Pete Domenici: “we are here on the floor of the Senate, it seems to me, proposing a set of rules that would like to gouge for oil bucks…”

“we are here on the floor of the Senate, it seems to me, proposing a set of rules that would like to gouge for oil bucks, gouge for oil royalties. Let me state for the Senate a couple of facts about oil production in the United States and about the cost of oil that I believe are startling. First of all, about 3 weeks ago--I don't know what the exact measurement is today--one of my staff members drew some comparisons in terms of what oil is worth today, what gasoline is worth today for our automobiles and for our Nation. If you go to a supermarket, I say to my friend from Illinois, or if your wife does, and she buys bottled water, she will pay more for a gallon of bottled water than Americans are paying for gasoline for their cars. That is good economics for America, but it is bad economics for America's oil independents, for America's independent producers. Because, just as that truism indicates that gasoline and oil producers have been at an all-time low for the last 5, 6 or 7 years, oil production is going down in the United States. Many independents who have been stalwarts are literally saying they do not know if they can make their bank payments for 1 additional month.”