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[Page: H2716]  GPO's PDF
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   The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. SCHAKOWSKY) is recognized for 5 minutes.

   Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Speaker, it is Memorial Day weekend, and while gasoline prices in my district are among the Nation's highest, at well over $2.00 a gallon, in fact it was about $2.22 for regular, it still does not appear that President Bush and Vice President CHENEY have any plans to bring relief to my constituents at the gas pump.

   While big oil is getting bigger, consumers in my district and across the country are getting gouged, and the President's energy plan does nothing to address that. Instead, the administration has proposed relief for its oil industry friends.

   Big oil hit the jackpot last year, thanks to consumers in Chicago and across the country that paved the way for big oil's record profits. The top oil company profits last year went up over 100 percent on the average from the previous year, combining for almost $50 billion in profits. Now Exxon Mobile is number one on the Fortune 500 list.

   None of us should be surprised at the give-aways big oil is reaping from this administration and the Republicans. President Bush received $2 million in contributions for his campaign, and the Republican Party received over $25 million from big oil, with Enron and Exxon Mobile giving the most. It looks like those companies made the right bet.

   Mr. President, I am again calling on you to persuade, in fact to jawbone, your friends in the industry to bring these prices down now. I hope you will think about that while you are relaxing at Camp David and my constituents are cancelling their family's summer vacations.

   Mr. OLVER. Madam Speaker, will the gentlewoman yield?

   Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.

   Mr. OLVER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Illinois for yielding.

   It turns out that we are talking about a very similar sort of thing.

   I wanted to point out to people today that the President's energy plan utterly ignores a key fact; that if we are

[Page: H2717]  GPO's PDF

   One of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce oil consumption is to increase the fuel efficiency of our cars and trucks. Currently, cars and trucks guzzle 40 percent of all the oil used in the United States and they produce 20 percent of the Nation's carbon dioxide pollution. Improved fuel efficiency would protect consumers from higher prices at the gas pump, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and decrease carbon dioxide emissions.

   The gentleman from Maryland (Mr. GILCHREST), from the Republican Party, and I have together introduced, with bipartisan sponsors, a bill that would require light trucks and SUVs to meet the same fuel efficiency standards as passenger cars, gradually, by the year 2007. Once fully implemented, that would save the U.S. 1 million barrels of oil every day, reduce oil imports by 10 percent, and prevent over 200 million tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere every year.

   Before we consider drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or other ecologically sensitive areas, which could include the coastline of Florida on the West Coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico, we should first use common sense solutions like improving fuel efficiency , by simply improving the gas mileage that our cars and trucks achieve.

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