Ed Markey

Mr. MARKEY

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I would like to have my time evenly divided between myself and the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson) for purposes of control.

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, again, 2,000 acres rolled out, and that is what the oil and gas companies are going to do. Rolled out in the form of roads, of oil wells, of feeder roads, of gravel pits, turns into something that looks like this, according to the Department of Interior. This is the actual pipelines and roads that will be built, and then the pink area is obviously the affected area, because you have deployed it. Now, I know the Republicans think arsenic is not that bad for people, I understand that, because this is arsenic for the Arctic Wilderness, and you are serving it up, even though you rejected any real improvement in fuel economy for SUVs, for air conditioners, or for anything else that would make it unnecessary for us to go here. Prudo Bay, they heard the same promises in 1972, and it turned into an environmental nightmare. The same thing will happen here.

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, there are $34 billion worth of energy tax breaks in this bill, but they do not pay for them at all. Now, we do not have a surplus any longer, and so what the majority is doing is setting up an oil rig on top of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, because the only way that this bill, worth $34 billion, can be paid for, is by drilling into the Medicare and Social Security trust funds. Vote for the Thurman recommittal motion and protect the senior citizens of our country from having a pipeline built into their pockets and having every senior citizen pay for this energy bill for the biggest oil companies in our country.

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the Sununu amendment.

Mr. MARKEY. I will be glad to respond. Yes, I am using the Department of Interior analysis.

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson).

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Boehlert). (Mr. BOEHLERT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone).

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee). (Mr. INSLEE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr).

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Rahall), the ranking member of the Committee on Resources.

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. MARKEY

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman).

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, the fuel economy standards in the United States are going down. In 1986, we peaked at about 26\1/2\ miles per gallon, and we have been going backwards ever since. Now, if we have an energy crisis, should we not look at where we put two-thirds of all of the oil that we consume in the United States? It goes into gasoline tanks. If we want to do anything about an energy crisis, we have to look at gasoline tanks. Now, our amendment just takes America back pretty much to where it was in 1986. This is not rocket science. This is auto mechanics. Every high school in America has a course on this. Do not tell us this is going to cause some huge, unbearable burden to be imposed upon the auto industry. The burdens are upon the American people. We are importing too much oil. The environmental consequences? Well, the President says he cannot comply with the Kyoto Treaty. Well, if we do not do anything about automobiles, we are not going to do anything about Kyoto. The American Lung Association says that there is a dramatic increase in lung disease, in asthma, especially among young children in this country. If we do not do anything about automobile emissions into our atmosphere, we are not doing anything about the American Lung Association's top agenda item. So I say to my colleagues, we have a choice. All we are asking is that we improve by 1.3 miles per gallon the American auto fleet from where it was in 1986, and we give them until 2007, 21 years, to make that huge technological leap. We do not want to hear another word about the energy crisis, about how you cannot comply with Kyoto, about how you care about all the additional health care consequences in the country, if you cannot find some way of dealing with what is obviously the major cause of most of the problems in the environment in our country.

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett).

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey).

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Sawyer).

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Harman). (Ms. HARMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver).

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo).

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute. Mr. Chairman, in 1974, the average for automobiles and light trucks in the United States was 12.9 miles per gallon. There was an energy crisis. In 1975, Congress responded. And they increased to 26.2 miles per gallon the fleet average. But believe it or not by 1981 they had already reached 24.6 miles per gallon, almost a doubling. Today, it is back to 24.7 miles per gallon. Our amendment, the Boehlert-Markey- Shays-Waxman amendment increases the average up to 27.5 miles per gallon, a 1.3-mile-per-gallon increase since 1987. We have deployed the Internet since then, the human genome project, the Soviet Union has collapsed. We are arguing for a 1.3-mile-per- gallon increase since 1987, by the way, equal to how much oil is in the Arctic wilderness if you want to avoid having to vote to drill in that sacred land.