles.

We are all solidly behind the ideas in this bill. It has 28 cosponsors, and we look forward to moving these ideas forward because it is critical for our national and economic security and our economy and our future that we do so, plus it is just good old American ingenuity that we would do something like this and lead the world in moving toward an important electric renewable source fleet of vehicles for our consumers.

Clearly, if we are to continue to live freely in this country, we must figure out a solution to our rising dependency on foreign oil.

That is part of my support for S. 3711. Near term, we have to do more production. Longer term, we have to reduce our dependency and our addiction to oil, period. Here is a bill and a way we can do it. As we observe what is taking place in the Middle East--even today we can see volatility in that region. As we observe what is taking place in our marketplace, I believe you can see a yearning for vehicles that get higher mileage and we can use with plug-in technology.

I think we have to pass S. 3711, and then in the future let's move this car fleet to be based more on renewables and to be based on plug- in technology using electricity.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to be able to accomplish that. I urge us in the near term to do what we have to do--pass this bill which is before us today.

I yield the floor.

I would be happy to yield during the remainder of my time.

I thank the chairman.

Mr. President, I intend to speak for about 15 minutes. I think that was part of our unanimous consent agreement earlier. I know there are other Senators who want to speak for and against.

I wish to begin again by thanking Senator Domenici for his strong and able leadership. I want to associate myself with the remarks of the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, the senior Senator from Mississippi, Mr. Cochran, who has been a real leader in our effort to pull a coalition of Senators together who are concerned about the Nation's energy supply and our growing dependence on areas of this world that are not friendly to downright dangerous. This coalition of Senators understands how important a partnership is to maintain a long- range, mutually beneficial relationship that helps the coastal States that agree to drill and the Nation that so desperately needs new supplies.

I am going to try to answer some of the charges that were made. As the chairman, the Senator from New Mexico, said, some of them are not worth responding to because they are so weak on their face. But some do need to be responded to.

One of them that I want to set right is President Truman's position. Somebody might say: Senator Landrieu, why is it so important to know what President Truman did? We need to look forward, not backward.

But you know, as a leader and as an elected official, I find it very helpful sometimes to understand history--the things we did right and the things we did wrong--because it helps us to make wiser decisions in the future. When so many lives depend on it--300 million, in this case, in the United States, and

more in the rest of the world--I think it is important for us, as fast as we move up here, to try to get it right. So I want to get something right for the record. If somebody wants to come down here and debate me, please do, because I have many books about the Tidelands oil controversy with which I am prepared to debate. I have excerpts of the veto letter Truman sent. I read the original law. Why would I do this? Because this is very important to my State.

The truth of the matter is this: In the late 1940s, we didn't know there was oil and gas in the waters off the coast. I think the first well was found in Pennsylvania, maybe the second one in Texas, and the first offshore well was off of a pier in California. I say a pier because that is the way they first were because nobody knew how they could swim out. They made a pier to walk out to put the rig in the water. And lo and behold, they discovered oil and gas. It wasn't soon after that first well, there was a second well offshore in Creole, LA. I know about it because it is in my State, a little town that was virtually destroyed by Katrina and Rita, where a lot of brave souls, pioneers--just like the West is proud of the cowboys and the pioneers and the wagon trains that went out West, those of us along the gulf coast, the roughnecks who started this industry, those who own pirogues and skiffs and flat boats and walked in the marsh are proud of the industry which we developed.

We don't hang our head in shame about it, despite the rambling up here about big oil companies this and big oil companies that. People have made a good living. It helped this country to be the strongest economy in the world and in large measure because of the way we manage our resources. We need to do a better job of that.

President Truman offered the Gulf Coast States 37.5 percent. He said the land belongs to the Federal Government. There is no question it is Federal Government land and it is Federal resources. But as your President, I will agree to share the bounty.

Why? Because he was a smart man. He was an able leader, and wise, and knew that sharing is always better than hoarding. It is the first lesson kids learn in kindergarten. Why we can't learn it in Congress I don't know. But President Truman figured that partnership is better than in lateral taking. So he offered us 37.5 percent and he put a bill in and sent it to the Congress. You can read what happened.

But because of States rights issues and all sorts of other politics of the time, the Congress, for whatever reason, decided the States should get 100 percent. They amended his law that he sent to Congress to give 100 percent and the Federal Government to get nothing. That, of course, didn't make any sense. And President Truman was correct. He vetoed it. I would have, too, if I were the President, and so would Thad Cochran, if he were the President back then. It didn't make any sense.

But for Members to come to the floor and read only a part of the history and use it for their argument is not being forthright. That is what history books will say. That is why those of us in Louisiana understood that it was Leander Perez, who was leading the charge for a greater share, 100 percent. We were so angry because we basically ended up with nothing. We should have taken the 37.5 percent.

That is what brings us here 50 years later--not to rob the Federal Treasury, not to ask for something that is not ours but to cut a good deal, a fair deal, a square deal for the people of the gulf coast, for the coastal States, and to honor the wise offer made to us by President Truman.

Here is a picture of it. I would have no such objection to such a provision, which is similar to existing provisions under which the States receive 37.5 percent of revenues from the Federal Government, oil-producing public lands within their borders. Because in the 1920s the record will reflect, when oil was discovered on land, the Minerals Leasing Act gave 37.5 percent to States such as New Mexico, to States such as Wyoming, to States such as Colorado. No oil or gas had been discovered in water. So there was no reason for the coastal States to be included.

The Senator from New Mexico is correct because western States came into the Union under completely different rules than the eastern States. There was a lot more western land. So the Minerals Leasing Act was passed. It was set at 37.5 percent. When oil and gas began to be discovered in little places such as Creole and off the coast of California, there was interest in having the coastal States at 37. But because there was an overreach, we got nothing.

