Ben Cardin: “so many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have come to this floor to talk about the need for this Nation to…”

“so many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have come to this floor to talk about the need for this Nation to become energy independent. In fact, I think each Member of this body believes this country should be energy independent and can become energy independent. We need to be independent for many reasons. First and foremost is the issue of national security. We should not be dependent for oil upon some country halfway around the world that disagrees with our foreign policy, which affects what we can do internationally. We should be independent for national security reasons. We should also be energy independent for economic reasons. Yesterday in the Small Business Committee we held a hearing on the impact that increased gasoline prices are having on small businesses in our communities. It is having an impact on our entire economy. Again, the OPEC countries decide what the price of oil will be and it affects gasoline prices, energy prices, and our economy. We need to become energy independent for the economic security of America. Yes, we need to become energy independent for environment issues. Global climate change is a real danger to this country and we need to have an energy policy that will also make us friendlier toward our environment. For all these reasons we need to become energy independent. We are not today. We import from other countries over one-third of our energy needs in this country and, of course, a significant amount of that is oil.”