August 1, 2006: Gulf Coast Energy Bill Passes

[Today in the Senate, the big news was the passage of S.3711, the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Bill.  It got 71 Yeas, and 25 nays.  Here's how it all went down...]

...The Senate reconvenes at 8:45 e.d.t. to resume consideration of S.3711, the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security bill.  Coverage is on CSPAN2.

[10:22 edt]

So far this morning, party heavyweights have been slugging it out in partisan fashion about the current measures before the Senate as well as larger issues, such as what each party's priorities are.  Senate Minority Leader Reid has admonished the Republicans for the Minimum Wage measure.  He says that Nevada prohibits tips as counting toward the minimum wage salary.  A state like Nevada could no longer prohibit such accounting under the minimum wage measure before the Senate.  Assistant Minority Leader Richard Durbin (IL) is also on the floor, disputing the majesty of the estate tax repeal.  

Republicans speaking so far include Majority Leader Frist (TN), Asst. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), and Senator Judd Gregg (NH).  Sen. Gregg noted that raising the minimum wage by $2.10 would be an increase of 40%, no small increase.  Sen. Gregg refers to the estate tax as "The Death Tax."

The Democrats are going heavy on the estate tax repeal effort as representative of the Republicans' priorities.

[10:27]

Sens. Reid and Durbin are having a little colloquy.  Reid notes that the Senate has spent more time this year on estate tax repeal than any other issue.

[11:59]

Sen. Jeff Sessions (AL) talked for awhile in support of the Gulf Energy Bill.  

So, too, Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN).

Now, Sen. Kent Conrad (ND) is explaining why America is "The World's Biggest Borrower."  He has graphics.  He is couching this in terms of the Republican effort to eliminate the estate tax for the wealthiest Americans.  Let's go borrow some more money from Japan and China, he says.  He posted a graphic showing that Pres. Bush has racked up more debt in his presidency than all other previous presidents combined.  Cutting revenue, increasing spending, and now cutting revenue some more, he wonders.  Sen. Conrad is the Budget Committee Ranking Member.  This is a farce, he says, a disaster for the economic strength of our country.  An estate must exceed $4m before any estate tax is due under current law he says.  Up to $7m in 2009; no estate tax in 2010.  Now a graph showing that the number of taxable estates is falling.  Of course, he is not mentioning how the estate tax will operate after 2010 if the proposed estate tax measure before the Senate is not passed.  

The U.S. borrows 65% of the money borrowed by countries in the world today, says Conrad.

Apparently, this estate tax reduction would run from 2012 to 2021.  If that's true, 2011 sounds like a bad year to die because after no estate tax in 2010, the rates will go back up in 2011, and the exemption would cover fewer estates.  According to the NYT, 18 families have lobbied Congress in the amount of $200m to repeal the estate tax.

How do you get out of debt, he asks.  You could try to do what the Germans did after World War I: inflate it away.  Inflate the value of your currency so much that you have more dollars to pay off the debt.  Sounds good except that in the hands of your citizens the purchasing power of that dollar drops markedly.  Or, you can cut spending and raise taxes, he says.  That doesn't sound so good either.  It's certainly not politically popular and therefore is not likely to happen.  It's an irresponsible proposal, he says.

[12:25]

Sen. Jon Kyl (AZ) comes on to respond to Sen. Conrad.  Kyl says let's compare those who worry about how much money the gov't has versus letting people decide what to do with their own money.  So, from this, it follows that it doesn't matter how much debt the government carries as long as its citizens have money in their pockets.  But I would say to Kyl, What if the money in the citizens' pockets turns out to be worthless...because the backer of that money, the government, is penniless, its only power being to call for the printing of more dollars...which are increasingly worthless.

[12:30]

The Senate has gone into recess.  C-SPAN2 is airing a clip from this morning's Washington Journal, including an interview with Sen. Mary Landrieu (LA).  She is the authority on the Gulf Energy Bill.  72 votes for cloture she says, which is a really strong vote.  She is talking about natural gas prices.  Now the revenue sharing.  This is the big issue.  Fairness concerns.  Landrieu really knows her stuff but I don't know that I trust her.  I feel like she's selling something.  She talks as though she's practised what she's gonna say.  

A graphic of numbers coming in from drilling leases that would be established under this bill.  It still helps reduce the deficit, she says.  Just because the federal government doesn't get it all doesn't mean it doesn't get more than it's getting now.  She's pro-drilling, basically, she says.  She supported ANWR, although she can understand opposition to it.  He asked her who her opponents were on this.  The CA senators are way up there because they are afraid that this will lead to drilling off of the California coast.  The House bill leans that way; the Senate bill does not.

She has a graphic showing that not much gas seeps into the environment upon drilling.  Only 1% of seepage is drilling-related.  63% of seepage is natural, says the graphic.

Now they are taking calls.  The first caller is an environmentalist, but from WV, and totally in support of the bill.  Landrieu is so smooth she says I haven't been to WV, but it is often on her mind.  Once we get this done, maybe we can work on something in WV she says.  Second Caller, in favor of drilling anywhere, but against federal government spending.  Leases are bidded; have to pay to bid; fed govt usually gets 100% but under this bill fed gov gets only 50%, 12% goes back to the environment.