Yes, we have had jobs, we have had economic opportunity. I am not denying that. But what I am saying is a partnership is always better than going it alone. The strategy of going it alone has resulted in not one new refinery being built in this country in the last 30 years and only expansion very recently, no new nuclear powerplants being built until recently, and no new areas opened under leasing because of no partnership.

I wanted to get the Truman issue straight this afternoon.

I also want to say that this bill is good overall energy policy. I know we cannot drill our way out of the situation we are in. But we had better change course. Since 1960, we have been on a course of further dependence on oil and gas. We are building and trying to permit more liquefied natural gas terminals, which is good, but we are building an infrastructure of dependence. We need to build an infrastructure of independence so that we can make wise choices and not be beholding to the suppliers of a commodity and a resource which we need to keep the lights on and to keep this economy moving forward.

This bill comes to the floor not saying it is the solution to all of our energy problems but arguing forcefully that increasing supply is important and saying we have not done that in over 20 years. We need to open areas of new drilling.

As a story, I had a group of French Parliament members from France in my office not too long ago. I cochair the French caucus. We talked about a lot of issues. They were particularly interested in the issue of energy. I put up a map of the United States. And first they asked me about nuclear because, of course, the French are leaders of the world in that. They produce a different kind energy technology than we do, and 80 percent of their energy comes from nuclear sources. They were asking me about that. They also asked me about other aspects of the energy legislation. I showed them a map of the United States. I said this is where we allow drilling, and this is where we don't, but we think we might have reserves in many other places. When they saw the map of how restricted drilling is they were dumbfounded. They said: Senator, why? This is a great country. America has resources. I said: Because we have a backward-looking approach. We have not recognized new technology. We have not recognized that you can drill in places and minimize the footprint and expand opportunities for the economy while making sure that you are protecting the environment.

This is a step in right direction. The gulf coast is our Nation's only energy coast. Three-hundred million Americans depend on this coast to work--and work we do.

This is a picture of a graph that I like to show. I have shown it many times. The red is a natural gas pipeline company, and all the pipeline companies that exist in the Nation. You can see there is a great cluster right here along the Texas coast, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. It comes right here at Mobile Bay. This one lonely little pipeline brings gas right over here to Florida because we are not able to drill for several reasons. That is a subject for another day. But this is the gulf cost compromise. By the nature of it, we all can't get what we want. It is a compromise. These five States--four that are drilling States and one that is a nondrilling State--have come together, Senators Martinez and Nelson, all of us, to say: OK. Let's stop fighting and let us start working for the benefit of the country. Let us give Florida a reasonable buffer, new revenue sharing to these States, open some additional drilling and help the country get the domestic oil and gas it needs. Maybe it makes too much sense for people to vote for, but there is another reason that this money is so critical to Louisiana and Mississippi, Alabama and Texas and, in particular, Louisiana because our topography is

different. I know people can't grasp it because you do not see pictures of it very much. We don't have beaches similar to California and Florida. We have only two. They are 7 miles long each--Holly Beach on the west and Grand Island on the east. All the rest of our coast is quite expansive. It is marshland and grassland. It is the home of the mouth of the greatest river--the Mississippi River--system in North America. That river goes all the way through our country. So this land is very fragile. Because of global warming, and because of other things, because of some of the canals that were dredged back in the early days before we understood the degradation that can be caused, this coastal land is eroding. The hurricanes that are coming are more fierce and strong. We lost in Rita and Katrina alone total land equal to 73,000 football fields. We lose the equivalent of one football field every 38 minutes, 73,000 football fields in 48 hours. That is the size of the District of Columbia gone in 2 days because of the great surges from the water and wind from Katrina and Rita.

This money is critical. And unlike our opponents who say there is no direct use of this money, the people of Louisiana are poised to pass a constitutional amendment that all of that money will go to coastal restoration and hurricane protection.

I might add we are happy to do that. It is obviously popular and quite necessary in the State of Louisiana to do that. That is what our State wants to do. I might add that the interior States of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming have no restrictions. The States that share 50 percent of their revenues have no restrictions on the way the money can be spent. They can reduce taxes with it. They can build universities with it. They can build highways with it. They could put it in a trust fund and give out a check to everybody who lives in the State. But we have targeted uses for these funds in this bill. We want them to go for general environmental purposes and to secure our coast--not just for the benefit of the 10 million people who live along the coast but the 300 million people who depend on this coast to be there decades from now, hopefully, centuries from now--a very valuable working coast for the Nation.

Energy comes from this coast, fisheries come from this coast, the Mississippi River empties into the gulf here, and 70 percent of the rain from the Midwest comes down through this river system. It is important that we don't wash it away.

I know my time is up. I will come back again to speak. Maybe there are some other Senators who would like to speak. But I wanted to get President Truman's position straight for the Record. I wanted to say that our uses are going to go for environmental purposes and I wanted to say that without this money the coast will wash away.

I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, we are on a subject that is near and dear to the heart of the Senator from Florida--both Senators from Florida. It is a subject of which, a year ago, in bringing up an energy bill, there was an attempt to drill off the coast of Florida, and this Senator had to start his first filibuster. We were able to resolve that with the help of the distinguished senior Senator from New Mexico, Mr. Domenici, who, true to his word, let the Energy bill go on without bringing up the portions with regard to drilling off of Florida when it went to conference with the House of Representatives. And I have thanked Senator Domenici many times on this floor for being a man of his word.

I must say, in the negotiations that have brought this legislation to the floor now, I give great credit to the senior Senator from Louisiana, Ms. Landrieu, in looking out for the interests of her State in receiving revenue--what would come from new drilling that this legislation addresses not only for Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, but especially for Louisiana. It addresses those revenue needs that the State needs since it is losing all of those wetlands. We saw the results of that in the great tragedy of Hurricane Katrina a year ago. So I give great credit to Senator Landrieu.

