FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: International Relations Committee Democratic Staff

        Washington, DC.–June 27, 2000. U.S. Rep. Sam Gejdenson, Ranking Member of the House International Relations Committee, issued the following statement today at a full committee hearing on rising gas prices and U.S. policy towards OPEC:

"This hearing could not have come at a more critical time. With the July 4th weekend fast approaching, and gas prices surging to between $1.80 and $2.00 per gallon in eastern Connecticut and as high as $2.50 in the Midwest, we need some answers.

But first, we ought to look back at what steps the Republican-led Congress has taken over the past six years to head off the energy crisis. One of the earliest initiatives was a plan to abolish the Energy Department. But it got worse. When we take a look at where we are today as a nation, this Congress has continued to prohibit the Administration from increasing the standards of efficiency on automobiles. This is not simply as bad as living with the status quo, because as Americans moved from cars to trucks, it actually reduced our overall fleet average.  And if you want to create new energy and you want to do it quickly and efficiently, then you also ought to realize that by increasing our fleet average by 1 mile per gallon, would save 12.5 million barrels of oil a year.

Back in the 60s, a Corvette got 9 miles to the gallon. Today that same car -- more powerful and faster-- gets 27 miles to the gallon. Why? Because after the last major Energy Crisis, Congress and the Administration forced the automobile industry to increase its fuel efficiency by increasing vehicle efficiency standards -- not as this Congress has done by blocking the Administration from increasing vehicle efficiency standards.  This is extremely short-sighted because raising the average fuel economy of our cars and trucks just by one mile per gallon will save about 250 million gallons of gasoline each year.
 
The oil companies keep running to us with new mergers, arguing for increased efficiency. But the only efficiency I see is that oil companies are now more efficient at ripping off the American people.

The first quarter profits before the most recent increase in gasoline prices indicated that some of these companies are increasing earnings by as much as 500 percent. And while we should continue to question the actions of our allies in the Gulf, we also need to keep in mind that these American corporations are taking advantage of America and damaging this economy in a conspiracy that will hurt all of us.

We are in a difficult situation in the Northeast, the one place where I think the Administration has not moved fast enough. Last year, in February, when we saw escalating energy costs in New England, I predicted that the heating oil crisis would become a gasoline crisis in the summer. And I can tell you now that come Wintertime, we're bound to see this gas crisis turn into another heating oil crisis.

Congress must reauthorize the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and create a Northeast Heating Oil Reserve. While the House passed legislation, Senator Lott has been sitting on it for 76 days.

The reality is this: when gas prices are high, you can choose to drive less. You may even be able to carpool. But when heating oil prices get to a point where citizens can't afford to heat their homes, we endanger their lives and security.

As far as many of my Republican colleagues are concerned, the solution to higher energy costs is to take away environmental protection laws, and the standard of emissions into the atmosphere. That is unacceptable.

We need to make sure that we invest in alternative energy that will give us clean energy and make this country independent. We have squandered the twenty-some years since the last major energy crisis. Let's hope that the crisis we're facing now will move this Congress from a routine of weekly hearings to concrete legislative action."