Senate Proceeding on May 1st, 2007 :: 2:04:45 to 2:17:50
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1:53:47 to 2:04:45( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Mike DeWine

2:04:34 to 2:04:45( Edit History Discussion )

Mike DeWine: sure that we can meet that deadline and have an f.d.a. that is even more responsive and has more tools in the toolbox to be sure that the drugs that are out there are safe and that anything that --

2:04:45 to 2:05:02( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: that there's a system for making sure that safety is maintained and if there is a problem, that it can be corrected faster with some of the new tools in the toolbox. so again, i thank everybody

2:04:45 to 2:17:50( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Larry Craig

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Larry Craig: for their cooperation and patience on this. and i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from idaho. mr. craig: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to speak

2:05:11 to 2:05:29( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: for 10 minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. craig: mr. president, thank you very much. i'm on the floor, as others have been today, to speak to an issue

2:05:29 to 2:05:46( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: that i think is appropriate for this day and time. and i say so for a variety of reasons, but most importantly, because it is may 1. so let me put it this way because i think it sets the context

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Larry Craig: on which i'd like to speak for a few moments this morning. may day, mayday, mayday -- do you hear me calling? do you hear the frustration of the american consumer today that goes to the fwas pump and --

2:06:11 to 2:06:30( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: gas pump and pays record high gas prices? i saw prices in my state of idaho today verging on an all-time high, $3, $3.02, $3.05, depending on how far out you are from the pipe line. mayday, america, mayday.

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Larry Craig: 1923, that's when that term first came into use by frederick "big john "muckford in an airport in london, speaking in the french term, what he was saying was help me, help me, help me. and i do believe

2:06:44 to 2:07:01( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: that's what the american consumer is saying today, help me. and to the congress of the united states and to this senate senate, that sound ought to be echoing through this chamber and certainly

2:07:01 to 2:07:17( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: through the halls and the committee rooms that deal with national energy policy. we are where we are today for absence of policy and for some policy that has driven us to less production and becoming

2:07:17 to 2:07:38( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: increasingly more reliant upon someone else to produce our energy for us. and it is in that context of a mayday appeal that i speak for a few moments during this noon hour. here's what the chart shows

2:07:38 to 2:07:55( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: us very clearly. from 1890 to 2030, these are the trend lines, and in 1950, we crossed a unique point when we began to see our demand outstrip our supply, and this now, well over 50% of our consumption

2:07:55 to 2:08:13( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: is being picked up by other countries in the world that are in many instances less friendly to us than we would like it. what's happening on mayday, this mayday to a major supplier south of us, a guy by

2:08:13 to 2:08:28( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: the name of hugo chavez in venezuela, he's privatizing today all of the oil fields where our companies produce. he's bringing them into his control, into his form of petronationallism, and he's saying

2:08:28 to 2:08:45( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: the priority for venezuelan oil today is not going to be to the united states, it's going to be cuba and bolivia and nicaragua and haiti. he's going to become their supplier first, and he's also

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Larry Craig: going to leave the world bank and create the bank of the south south. now, he's our major -- one of our major suppliers, less than friendly. should not we be speaking out on mayday as he speaks out toward

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Larry Craig: energy independence, toward a greater sense of our own responsibility, toward our own consumer? what's fidel saying today? well, he didn't make the parade apparently, but he sent a letter. and castro's talking

2:09:14 to 2:09:29( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: about biofuels, and that america's shifting toward biofuels and they're going to consume all of the food supply of the hemisphere to produce energy. i find that a bit of a unique uniqueness. obviously,

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Larry Craig: while he produces some oil, he ships it off to have it refined, and hugo chavez and he are deciding that venezuela will be the largest supplier. well, there are a few of us in congress that read those

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Larry Craig: signals signals, those senses of emergency, that cry for help me that i think the american consumer is speaking out to today. our committees are working their will at this moment to add to the national

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Larry Craig: energy policy act of 2005 that will continue to push the renaissance of energy production in this country in all forms, not just the hydrocarbons, but electricity and other forms, in a way that will

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Larry Craig: increasingly make us independent and self-reliant. senator byron dorgan and i introduced the safe energy act of 2007 a month or so ago that strikes at the heart of a combination of things that will

2:10:32 to 2:10:48( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: move us further down the road toward accomplishing self-help, self-reliance, and energy independence. and in that act, we said conservation would be a part of it, as it should be. i, for the first time, stepped

2:10:48 to 2:11:01( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: out and said i would accept mandatory cafe standards on a growth rate of 4% a year to drive the auto industry into greater senses of efficiency and lead us toward greater levels of conservation.