But I also give great credit to Senator Landrieu because she knew the interests of Florida had to be protected in order for her to get an agreement because both Senators from Florida were willing to filibuster any legislation that threatened the interests of Florida. To her great credit--Senator Landrieu's--she worked with the two Senators from Florida. She also worked with the other gulf coast Senators. And what has been crafted is a piece of legislation that addresses just the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, you might wonder: Why does Florida not want its waters off the coast of Florida to be drilled? Well, this Senator is going to explain that. Certainly, there are economic interests with a $57 billion a year tourism industry that depends on pristine beaches. Certainly, there is the delicate environment--the 10,000 Islands, the Big Bend area, the bays and estuaries, Apalachicola Bay--all of these environmental areas that are so delicate to the ecology of the oceans where so much marine life is spawned.

But there is another big reason that most people do not understand, and it is right here as shown on this chart. Most people do not realize that the entire Gulf of Mexico off of Florida is restricted airspace. Why? Because this is the largest testing and training area in the world for the U.S. military. All of this area has restricted air use and naval use.

You wonder: When the U.S. Atlantic fleet training in Vieques--the little island off the eastern end of Puerto Rico--when it was shut down, why did most of that training come to Florida? It is because you can do combined air-sea exercises and land exercises from Eglin Air Force Base, Pensacola NAS--Naval Air Station Pensacola. Squadrons of Navy F-18s come down and spend 2 weeks, 3 weeks at a time, and are stationed there because when they lift off out of Key West NAS, within 2 minutes they are over restricted airspace where they can go about their training.

So here is a large part of the reason--as shown right here on the chart--why there is no drilling off the west coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. The importance of what is called the Eglin Air Force Base Gulf Test and Training Range has been emphasized in the letter that was received by the Senate Armed Services Committee, signed by the Secretary of Defense, Don Rumsfeld. That letter was delivered to the committee last November, in which he says: You cannot have oil and gas rigs out here where we are testing and training sophisticated weapons systems, and where we are training our pilots--Air Force and Navy pilots--and where we now will have the F-35 all-pilot training for the new Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35 for all branches of service, all out here because of that restricted space. So Secretary Rumsfeld made it very clear: You cannot have oil and gas rigs.

I remember the Senator from New York, Mr. Schumer, one day said: Why should Florida be protected? Here, this is the reason. This is the historical reason, in addition to the reasons of the environment, as well as the economy of Florida in protecting our tourism industry.

So this is what we are dealing with, as shown on this chart. All of the yellow on this chart off the State of Florida is going to be protected until the year 2022. That is three planning periods of 5 years each. That is 15 years after the planning period of 2007 kicks in. All of that area--which is 125 miles from Fort Walton, it is 100 miles from Perdido Key, 100 miles off of the Alabama coast right here. Then it comes around, and it then follows this critical line, this black line that is called the military mission line, a military mission line that was established in 1981 by the Department of Defense in that they said they wanted no drilling east of that line. Therefore, that line becomes the critical line, of which you see that most of the area of Florida, then, is protected from drilling. And that is all the way through the year 2022.

That area, by the way--from this point off of Clearwater, which is in the Tampa Bay area--is 235 miles due west of the Tampa Bay area beaches. For Naples, it is in excess of 300 miles. No drilling. So you can see the protection for Florida also happens to be the protection for the U.S. military in these ranges.

Now, we have had people come to the floor and say they are concerned about this going down to the House. The House-passed bill basically lifts the moratorium for drilling off the Outer Continental Shelf of the entire United States--the Pacific coast, the Atlantic coast, and so forth.

I want to speak about the assurances I have been given when this bill will leave here and go to the House of Representatives. But let me tell you why this bill only deals with the Gulf of Mexico. From Florida's standpoint, from the military's standpoint, from the Nation's defense standpoint, we do not want to lift the moratorium and have drilling off the east coast of Florida and the rest of the southeastern United States because, look right here on this chart. Here is another major Air Force and Navy training area off the northeast coast of Florida and off the east coast of Georgia. In addition, right there is a place called Cape Canaveral. The Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is where we launch our rockets to put all of our satellites, our defense satellites, into equatorial orbit.

You can't have oil rigs out here where you are dropping the first stages of the expendable booster rockets that are putting our highly sophisticated and highly classified defense payloads into equatorial orbit. Just to the north of Cape Canaveral is a place called the Kennedy Space Center. It happens to have launch pad 39A and launch pad 39B from which we launch the space shuttle and, after the year 2012, it is estimated we will launch the new space vehicle called the Crew Exploration Vehicle. You can't have oil rigs out here where we are dropping the solid rocket boosters from the space shuttle when we launch, those two big candlesticks on either side of the external tank of the space shuttle. After they have expended their fuel 2 minutes into flight, they separate from the space shuttle and parachute back into the Atlantic Ocean. They are then brought back in, refurbished, and reused. You can't have oil rigs out here.

So as people talk about wanting drilling off the east coast of Florida, which this legislation in front of us does not address but the House bill does address, you can't do that out here with an interest of the Nation at stake--the military preparedness plus the defense of this country, with the important payloads that we are launching out of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, as well as the Kennedy Space Center. When people say that this legislation we are passing in the Senate does not address protections of the east coast, the east coast isn't a threat. Right now the east coast is under a moratorium until the year 2012. That is not where the threat is. The threat is here in the Gulf of Mexico. That is why we have the legislation before us that we do. That is why this Senator is coming to the floor to announce my support for this legislation, which I have helped craft and on which I have waited until today, until I had assurances that this legislation was not going to be in any significant way changed when it leaves this Chamber and goes down to the House.

What are those assurances? I have been authorized to say from the majority leader, Senator Frist--and I am reading from an e-mail to me. This is a quote Senator Frist sent to me today--

The Senate bill is a carefully crafted compromise and I

believe it represents what is achievable in the Senate this

year. I will not bring a bill back before the Senate that

does not provide adequate protections to the State of

Florida. I look forward to working with both Florida Senators

to achieve this goal.

