Cochran urges Democrats to allow consideration of Comprehensive Energy
Senator Cochran spoke on the U.S. Senate floor again on Wednesday, July 30, urging the Senate to take action to provide meaningful energy reform before the Senate adjourned for August. Read below Senator Cochran’s remarks on the U.S. Senate floor on Wednesday.
“Mr. President, We will soon be adjourning the current session of the Senate, and we have yet to consider any meaningful proposals to help relieve the pressure all of our constituents are feeling because of the high cost of energy. Before we return home, we should pass a bill that encourages increased production of energy here at home to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
America has responded to the jump in the price of gasoline by driving less and using less, and the price of oil has decreased significantly in the last two weeks because of this. There is a direct link between supply and demand and the price of oil. In order to pay less for oil, we must have more supply and we must have our own domestic supplies. We have been debating a bill that will not increase supply or decrease demand. The democrats continue to thwart our efforts on this subject, and we find ourselves in a logjam.
Even though oil prices have dropped some, gas prices remain at an all-time high. Americans are spending an inordinate amount of their hard-earned income on gasoline. My constituents in Mississippi spend the highest amount of their income on gasoline of any state — nearly 8%, according to the national resources defense council. The status quo is not good enough. We must act. If the price of oil can drop more than $20 a barrel in two weeks because of decreased demand, imagine what could happen if we could couple that with increased supply.
We are very lucky that we have energy resources in America to explore. Many areas offshore are currently off limits, but they hold great potential, as do the large deposits of oil shale in the rocky mountains. With our abundance of coal, we have the opportunity to utilize coal-to-liquids technology as another fuel source. We are not lacking in resources, yet we continue to be beholden to foreign oil cartels that are not producing at the rate of current worldwide demand.
We should also be making sure that nuclear power is available in the quantities that we need. Companies such as Entergy in Mississippi, have made application to build new nuclear plants. We need to ensure that the permitting process is rigorous but more expeditious.
We have the opportunity today to begin to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. But in spite of the suffering that high gas prices are creating across the country, we are not moving fast enough. Let’s get together and get this job done.”
-Senator Thad Cochran
Tags: august recess, domestic drilling, drilling, Energy Reform, energy supply, Gas Price Reducation Act, Gas prices, vote on energy reform
