Wendy Sherman: “If it is an infrastructure bottleneck, it is also a cause for antitrust investigation, because there has been an…”

“If it is an infrastructure bottleneck, it is also a cause for antitrust investigation, because there has been an explosion in the profit margin that refiners are generating. It may be that, as we have seen problems in the generation of electricity, that we may also have supply being artificially constrained. I would say that OPEC is probably charging 10 cents to 20 cents a gallon more than is fair, and that is a problem. But when we are paying $2 a gallon, as they do in my State, the 20 cents that is going to OPEC, which, after all, foreign countries are relatively hard to control, is not necessarily the focus of our attention. Of course, when President Bush was running for office, he said that a United States President who was strong could get OPEC to cut their prices just by lifting up the phone. Obviously, he has changed his mind on the definition of strength, and, as other speakers have pointed out, has been unwilling to make that call. I would like to comment on a few of the other points that have been made, if the gentleman will continue to yield. We have talked about the importance of conservation. I should point out that America has produced four times more energy through efficiency, conservation, and renewables than we have from all other new sources of energy over the last 20 years. Over the last 20 years, we have saved $180 billion on our energy bills because of this conservation.”