Yesterday, I spoke personally to Senator Frist on the telephone. He told me he would do everything within his ability to keep it to the Senate version when the bill returns to the Senate. That is a pretty good assurance for this Senator to protect the interests of Florida.

I went to our leader on this side of the aisle, the Democratic leader, and Senator Reid has written a letter to me:

Dear Senator Nelson:

It is my expectation that the House of Representatives will

accept S. 3711 as passed by the Senate without amending it

and without modifying it in a conference committee. If the

House does not accept the Senate bill as passed, I will join

other Senators and Senator Nelson and produce the votes to

sustain a filibuster to prevent the passage of the bill when

it would return to the Senate.

That is the end of the quote from Senator Reid's letter.

Around here, you have to take a man at his word. I accept the word and the assurances of the two great leaders of our two great parties in protecting the interests of Florida. I am prepared to come and support this legislation and to thank the leadership on both sides as they have worked with the two Senators from Florida to try to do what is right for the country.

In the legislation that addresses the drilling, there is another important component for Florida; that is, there are a few leases out in this area from years past, decades past, that have never been drilled because they have never gotten the permits because of all that we have been going through, keeping these waters protected in a moratorium. Senator Landrieu has crafted a portion of the bill that revenue will go to four Gulf States from the revenue generated to the Federal Government from new leases. The interest of Florida, since there won't be drilling, is to get rid of the ancient leases that are never going to be drilled. So there is a provision in the legislation that will allow the swapping of these leases by their value for new leases in the area that can be drilled in what is called lease sale 181, and other leases in the central and western Gulf of Mexico, new leases that we want to be drilled where a swap would occur.

People say that is voluntary for the oil companies.

I ask unanimous consent for 3 additional minutes.

You would ask, if it is voluntary, why would they do it? Because there is a financial incentive for oil companies who want to pay for new drilling in 181 or elsewhere

in the central or western gulf, not to pay that by swapping out their financial interest in these ancient leases that are still here. They are of minor value compared to the entire value of the leases elsewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, but nevertheless that is there.

Why it is important that we keep the Senate bill intact and not expand it with any version of the House is because the House-passed legislation works for the Gulf of Mexico, but the House-passed version lifts the moratorium for the entire country and allows, with State legislative approval, drilling to come up to 3 miles off the coast of a State. Of course, Atlantic seaboard Senators, Pacific Ocean Senators, would be violently opposed to that, and then the Senators who start realizing that it starts getting into their military- restricted areas, their defense-restricted areas, would find that enormously objectionable. That is another reason we need to keep this legislation intact as it goes to the House and then comes back to the Senate.

My colleague from Florida, Senator Martinez, has made several statements on the floor--and it is my understanding that he will again--that he is given assurances that the protection of Florida will be there when this legislation comes back from the House. It is the privilege of this Senator from Florida to support this legislation.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I rise to express my strong support for S. 3711, the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006.

This is an important and timely piece of legislation that deals with an issue that is very near and dear to Floridians, which is protecting our gulf coast from drilling.

Protecting Florida's coastline is an issue of monumental concern to me and to my constituents, and I commend Chairman Domenici and his staff, as well as Leader Frist and Senator Mitch McConnell, for their hard work in forging a strong bipartisan compromise that allows us to do just that. I also thank the distinguished Senator from Louisiana for her work in bringing about this bill.

As Floridians know, and many of my colleagues have learned over the past several months, our beaches are extremely important to our way of life. We value their unique and fragile ecosystem. Our State's special scenery and fragile environment bring millions from across the Nation and the globe to enjoy its sugar-sand beaches and world class angling and boating.

I have spent a great amount of time and energy since arriving in the Senate fighting to protect Florida's treasures from the threat of offshore drilling, together with my colleague, Senator Nelson, as well as with the Members of the Florida delegation in the House of Representatives.

Several different pieces of legislation have been introduced over the past year in the House and the Senate that the Florida delegation has found extremely worrisome, and we have been successful up to this point in keeping drilling at bay. But the drilling battle has gotten fiercer and the stakes have gotten much higher as our Nation struggles to meet our energy demands in an increasingly uncertain world.

Pressure continues to mount in Congress to develop Federal deepwater resources in the Outer Continental Shelf. And because high oil and natural gas prices are not a Republican or a Democrat problem but they are our Nation's problem, there is a bipartisan majority that grows stronger each day behind the effort to open the Eastern Planning Zone of the Gulf of Mexico to more drilling.

So our options are whether to be part of a solution--a real solution that provides concrete protections for our State--or watch our protections be eaten away year after year by those who do not share Florida's values. I chose to be part of a solution for Florida.

I want to assure Floridians that Florida is protected under this bill. This legislation, which I was proud to help negotiate, will provide unprecedented protections for the gulf coast of Florida. This bill establishes in law a 235-mile buffer from Tampa and a minimum of 125 miles of protection from the Panhandle of Florida south through the year 2022. It provides over 300 miles of protection from Naples west. And it protects our very important military mission line. The military mission line is important to Florida because we are also blessed in Florida to host a great number of military facilities and the very important facilities in the Florida Panhandle. Eglin Air Force Base, Hurlburt Field, and the Pensacola Naval Air Station are facilities that rely on the Gulf of Mexico for training and for firing ranges, all of which would be incompatible with drilling.

Any lease within 125 miles of the coast, inside the no-drill zone, can be exchanged for new leases in deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, the critical ``Stovepipe'' area located in extreme proximity to Pensacola will be protected from oil and gas exploration through the year 2022. These are historic protections that Floridians can count on for years to come.

I would like to make clear that this is not an opening for negotiation. I am firmly committed to this deal. Anything else that subtracts from the protections for our State as laid out in this legislation is not enough for our State. This is it.

To me, this compromise is a bridge to the future. It is my hope that by 2022, and maybe long before then, we will have developed a long-term energy strategy to lessen our dependence on oil. It is that simple and something I feel very strongly about for our future.

