Washington, D.C. – Senate Energy & Natural Resources Chairman Pete V. Domenici today called on Senate Democrats to get serious about passing an energy bill instead of passing the buck on record-high energy prices. Domenici noted that in the very week when gas pump prices broke all records, Senate Democrats still refuse to provide a list of amendments to S. 2095, the Energy Policy Act of 2003. In a colloquy on the Senate floor yesterday, Senate Energy & Natural Resources Ranking Member Jeff Bingaman refused to even agree to a number. Instead, Senator Bingaman blamed President Bush for the high energy prices and issued 13 suggestions to the President. Most of Senator Bingaman’s suggestions will not have an immediate, discernible impact on gasoline prices, Domenici said today. More importantly, these suggestions ignore the looming natural gas crisis that has crippling implications for the economy. Forty-four months of steep natural gas prices have cost American consumers $130 billion, according to the Industrial Energy Consumers of America. The energy bill is the surest, swiftest measure for addressing that problem, Domenici said. Chairman Domenici issued the following statement following a conference call with reporters: “This Senate hasn’t passed a comprehensive energy bill since 1992. Now, faced with record high energy prices, we’re blaming the White House? I reject Senator Bingaman’s tactic. It’s nothing but a strategy of stall and blame. I have been asking and Senate leadership has been asking Democrats for months to provide us with a list of proposed amendments to the energy bill. They have consistently refused. “Now, the week gasoline prices around the country break all records, Democrats still refuse to get serious about amending and passing the energy bill. Instead, they blame the President. That ploy is so transparent it is embarrassing. “Three years ago, President Bush proposed a national energy policy. We put that policy into a bill. The House has passed that bill twice. But the Senate gets completely tied in knots whenever we try to pass an energy bill. Democrats couldn’t complete an energy bill two years ago. We tried for three months last summer to pass one. We had to resort to extraordinary measures, resurrecting the Democrat’s old bill, to even get to conference. Now, this Senate won’t pass the conference report. “I have stripped out the measures Democrats have complained about and still, in the facing of skyrocketing energy prices, Democrats refuse to engage in a serious discussion about energy. “Senate Democrats, not President Bush, have failed the American people. Telling the President to fix the problem is a classic case of blaming someone else for our failings. I won’t buy into that. “My staff has reviewed Senator Bingaman’s suggestions. Most of them won’t make an immediate or discernible difference in energy prices. I agree with his suggestion that BLM address its long-standing backlog of drilling permits, but that is already being done. BLM announced this week that it has gotten through a backlog of 1,450 permits in the last six months. Most of BLM’s backlog is in the Wyoming office. The office announced yesterday that it’s caught up on that backlog. “Senator Bingaman calls for a rulemaking for managing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a high-price environment. We have a rule. SPRO draw-down authority rests with the President of the United States. The law says he can draw down SPRO during a “severe energy supply disruption” and gives criteria for such a disruption. “Some of Senator Bingaman’s suggestions might shave a few pennies off the price of gasoline, but are bad policy. For example, he suggests we suspend deliveries to SPRO. SPRO is a national security asset; we didn’t create it as a short-term price fix. Right now, we’re 60 percent dependent on foreign oil and in the middle of a war. It’s the wrong time to stop filling SPRO. “A few of his suggestions are good ideas and might make a difference. I wouldn’t oppose them. I agree we should press OPEC to increase oil production. I would support revisions in state boutique fuel specifications, but the real fix is contained in the fuels package in the energy bill. If we get rid of the 2 percent oxygenate requirement – and my bill does – we get rid of the boutique fuel problem altogether. “If Senator Bingaman really wants to make a difference in energy prices for the American people, I invite him to get serious about passing the energy bill. My esteemed colleague announced plans to offer nearly 50 amendments to the energy bill last summer. No other senator had more. Yesterday, he refused to agree to limit the number of amendments to this energy bill. That’s not a serious effort to address energy prices. That’s partisan politics.” ###