Joe Lieberman: “I rise to support the Carper-Specter amendment. We come today to offer America a clear path away from foreign oil…”

“I rise to support the Carper-Specter amendment. We come today to offer America a clear path away from foreign oil dependency and toward a newly energized economic future, and that is a new goal for fuel efficiency of cars and trucks. America can start engineering itself out of its oil dependency if we make it a priority. This amendment would do just that by setting a bold but realistic goal of reducing our projected dependence on oil by one million barrels a day by 2015, thereby reducing our reliance on imported oil. There's no debate that we must change the status quo. According to the Energy Information Administration, in 2001, the U.S. consumed 18 million barrels of oil per day. Automobiles and light trucks used 68 percent of the total, or 12.25 million barrels per day. The EIA estimates total U.S. consumption of between 25 and 28 million barrels per day by 2020. The majority of that oil comes from other nations. In 2001, the U.S. imported 9.1 million barrels of oil per day. Approximately 1.65 million barrels per day came from Saudi Arabia and 0.82 million barrels per day came from Iraq. The question before us today is, Do we keep our blinders on and barrel along doing business as usual, knowing full well that we're headed in the wrong direction, or do we have the foresight to change course? President Bush and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle know we have no choice but to change course.”