Just last year, the Senate passed a large, bipartisan Energy Policy Act that doubled the amount of ethanol in our fuel mix to 7.5 billion gallons. The bill also included provisions that I supported that increased funding for sugarcane and cellulosic ethanol development, as well as $50 million in loan guarantees to build alternative energy plants. We must buckle down and advance the use of renewables and alternative sources of energy. We are only

scratching the surface of our future potential, and we should not limit the capacity or ingenuity of America's scientists to tackle this energy problem. However, we need a bridge to get to that future. S. 3711 is a way to keep our industries and utilities running while we find new ways to power our cars, heat and cool our homes, and create our energy-- America's energy.

As important a priority as it is to Floridians that we protect our coasts and our environment, we must be realistic about our own energy demands. It is a difficult thing--and it has been a difficult thing as I have tried to fight for Florida's environment--to stand here and say we want no new drilling, we want no drilling anywhere in the gulf, when Florida's size alone makes it one of the Nation's largest consumers. And these consumers are Florida's families who are struggling to fill their cars and heat and cool their homes. These are struggling families who sit around the kitchen table while they balance their family budget and find the budget busted by ever-increasing energy costs. The rising cost of fuel and the strains that this is placing on their pocketbook are dominating talk of America's families.

In addition, we have to keep in mind how critical energy is to many of our industries that help drive the economies of our State. As a member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I have heard countless testimony from our Nation's chemical, fertilizer, and manufacturing industries that are vitally dependent on increasing natural gas supplies within our Nation. Unlike petroleum, which is traded globally, much of the natural gas market is traded on a regional basis, and U.S. natural gas prices are among the highest in the world. For example, Florida provides 75 percent of the phosphate fertilizers used by American farmers and gardeners every day. The Florida phosphate industry is one of the State's oldest and largest economic engines, accounting for more than 6,000 direct jobs. The Tampa Port Authority estimates that that industry has created more than 41,000 indirect jobs and $5.9 billion of economic impact in the Tampa Bay region alone.

Prior to the significant increases in natural gas prices, the U.S. nitrogen industry typically supplied approximately 85 percent of U.S. farmers' nitrogen fertilizer needs. As a result of the continuing natural gas crisis, farmers have been forced to import more than 50 percent of the nitrogen fertilizers they use. In total, at least 21 nitrogen fertilizer production facilities have closed since July of 1998. Sixteen of those plants have closed permanently. That represents a 25-percent drop in total U.S. production capacity, while five plants remain idle even today. S. 3711 will provide over 5.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas for our impaired industries, utilities, and also my constituents who are dealing with soaring heating and cooling bills.

I would like to focus now on a series of concerns that have been raised regarding this bill, how it is different and, in my opinion, better than OCS legislation recently passed in the House of Representatives. Let me say, first, that my colleagues in the Florida delegation worked tirelessly to find and obtain the best protection possible for our State under very difficult circumstances. Some have questioned the protections afforded to the buffer zone around Florida. The buffer zone provided by S. 3711, in my opinion, is clearly preferable to any other one that has been offered as an alternative. This legislation ensures that the Federal Government will continue to have jurisdiction over the Federal waters off each State's coast. We do not cede the responsibility of energy development, environmental protection or military preparedness to the desires of State legislatures. The buffer zone in the Gulf of Mexico is good through the year 2022 and also prohibits drilling in our military critical training areas.

Some have asked why Florida's Atlantic coast is not included in this bill. I would say, quite simply, that Florida's Atlantic coast has been under relentless attack for the last year and a half by those who want to drill. The Atlantic coast of Florida is still under a Presidential withdrawal until 2012, as well as the entire eastern and western coasts of the United States. This means that until the year 2012, the eastern coast of Florida is safe. Our compromise legislation in no way weakens the existing coastal protections. The House-passed OCS bill removes the entire Presidential withdrawals off of every coast and forces State legislatures to pass legislation every 5 years to keep or extend those protections.

Other coastal Senators have raised their objection to S. 3711 because they want to increase coastal buffer zones in their own States. This is a focused piece of legislation that deals only with the Gulf of Mexico. Adding additional protections to areas that frankly are not promising to the energy industry should not be an impediment to moving forward with this compromise bill. To quote the old bank robber, when asked why he robbed banks, he replied: Because that is where the money is. The area being opened for exploration is the most promising area of discovery for the industry and can be leased right away.

During negotiations, I chose to focus on protecting the area of Florida under greatest pressure, and I thank my colleagues, Senator Domenici, Leader Frist, and Senator McConnell, for honoring me and Florida's environmental concerns.

The last major concern that has been raised is objection to revenue sharing with western Gulf States and targeted revenues to the stateside Land and Water Conservation Fund. It is perfectly fitting and appropriate that we share revenues with the States that produce our Nation's energy and deal with its corresponding onshore repercussions. We in Florida do not want to participate in the development of this extensive oil and gas infrastructure but recognize that others in the western gulf pay the price to bring reliable energy to the country. We share 50 percent of revenues on public land within a State's boundary, and it is fitting that we provide energy-producing States with at least similar treatment. Sharing 37.5 percent of the new OCS revenues will not bankrupt the Nation, nor increase the Nation's national debt. Currently, these areas off the coast are not being leased and are providing no revenue to the General Treasury. Keeping 100 percent of zero revenues is just that--nothing.

Finally, for those concerned with funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund, S. 3711 will provide a real boost for the program. The mandatory funding stream established under this bill does not replace appropriated funding and does nothing to disadvantage the program in the appropriations process. The President's budget request has been zeroed out the last 2 years for this program and under our compromise bill, the Land and Water Conservation Fund will provide up to $450 million or 12.5 percent of the revenues generated from the new leasing each year.