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Larry Craig: and that was title 1 of the safe act that we think the commerce committee will mark up in the next week. we spoke to innovation and innovation in the advance of biofuels and the importance of

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Larry Craig: doing that and that we really ought to strive toward 30 billion gallons that our president spoke to in the state of the union by 2020. 15 of that being picked up by corn, but more importantly now,

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Larry Craig: 15 billion gallons being picked up by sell you'll lossic -- cellulossic fuel, to take it out of the lab and make it stained up refinery, using straw, and corn strove er and all the things that we think

2:11:58 to 2:12:15( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: ought to go on in the cellulossic area. that's type 2 of the bill and that's the area that's going to be marked up tomorrow in the energy committee. but the one that has not been marked up and that

2:12:15 to 2:12:28( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: i want to spend time on is the area of continued production of hydrocarbons in the outer continental shelf. i've called this in the past the no zone speech. let me combine "no" with "mayday "mayday." while

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Larry Craig: we're saying no, our consumers are saying help me, help me, because i'm spending more of my consumable income or i should say my discretionary income on consumables and in the form of energy at a rate and at

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Larry Craig: a level i've never had to before, and it is significantly causing the american economy to shift. here are a variety of things that we've done over the years that have shaped the outer continental

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Larry Craig: shelf capability, because in these areas that are pointed out on this map are known reserves of oil, and yet because of attitudes at the state level, environmental concerns and frustrations, much

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Larry Craig: of that production or the ability to explore within those fields has simply been taken off limits. it became the no zone, even after technology clearly proved that you can go into these waters, produce

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Larry Craig: there safely, protect the ecosystems involved, and reward the american consumer by less dependence on foreign oils and foreign reserves. this area here, this small little area was a sale and an area we

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Larry Craig: were able to put through just -- well, just the beginning of this year. and this, of course, is the area in the gulf that's being heavily drimd heavilydrilled today. these are the offshore limits.

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Larry Craig: i spoke on the floor about cuba and said that was an unacceptable thing and ought to do something about it. so for greater flexibility and opportunity in the outer continental shelf, what we're really

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Larry Craig: talking about in the safe act, that last title that is yet to be introduced, that increases biofuels with increased production is this area, better than known as the cuban basin. an area off-limits

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Larry Craig: to our producers and cuba is now moving to produce it. and they're doing so by reaching out to other countries other than ours because we have a prohibition about our companies doing business there,

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Larry Craig: and they're looking at the french and the spaniards and others and the chinese to come and drill. here's my frustration: while we are saying no all around our coastlines, just 45 miles off our coastline

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Larry Craig: the cubans have let leases for purposes of drilling. i was in cuba a few years ago visiting with their interior minister, and he said, we would want your companies here. why? because you have the best

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Larry Craig: technology. you are environmentally proven. you place this valuable ecosystem at less risk, and that we know, but our policy today denies us that.p there's an interesting little anomaly that happened, and

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Larry Craig: i praise the new secretary of interior for doing what he did. and that was to open up right off the coast of virginia an opportunity to seek natural gas and to see if those reserves are out there,

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Larry Craig: which i think will drive increased production. so today i come to the floor on mayday saying, mayday, america. mayday, because americans, a they go to the gas pump are saying, help us, help me, change the

2:16:07 to 2:16:23( Edit History Discussion )

Larry Craig: way this is happening. america, we have a great opportunity to move ourselves toward energy independence, less dependence on those unstable areas of the world where we now seek well over 50% of our hydro

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Larry Craig: hydrocarbon oil base. shame on us. that's bad policy, and we have the power to change it if we have the will to change it. and the will comes from the ability to build a complete portfolio of conservation,

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Larry Craig: new technologies, and current production in areas where we know our reserves are, by build building them up during this period of transition, as our country moves too to new technologies. great

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Larry Craig: opportunity. the only reason we're not doing it is because of resistance right here in the congress of the united states in part put on by pressure from some special interests. but my guess is that if we

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Larry Craig: listen close closely to the american consumer today, the "safe" act and all titles of the "safe" act they would agree ought to become public policy and that america clearly ought to be articulate ing

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Larry Craig: a policy of greater energy independence so that next mayday we can say, we heard you call out for help, and we're answer answering that call. mayday, america. mayday. mrs. hutchison: mr. president?

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Kay Hutchison: the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i'm pleased to be able to follow the senator from idaho, who is talking about something that is so important for our country.