Sherwood Boehlert: “Mr. Chairman, I think all Members know what this amendment is about. In fact, we had a lengthy debate on a similar…”

“Mr. Chairman, I think all Members know what this amendment is about. In fact, we had a lengthy debate on a similar amendment by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) and I when the energy bill came up just 2 years ago. So many of my colleagues may be wondering why do we have to have this debate again. Well, a lot has changed in the intervening 2 years, changes that make this amendment even more important and even harder to oppose. What has changed? First, over the past 2 years our Nation's oil consumption has continued to rise, and we have become even more dependent on foreign oil. Guess what most of that oil is used for? Transportation. Not electricity generation, not home heating, not industrial production, but transportation. As the chart beside me shows, domestic production can provide the oil we require to meet almost all of our needs except transportation. And our demand for oil for transportation just gets larger and larger and larger. We have an insatiable appetite. But that does not have to be the case. Other sectors of our economy have become more oil efficient, but transportation has not. What else has changed over the last 2 years? We have finally learned that SUVs are not a boon to safety.”