This compromise was delicate and difficult to forge. Some argue more could have been done for Florida. Others protest that Florida is afforded far too many protections, given that our State consumes nearly 20 million gallons of petroleum per day. High oil and natural gas prices are not a Republican or Democratic problem, but they are our Nation's problem. It is imperative that we pass the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act to provide Florida with the critical environmental protections it needs, as well as bringing 1.25 billion barrels of oil and 5.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to keep our industries and Nation afloat as we develop future sources of alternative energy. Failure to act is not an option. I urge my colleagues to support this well-crafted, bipartisan measure.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, we are debating the Energy bill, the bill that would allow drilling in deep sea waters off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico. We have heard a lot of conversation about that. I don't want to repeat all of the arguments that have been made, but I want to put it in a perspective that I think might be useful to some who would be watching.

Of course, we have this debate against the backdrop of $3-a-gallon gas. Everyone gets excited about that, and they say it is caused by $75-a-barrel oil, and what can we do to bring down the price of oil? The law of supply and demand determines what the price might be.

There are those who think that is determined ultimately by oil costs, but that is not true. It is determined by the world market, and the United States is only one country that is drawing on the world market and asking for this oil to fuel our economy.

We must start with the understanding that the world runs on oil right now in a variety of ways and in a variety of places, which means that everyone in the world--whether they are in China or India, in Europe or the United States--needs oil.

Why oil? Why don't we have other kinds of energy? The answer is that historically oil has been the cheapest source of the energy we need. People said: Well, let's have wind, let's have solar. Wind and solar up until now have been unable to survive unless there is a serious government subsidy for it. As soon as the subsidy is withdrawn, all of a sudden we can't afford to generate energy from these other sources because it is cheaper to generate it from oil. So we have the infrastructure for oil built up, we have the infrastructure for gasoline for our transportation system built up, and it would take an enormous investment and a great deal of time to try to change it. So people need oil.

All right. There is plenty of oil in the world, and it is relatively cheap to produce in some parts of the world. But what is known as the lifting cost--that is, what it costs to lift a barrel of oil out of the ground and put it into that tanker--for Saudi Arabia is about $1.50. You can produce a barrel of oil at a cost of about $1.50 in Saudi Arabia. The lifting costs elsewhere are much higher than that.

If we come to my home State of Utah, where we have more oil than they have in Saudi Arabia, the lifting cost to get all of that oil is around $30 to $40 a barrel because the oil is locked up in rocks known as oil shale. That is why we don't produce oil from oil shale--not because it isn't there but because it can be produced more cheaply someplace else.

Since it is a world market, people put their oil on the world markets, and the world law of supply and demand determines what will be paid for it. The key number to keep your eye on to determine what the oil is going to cost is

the excess capacity that is available. Let me explain with some numbers.

Right now, the world as a whole is using about 85 million barrels of oil a day. The world capacity to produce oil is about 86 million barrels a day. These figures are not exact. They never are. They change from day to day. But let us use them as representative figures to illustrate the point.

All right. If you are in a position where you have to be sure you can get your oil for your future needs and you look at the world situation and say: You know, there is only a million barrels a day of excess capacity out there, and that million barrels a day could disappear with the snap of a finger--a problem in Iran, a decision by the oil minister in Saudi Arabia, another outburst--explosion, if you will--by the new President of Venezuela. A million barrels a day is not enough excess capacity to guarantee me that my oil will be there when I need it, so I will bid a higher price than I normally would pay just for the certainty that the oil will be there when I need it.

So the oil goes from $50 a barrel to $60 a barrel to $70 a barrel. We have seen it approaching $80 a barrel. Then when word comes out: Well, that excess capacity is a little more than a million barrels a day. Well, I may not want to bid quite so much for the oil. And the price will settle down a little. When there are indications that the supply of oil will be more secure in the future, the price starts to come down.

This is what we see in what is called the futures markets because people are buying oil for the future. They are making long-term contracts.

All right. The key ingredient in bringing the price of oil down is to make sure the surplus capacity above the amount of oil we use gets bigger and bigger. Right now, as I say, it is only about a million barrels per day. If it were 2 million barrels a day, if there were an additional source of oil, then the price would come down because you would have a bigger cushion to be sure you can get your oil in the future.

Look, there is overcapacity of 2 million a day. Back in the days when oil was available for $30 a barrel or $25 a barrel, the excess capacity was 5, 6 and 7 million barrels a day. People were comfortable making long-term contracts because they knew that excess capacity would make the oil available to them.

Just as a side note, in this body, we approved, along with the House of Representatives, back some 6 years ago authority to drill in Alaska. President Clinton vetoed that bill. It takes about 6 years for that kind of investment to bring oil on line. If the bill President Clinton vetoed had been signed, we would have an additional million barrels a day of oil on line in the world right now. That would virtually double the amount of excess capability that is currently available. But that was not done. We are where we are.

That is why this bill we are debating is so important--not just for the amount of oil that is there but for the amount of increased capacity it will deliver to the world markets when it comes on line. And then what happens? Then, by virtue of that amount of excess capacity above the amount the world is using, the futures price for oil will start to come down. That is the way the law of supply and demand works. Around here we have never been able to figure out a way to repeal the law of supply and demand. That particular law trumps virtually everything else we do.

That is one of the reasons I am supporting this bill, to say the time has come for the United States to have that impact on the world price of oil by virtue of our ability to produce that additional capacity.

But there is something else here as important as oil with respect to what is available to us in what we call area 181, and I am talking about natural gas. The same thing that I have to say about the impact of excess capacity on oil applies to natural gas. Natural gas is something more than just energy. This is why natural gas is doubly important. Yes, we use natural gas to heat our homes. We use natural gas to cook our meals. We use natural gas to generate electricity. Natural gas is the fossil fuel of choice. Everyone wants it. Everyone says it is clean, it is plentiful. Historically, it is cheap. Let's put in natural gas. When everyone wants it, that means the demand for it goes up, that means the supply gets tight.

