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Federal Document Clearing House
Congressional Testimony
June 15, 2000, Thursday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 2047 words
HEADLINE:
TESTIMONY June 15, 2000 JDFF BINGAMAN SENATOR SENATE ENERGY
& NATURAL RESOURCES ENERGY SECURITY
BODY:
June
15, 2000 Statement of Senator Jeff Bingaman With the price of oil just under $33
a barrel and natural gas prices above $4 per MMBtu, energy is once again a hot
topic receiving considerable press, consumer and political attention. It's easy
to start trying to place blame, especially in a politically charged election
year, but the reality is there has not been the collective will to make the
difficult decisions to address the problem. I agree that for too long the U.S.
has not made an adequate commitment to sustaining our domestic production. But
there are two sides to the oil market equation. If we are going to reduce the
impact of volatile prices on the U.S. economy and our energy security, we have
to address both sides. I am happy to see Senator Bennett Johnston here this
morning. When he was chairman of this Committee in 1991, he put together a
bipartisan energy package that was ultimately enacted as the Energy Policy Act
of 1992. The bipartisan package he introduced included opening ANWR to oil and
gas development, but on the other side it included a strong CAFt and alternative
fuels program. I note there is nothing in S. 2557 that will reduce demand for
oil in the transportation sector either through increased fuel
efficiency standards or through incentives' for alternative fueled or
hybrid vehicles. Yet, our demand for gasoline as a transportation fuel continues
on a steep upward trend. The Energy Information Administration forecasts it will
increase unabated for the next 20 years. U.S. petroleum consumption is projected
to increase by 6.2 million barTels per day (mbd) over the 1998 level by the year
2020, of that 5.4 million barrels is for transportation. Since 1995, there has
been a moratorium on even studying the issue of increasing fuel economy for
sport utility vehicles. The market share for SUV's and other light trucks as a
percentage of all passenger vehicles was 30% in 1988, today it is nearly 50%.
The average fuel economy of those vehicles in 1998 was only 20.9 mpg versus 28.7
for cars, almost 40% lower. As light trucks and SUV's have increased in market
share, the overall fuel economy of the new vehicle fleet has declined
dramatically. We had a debate last year on whether we should lift the moratorium
and at least start to consider how those vehicles can be made to use less gas.
We are probably going to vote again later today on a resolution opposing that
moratorium. We used to have a tradition of working on energy issues on a
bipartisan basis, we tried to do that with S. 1833, a bill introduced last year
by Senator Daschle. That bill was the result of a serious effort to find a broad
based, bipartisan package to address both energy production and - consumption
needs. In the end, in spite of significant support from outside stakeholders, no
Republicans were willing to cosponsor the bill. In an effort to promote a more
diverse and robust mix of domestic energy sources, the bill addresses a broad
range of technologies and industries, including energy efficiency throughout the
economy, clean coal, and domestic oil and gas production, alternative fueled and
hybrid vehicles, renewable energy and other types of distributed generation. I
hope the witnesses today will comment on the various provisions of S. 1833 as
well today. Finally, I want to express my concern about the partisan tone
discussions of energy policy have taken recently. In particular, I think we need
to recognize that this Administration has done some positive things for domestic
production, including supporting the OCS Deep Water Royalty Relief Act in 1995.
1 think Senator Johnston will attest to that. Also, the Administration has
extended royalty reductions to onshore marginal and heavy oil production to
ensure optimum recovery. The Administration also proposed and pushed through the
privatization of the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve. That effort earned $3
billion dollars for the Treasury and put the operation of the field into the
hands of the private sector, where it belongs. The Administration and the
Department of Energy have also worked hard at trying to develop a consensus on a
comprehensive approach to restructuring the electricity industry. I am looking
forward to the testimony of the witnesses and some serious discussion in the
question and answer section.
LOAD-DATE: June 20, 2000,
Tuesday 
