Ed Markey: “Does the Republican energy bill help the American consumer? Does it have any meaningful help whatsoever? Well, the…”

“Does the Republican energy bill help the American consumer? Does it have any meaningful help whatsoever? Well, the answer is no. And who do we get the answer from? We get the answer from the Department of Energy, the Bush administration. Here is what it says. It says, ``The impact of this bill analyzed in this report on total primary energy consumption is small on a fuel specific basis; changes to production, consumption, imports and prices are negligible.'' What else does it say? It says, ``In 2015 the average gasoline prices relative to the reference case are 3 cents per gallon higher and average reformulated gasoline prices are 8 cents per gallon higher than in the reference case,'' meaning today. So this bill, according to the Bush administration's own Department of Energy, is going to lead to gas prices that are 3 to 8 cents higher than today. The American people are thinking, I wonder what Congress is going to do about high gasoline prices? Well, according to the Bush administrations's own Department of Energy, this bill will increase them by 3 to 8 cents per gallon. That is a travesty.”