We discovered a few years ago something about natural gas that is very obvious but that some people had not realized. Natural gas is the one form of energy we cannot import. Natural gas gets imported by pipeline. The only place we can bring in natural gas once we have tapped all of the natural gas available in the continental United States is by pipeline from Canada and Mexico. There is a lot of natural gas elsewhere in the world, but we cannot bring it to the United States because it comes in by pipeline.

Now, it can be liquefied. It can be put on a ship. It can come here as LNG, liquefied natural gas, but we don't have that many ports that can receive LNG. It is a very major financial investment to build the port, to equip the port to handle LNG, to build the tankers that can handle LNG. There are those who are doing that, but in the meantime the amount of natural gas available in the American economy is confined by the rising demand.

Natural gas, the petrochemicals in natural gas, are a critical element of the chemical industry. When the price of natural gas goes up, the price of all of our chemicals goes up. It is a critical element in the fertilizer industry. We are proud of our capacity to produce enough food to feed all of America and still make it a major export, but we cannot do it if the cost of fertilizer drives farmers off the land. And the cost of fertilizer is tied to the cost of natural gas.

When you realize that in area 181 there is not only enough oil to change the balance of the overcapacity that can bring down the futures market in oil, there is also enough natural gas to have a significant impact on the price of natural gas and help us with lower costs in the chemical industry, lower costs in agriculture, lower costs with fertilizer across the board, you realize that opening this area for exploration and drilling is something that should have been done a long time ago.

We know one of the main reasons why it was not. It has to do with State interests and State concerns about what will go on. This bill very cleverly and carefully crafts a series of royalty incentives to get the States on board.

With Senator McConnell, I went down to Mississippi and then to New Orleans to see firsthand the devastation. In the presentation that Senator McConnell and I received was an exposition of the damage out in the Gulf of Mexico to those lands that have acted as some kind of a barrier for future hurricanes. That area desperately needs to be rebuilt. It needs to be rebuilt for economic reasons, it needs to be rebuilt for environmental reasons. It is in serious trouble. The State can't afford to rebuild.

But with the revenues that are in this bill for the State of Louisiana, there is a possibility that they can start to rebuild and produce enormous benefits for all of their people and for all of the country. This becomes a source of revenue that can be dedicated to that particular ecological activity that is good environmentally and good economically.

So you put it all together, you have a bill that I think should pass unanimously. I know it won't. We never do anything unanimously around here unless it is completely noncontroversial, and something of this kind always has a little controversy connected to it. It probably comes as close to being the right bill at the right time in the right place as anything we have seen.

A year ago we passed a comprehensive energy bill that has us started down the road toward increased nuclear activity with respect to creating electric power. This bill, coming a year later, is a logical companion piece to the bill we passed a year ago because it starts us down the road toward alleviating the upward pressure, the constant upward pressure on the price of oil and the price of natural gas and doing it in a way that those States that have previously resisted this kind of economic activity now say we understand and we will participate in a beneficial way. That is why this bill is bipartisan. That is why it is supported by the Senators from the States most heavily hit by Katrina and the other hurricanes that occurred.

One of the things Katrina taught us that should give us further comfort as we debate this bill is that our technology for deepwater drilling is sufficiently stable that it can withstand a

hurricane of Katrina's force and not produce any kind of an oil spill, not produce any kind of an ecological difficulty.

It is interesting to recognize the greatest ecological damages from oil spills have come from tankers bringing oil across the ocean, rather than from oil platforms drilled in the ocean. If we want to reduce our dependence upon the oil being shipped in the most dangerous way in terms of the environment, we should pass this bill and proceed with this activity.

It comes as no surprise that I express my strong support for this bill for economic reasons, for environmental reasons, and for long-term planning reasons. It is, as I say, the right bill at the right time and in the right place.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today, along with my colleague, Senator Christopher Bond, to introduce the Dam Safety Act of 2006. This legislation is designed to help prevent such tragic failures as the collapse of the privately owned Ka Loko Dam in Kauai last March in which seven people died. The legislation complements legislation that I introduced with Senator Inouye, S. 2444, the Dam Rehabilitation and Repair Act of 2006, which assists in securing and repairing publicly owned dams. Both of these bills are critical to preventing the type of devastating collapse which occurred on Kauai.

This legislation is vitally important not only to my State but to every State. There are approximately 79,000 dams registered in the National Inventory of Dams. However, there are many more dams that are small and unregulated. This bill provides funding for State dam safety programs to enhance their oversight and support abilities.

The Dam Safety Act of 2006 reauthorizes the National Dam Safety Program, NDSP, which was first established as part of the Water Resources Development Act of 1996 Public Law 104-303. In 2002, the NDSP was reauthorized for another 4 years by the enactment of the Dam Safety and Security Act of 2002 Public Law 107-310. It expires at the end of this fiscal year, so its reauthorization is imperative.

The National Dam Safety Program delivers vital Federal resources to State governments to improve their dam safety programs by providing funds for training, technical assistance, research, and support. Federal incentive grants are awarded to States to enhance their dam safety programs. In addition, funds have been used to hire staff for inspections, pay for specialized training, and develop specialized mapping in the event that a dam failure necessitates evacuation.

Of the approximately $12 million authorized for each fiscal year, $8 million is divided among the States to improve safety programs and $2 million is allocated for research to identify more effective techniques to assess, construct, and monitor dams. In addition, $700,000 is available for training assistance for State engineers, and $1 million is used for the National Inventory of Dams.

The costs of failing to maintain dams properly are extremely high. There have been at least 29 dam failures in the United States during the past 2 years causing more than $200 million in property damages. The failure of the Silver Lake Dam in Michigan in 2003 caused more than $100 million in property damage. A December 2005 dam collapse in Missouri injured three children and destroyed several homes. People caught in the path of a dam collapse are often helpless to escape.

