[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11] [House] [Page 15229] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]ENERGY INDEPENDENCE Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to claim Mr. Emanuel's time. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentlewoman from Ohio is recognized for 5 minutes. There was no objection. Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to point out that last Friday, the New York Times had an ad on the editorial page, the title of which was ``True Energy Security,'' and it says as a subheadline, ``Interdependence is the Surest Means of Protecting Against Energy Shocks.'' This ad was paid for by the largest energy company in the world, ExxonMobil. I called the New York Times to figure out how much money ExxonMobil had to pay for an ad in that newspaper to tell us how wonderful it is that they are charging us such high prices and that America is truly dependent on imported fuel. Believe it or not, that ad cost $44,037. I started to calculate if I gave several people in my district $20 gas coupons based on the $44,037 that they spent just on that ad in that one newspaper to try to get into our minds and turn around in our heads what is actually happening and make us think they are doing us a favor, I could have over 2,000 families in my district be able to save money through those coupons. This company made so much money last year, it blew the lid off Wall Street. They made the largest profits in the history of the New York stock market, billions and billions and billions of dollars. And are they lowering gas prices for our people? Never. They are raising them. And then they are telling us we should feel good about it. In fact, the ad says that the answer to energy security is interdependence. I wonder how much they had to pay a firm on Madison Avenue to invent that word? Because our country was not founded on interdependence on oil regimes. Our country was founded on independence. Independence, not interdependence. If you look at what is happening with our imports of petroleum, they now consume the largest share of our trade deficit with the world. Two- thirds to three-quarters of the gasoline you buy comes from petroleum that was refined from imports. That means your money, your hardearned money, is going somewhere, in the case of ExxonMobil we are talking about Saudi Arabia. And if we really look here at the last 20 years, every single year the amount of imported petroleum has gone up, to the point where now, in 2006, it is about three-quarters. America has lost her independence. Independence. I am giving this Special Order tonight because I want the American people to think about what it will take to become independent again; what it will take on the part of the leadership of the President of our country, this Congress, to help move us to a new energy age. In rural America, we know there are new biofuels on the horizon. Why isn't our government helping our butanol, our ethanol, our biodiesel producers, to guarantee their investment for 30 years, as we did when we set up rural electric and rural telephone across this country, so that small farmers can band together and have some sense that some big company like Exxon isn't going to come in and squash them if they try to put a gas pump in a town and then ExxonMobil, who is so much bigger, can come in and put a gas pump right next to them, cut the price in half, because there is no competition by these oil cartels? We need this government to help the American people transition to a new energy age. So many farmers across this country can't raise the security, they can't raise the investment dollars in and of themselves. The hurdle is too high. We need to have the kind of leadership Franklin Roosevelt gave us when we set up rural telephone and rural electric across this country and have a new rural energy initiative that would help America just in that sector modernize quickly, in the area of hydrogen fuels, in the area of new types of turbines. My goodness, we invest so much money in research across this government, that ought to be at the top of everyone's priority list. Yet the Secretary of Defense said before our committee, well, Congresswoman, energy independence isn't my job. What a wrong answer that was. The Department of Defense buys more petroleum and more imported fuel than any other organization in this country, public or private. The Department of Defense ought to be leading America into energy independence again and unhook us from our dependence on oil regimes. ____________________