Statement of Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member
Committee on Energy and Commerce

HOUSE AND SENATE BEGIN CONFERENCE
ON ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 2005

July 14, 2005

Mr. Chairman, thank you.  I congratulate you for being named the Chairman of this conference.  I am satisfied that you will preside with great fairness and decency.  I commend you for your commitment to hold open meetings on this conference that will include Members from both sides of the aisle.  That is, of course, as you might know, a refreshing change from the events of last year.

I would like to express a small concern on the part of the Minority that the conference is getting off to an inauspicious beginning in that the ratio of Democrats to Republicans doesn't match up to that which we found in the last two Congresses, which were 7-5 and 8-6; now, it is 11-7.  I think, Mr. Chairman, given your talent and given the way the place works, I don't think you need to necessarily have that big a cushion.  But that will not deter us on this side from trying to work fairly with you and to work together to achieve a bill which will be acceptable to the country and the broad public interest, and which will enable us to go home and tell our people that we have served the public interest in a way that they and we may be proud of.

In any event, I am pleased about the fact that we will be having open markups and discussions.  It is good, and it does you credit, Mr. Chairman

I also want to point out, as you will recall, that this was the way you conducted the business of the Committee when we were marking up the legislation, and as you recall, we on our side, although we deferred in many instances with regard to the specifics of the legislation, did not in any way seek to derail the orderly processing of the legislation.

I want to say that this is a bit of deja vu for me.  I am pleased to see old friends like Pete Domenici, Ranking Member Bingaman, my friend Mr. Thomas, and other members of this Committee and other Committees back in this room to commence writing another energy bill.  We have been doing that for a long time.  I am hopeful that this will be, again, as I have said, a good one and one which will serve the interests of the country.  We hope that we will be able to work together to develop consensus on matters on which we can agree, avoid extraneous matters which will delay our progress.  And I would point out that with gasoline prices, as you have observed, averaging $2.30 per gallon, and crude oil at more than $60 per barrel, we have little time to dally on special interest programs and provisions that may not do anything for the average American.

I would note that we entered the third summer since a major blackout of the Northeast and Midwest.  We do have consensus recommendations for electricity reliability.  I am hopeful that we will be able to move forward on them, because they are of exquisite importance to the people and to the country.

I would note a couple of things.  Last time we considered this legislation, we were not successful.  Perhaps that is a good thing.  I would note the Administration's own Energy Information Administration told us that the conference report of the last Congress would have actually raised gasoline prices, while having a negligible impact on oil imports.  I believe we can and should do better, and I hope that we will do so.

I note that it would be my expectation and that of most of my Democratic colleagues that we will be voting "no" on provisions hurtful to the consumers, hurtful to the environment, and hurtful to the taxpayers.  We will focus on matters that will be truly helpful to the country.

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(Contact: Jodi Seth, 202-225-3641)