Such was the tragic situation in Hawaii when, in March, the Ka Loko Dam, a 116-year earthen dam, on the island of Kauai suddenly collapsed during heavy rains, killing seven people. When a dam collapses, destruction is often swift and uncontrollable. In the case on Kauai, local, State, and Federal officials quickly responded to the tragedy, assisting citizens while engineers from both the State Department of Land and Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inspected the over 50 dams on Kauai. Neighbors worked together to help neighbors, and our Governor quickly requested more funds, which the legislature approved, for cleanup and additional inspections.

While most of the responsibility is at the State and local level, there is a role for the Federal Government in supplementing State resources and developing national guidelines for dam safety. The funds Hawaii receives under the program help the State's staff to acquire and maintain equipment and software to assess dam safety. It is a small amount but vitally important to my State and to every State.

I urge my colleagues to join Senator Bond and me in supporting the reauthorization of the National Dam Safety Program.

I ask unanimous consent to insert in the Record at this point a letter from the Dam Safety Coalition endorsing this legislation.

Mr. President, today I rise with my good friend and colleague, Senator Craig from Idaho, to introduce legislation to establish at least five Amputation and Prosthetic Rehabilitation Centers within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Through progressive and specialized expertise in the area of prosthetics and rehabilitation, the visible reminders of the sacrifices made by our wounded warriors will become less evident and hopefully less of a factor in their everyday lives.

Specialty care for amputees has become an even more pressing concern because of the types of injuries our brave soldiers have sustained in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Many would agree that this is not the same kind of war that other generations of veterans have fought. The use of body armor and improvements in battlefield medicine have saved more lives, but in many cases have left our soldiers with traumatic injuries. Servicemembers in the current conflicts have suffered from twice as many amputations as those who fought in past wars. Unfortunately, the incidence of multiple amputations from bomb blasts is higher in this war.

The VA health care system has only begun to see the men and women from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom who are in need of long-term rehabilitation. Indeed, these veterans are young and plan on being active for a long time. VA is well poised to take on this challenge. An ongoing study at the Providence VA hospital is looking at ``biohybrid'' limbs which are implanted into tissue and later become an integral part of the patient.

We cannot, however, forget about the war our current veterans continue to fight everyday against time and their health. Veterans struggling with diseases such as diabetes are often faced with amputation. The establishment of the Amputation and Prosthetic Rehabilitation Centers will provide advanced care to those who have endured the loss of a limb, which will help them regain full function and a better quality of life.

The centers will provide VA regional clinical facilities with cutting edge expertise in prosthetics, rehabilitation with the use of prosthetics, treatment, and coordination of care for a veteran with an amputation. By placing these centers in locations with the highest concentrations of veterans, those in need will truly benefit from these specialized services.

VA has always been a leader in progressive treatment and care. These centers will maintain VA as a leader by providing the tools and staff necessary to do so. The legislation requires that the centers must have a well-equipped and appropriately certified laboratory facility necessary to provide the most state-of-the-art and complex prosthetic devices.

With experienced prosthetists trained and certified in the area of new techniques, an accredited Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation service with trained staff in the most current prosthetic services, and a permanent modern gait laboratory located within each center, veterans are sure to receive the most advanced treatment and care.

A critical part of this legislation is that these centers will serve as resources for smaller VA hospitals which may not have all of the expertise but will certainly have the patients.

As Ranking Member of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I urge my colleagues to join Chairman Craig and myself in support of providing treatment to those in need so they can stand on their own.

Mr. President, I rise proudly today to introduce legislation that would provide assistance to those who care for our Nation's veterans. These caregivers provide a great service to our country and play a vital role in providing non-institutional long-term health care for veterans.

There is deep concern regarding the anticipated number of veterans that will need long-term care by the year 2010. In 2005, there were almost one million veterans age 85 and over, and by 2010, it is anticipated that the number of veterans in this age category will grow to 1.3 million. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will be faced with a crisis related to the demand for care of this population, and we must help VA prepare for this situation.

VA has been disturbingly inactive in instituting the long-term care provisions of the 1999 Millennium Health Care Act. The General Accounting Office has been the most critical, citing major inconsistencies across the VA system in the implementation of non- institutional care. During the Committee on Veterans' Affairs' oversight work in Hawaii, we found that the Kauai clinic lacked a home care specialist and the Maui clinic was arbitrarily limiting non- institutional care. Caregivers are crucial in bridging these gaps in non-institutional long-term care services.

With more veterans returning from combat with severely debilitating injuries, young spouses and parents have been forced to take on an unexpected role as caregivers. Many have interrupted their own careers to dedicate time and attention to the care and rehabilitation of loved ones. These caregivers do not plan for this to happen and are not prepared mentally or financially for their new role. Therefore, we must protect, educate, and lend a helping hand to the caregivers who take on the responsibility and costly burden of caring for veterans, both young and old.

This legislation serves to provide comprehensive assistance to these caregivers. By providing such services as respite care, caregivers can have time to run errands and attend to their own health concerns. They can rest easier knowing that there is someone there to care for their disabled veteran while they are out. Another service provided through this legislation is adult-day care for veterans. This serves a dual purpose in that it provides short-term supervision and also gives veterans a place to go for some camaraderie.

The last years of a veteran's life can be difficult for both the veteran and for the caregiver. This legislation would also provide hospice services so that this period is one of peace and comfort.

Other services that would support caregivers under this legislation include education, training, transportation services, readjustment services, rehabilitation services, home care services, and any other new and innovative modalities of non-institutional long-term care.

I cannot try to quantify the invaluable service that caregivers provide.

What can be done is to make funds available to carry out programs to assist them. The legislation authorizes $10 million to be allocated to individual medical facilities within VA, especially to those in rural areas without a long-term care facility, based upon the proposals submitted by the facilities. In efforts to evaluate the improvements made in caregiver assistance services, a report shall be submitted to Congress by the Secretary no later than a year after enactment of this bill. The report should include information on the allocation of funds to facilities and a description of the improvements made with the funds.

Let us meet these caregivers halfway by giving them the assistance they need to care for the veterans that depend on them. I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this effort.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.