Senator Cochran cosigned a letter sent to the Bush administration by Senators Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski on August 1.  The letter urged the federal government to explore the potential oil reserves contained in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).  It requested that President Bush issue an executive order requiring the U.S. Geological Survey to conduct a seismic survey of ANWR’s coastal plain. 

CLICK HERE to read the letter sent to the Bush administration.

Senator Cochran, Ranking Republican of the Senate Appropriations Committee, took the Senate floor on Thursday, July 31, to highlight the failure of the Democrat-led Senate to fulfill its annual appropriations responsibilities or act on meaningful energy reform.

Last week the Senate halted action on the Fiscal Year 2009 Appropriations process because of hesitation from Democrats to vote on appropriations provisions regarding domestic oil production. 

For weeks, Republican Senators have been advocating for consideration of legislation, both in the Appropriations Committee and on the Senate Floor, that would allow for further domestic oil exploration as well as energy conservation.  However, the Senate adjourned last week without a vote on drilling.  The Democratic leadership in the Senate refused to allow the vote to take place on the pressing issue.  This vote was prevented for several reasons:

• The Democratic leadership opposes increasing domestic oil production, and they do not want to be against the 70 percent of Americans who are in favor of it. 80 percent of Mississippians are in favor of domestic drilling as well.  Who would want to be against those numbers?
• The Democratic leadership recognizes that several Democratic senators would vote alongside every GOP senator in support of the bill.  This would result in allowing the bill to pass.
• Also, they know that Senator Obama would vote against that bill, therefore, they don’t want to risk allowing Obama to cast the unpopular vote.

The full text of Cochran’s remarks on the U.S. Senate floor is provided below. 

“Mr. President, two weeks ago today, the Committee on Appropriations marked up three Fiscal Year 2009 appropriations bills.  Those bills would provide funding for programs ranging from agricultural research to veterans health care, and from foreign aid to the infrastructure that supports our men and women in the Armed Forces.  While some members of the Committee had concerns about the overall spending levels in those bills or individual provisions within them, the Committee reported the measures by broad, bipartisan votes.  Those votes reflect the Committee’s collective belief that it has a fundamental responsibility each year to draft, debate, and report to the Senate its spending recommendations for the day-to-day operations of our government.

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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.

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Senator Cochran released the following statement yesterday urging action on comprehensive energy legislation:

“The Democrat-led Congress is currently preventing the consideration of comprehensive energy legislation that would result in reduced gasoline prices.  It would be irresponsible for Democrats to allow Congress to adjourn for August recess without providing mechanisms through which to ease the burden that has been placed on Americans because of skyrocketing gas prices. 
 
“The United States has been dependent on foreign oil for too long.  We must take action to explore the oil reserves that are in our own country and to find alternative sources of energy.  The Gas Price Reduction Act lays the groundwork for real energy independence for our nation.  I urge Congress to work together on this legislation to provide real and immediate relief for Americans.” 

Also, read the article by the Daily Journal below on the issue:

EDITORIAL: Energy policy work

7/17/2008 4:53:46 AM
Daily Journal
 

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Tupelo, Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Jackson/Oxford, and 1st District Rep. Travis Childers, D-Booneville, appear to have considerable common ground in their goals for short- and long-term energy supply and energy independence action by Congress.

All three said this week they support opening drilling for additional oil off the Outer Continental Shelf (which includes waters off Mississippi), opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s reserves to production and immediate action on developing alternate, non-petroleum energy sources.

They also said they want Congress to stay in session and work toward passage of effective energy legislation, rather than take the usual August recess, or as long as it takes.

We agree generally, and we hope their separate but similar positions signal an emerging bipartisan consensus in both chambers of the U.S. Capitol that business as usual isn’t acceptable in the treacherous energy and economic climate our nation faces.

The Daily Journal and other newspapers reported Wednesday that steadily climbing food and energy prices shoved consumer prices during June at one of the fastest rates since the early 1980s.

Click here to read the full article in the Daily Journal.

GAS PRICE REDUCTION ACT OF 2008

Thursday, the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008 was introduced on the U.S. Senate floor by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and 42 Senate Republicans.  Senator Cochran is a cosponsor of this bill and is confident that the measures included will reduce the cost of gas for Americans and lessen the United States’ dependence on foreign oil.   

The proposed language includes several measures:  opening new areas for deep sea exploration and oil shale development in the Rocky Mountain West, expanding research for alternatively-powered vehicles, and enhancing the capabilities of the commodities futures market.

“FIND MORE, USE LESS”

Republican Senator Lamar Alexander says, “Our bill can be summed up in four words: Find more, use less.”

Republican.senate.gov says “To find more, the bill allows coastal states the option to explore for oil and natural gas offshore and lifts a federal moratorium on oil shale in western states.  To use less, the bill provides incentives for plug-in electric cars and trucks so that we no longer need to use as much gasoline to power our vehicles.”

Summary of provisions of Gas Price Reduction Act 2008:

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June 13, 2008

Senator Cochran spoke on the Senate floor yesterday regarding rising gas prices. 

The full text of Senator Cochran’s remarks are below:

“Madam President, The high cost of gasoline has had a crippling effect of the economy of my state of Mississippi. The people in my state, where earnings are below the national average, are simply not able to keep up with the rising cost of living.
 
High gasoline prices not only increase the cost of going to work, they also result in increased costs of food and other consumables. As a constituent who called my office yesterday said, “I can stand the high price of gas, but my utility bills have stretched me to the breaking point.” The Daily Journal, a newspaper in Northeast Mississippi quoted another constituent, Jennifer Skinner of Tupelo as saying, “working class people can barely make it. I’m a single mom with three kids.”
 
Madam President we’ve been very fortunate that our farmers have been getting record prices for corn, soybeans and wheat, and other commodities as well over the last two years. And while the value of these commodities are high, energy costs have caused the inputs for farm operations to rise significantly. This has affected cost of fertilizer, pesticides, electricity, and the diesel fuel that farmers used. As a result farmers who have worked so hard to produce food at a lower coast to the consumer than any other country are not able to sustain their farming operations. These high prices and high costs have created a cycle of higher food costs that have been added to the burden of my constituents.
 

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