The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“ENERGY POLICY” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H1873 on April 27, 2006.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ENERGY POLICY
(Mr. BLUMENAUER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, there is no small amount of irony that Republicans are now rushing to investigate high gas prices and professing themselves to be on the side of the consumer.
What is important is not what they have said in the last couple of days, but what they have done for the entire time they have been in power here in Washington, D.C. It is outrageous that the same people who are now decrying high gas prices were lavishing billions of dollars in subsidies on the same oil industry a few months ago, despite already bloated profits.
In the 1990s the Republicans even passed legislation that forbade the Department of Transportation to even study higher fuel efficiency, something that would significantly reduce demand today.
And they have expressed no outrage that the American taxpayer is being cheated out of fair payment for the oil and gas that is being taken from public lands by these same large companies.
There are real solutions. Invest in conservation, the only way to reduce immediate dependence on expensive foreign oil now. Shift the billions of dollars in oil and gas companies to renewable and alternative energy sources, and insist that the American taxpayer be given full value for the billions of dollars of oil and gas taken from public lands.
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