Third caller, How can a country like Brazil be energy independent?  Can it happen?  This is the direction America must move in, she says.   We were energy indy, but in the 1960's something happened, America got off course.  We are importing from places that are dangerous.  It's dangerous to change into liquid in order to import it; the LNG ports are dangerous.  If we raise it at home, it never has to be liquified.  Also, ethanol.  It takes natural gas to make ethanol.  We'll get more information to you, but thank you for your question.  So, nothing about Brazil.

Buffer for Florida.  125 mile buffer.  A graphic of the buffer.  And, certain areas marked off for "military exercises".  So, that area cannot be drilled in.

Eroding coastline...trust fund to restore...It looks like 100 miles from LA, so Florida only gets 25 extra miles...another caller...pro-drilling...brainwashing in college...she supports drilling everywhere, has a biology degree...best friends are industry CEOs...tell the Middle East to go take a hike...Landrieu says she is correct and thanks her for sharing the perspective of a teacher...energy has to be produced, she says...[maybe she should tell people to use less energy]...

The show is wrapping up.  She warns the country that it has an attitude that nothing can hurt us and that needs to change...and there's gonna a tsunami to hit Seattle, and there's gonna be a Category Five into Long Island, so we gotta get ready...

Live senate coverage resumes at 2:15 eastern.
[12:58 edt]

[14:14 edt]

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (MD) is on the floor.  She is saying that Senators are unsure when they will vote on the pension bill, that it is being held up by the majority until the tax/wage bill is decided.  She calls for passage this week, before the recess.  Let's protect the mechanics and the pilots and stewardesses, she says.  Bring up the pension bill after we dispose of this coastal drilling issue, she says.  She yields the floor.

Now, Sen. David Vitter (LA).  He's got seven unanimous consent requests, no objection, entered into the record.

He supports S.3711, the Gulf Coast Energy Bill and he wants to dispel some myths regarding it.

[14:48 edt]

Sen. Tom Harkin (IA) spoke against the Gulf Coast Energy Bill.  He characterized it as a "missed opportunity" because it did not focus any attention on conservation efforts.  He underscored the senators' inability to offer any amendments on the bill because the majority leader brought the bill to the floor in such a way that amendments were forbidden.  He wanted to offer an amendment on CAFE standards, raising vehicle fuel economy.  He characterized it as a giveaway to four Gulf states (TX, LA, MS, and AL).  He read some lines from Harry Truman opposing a similar drilling effort.

Sen. Trent Lott (MS) came on afterward and noted that Harkin seemed to oppose the bill because it wasn't big enough.  And, that later this week, we would see Senators oppose a bill because it was too big (he is referring to the estate tax/min wage bill).

It will bring in revenue, he says.  If we don't pass the bill, there will be no revenue.  So, how can you say that the U.S. treasury is losing on this?  Lott says that the Gulf Coast states should benefit because they haven't in the past, because they have been hit by bad weather, have seen their shorelines eroded away, their estuaries tainted.  20% of the state revenue goes to local peoples, he says.  We've been getting zero for years, he says, for all the pumping and drilling in the Gulf.  We want to level it with what the West has been getting for years.  He says the measure is acceptable for Florida.  He says China is about to drill 60 miles off of the coast of Cuba which is within 60 miles of Florida.  So how can we not allow ourselves to do it?

Now Sen. Lott wants to speak about this week.  We need to put aside our pride, he says.  I wouldn't have taken this week up the way it is, he says, but somebody's gotta put it together.  This could be a real good week.  We need to produce, and we need to do it this week.  Have people not seen the number on how people view us?
Energy, pensions, working people, then there's the so-called Trifecta, three of something. A huge payoff on the trifecta:

—minimum wage
—extenders: tax credit for research and development, deduction for college tuition, capital gains rates for timber
—death tax compromise

[15:05]

Sen. Larry Craig says the Senator has just counseled me to stay calm but I paid $3.25/gallon for gas last night.  And it's government policy that's caused it.  America thought it could conserve its way out of the problem...sense of false security...he said it was stupid to take the coast off-limits for drilling...stupid...all in the name of the environment...improvements in science...not one drop of oil spilled as a result of Katrina...it was the politics of the seventies and eighties and nineties...gas was relatively inexspenive...

[15:30]

Senator Orrin Hatch (UT) supports the bill.  He also supports development of oil shale in the Western US, specifically Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.  His numbers show that the gas to be recovered under the bill will suffice to heat 6 million homes for 15 years.  

[But how much gas is this, really?  Six million homes for 15 years?  There are 110 million homes in the US, so this amount of gas is enough to last the entire country about ten months.  So that's what this measure is buying the country, ten months worth of natural gas.]

Hatch has supported conservation efforts in the past, he says.  He helped enact tax incentives for hybrid vehicles, and had to expense plenty of political capital to do so.  But he has not lost sight of the fact that the U.S. needs to produce more of its own oil and gas.

[15:35]

Now, Sen. Charles Schumer (NY).  He wants the CAFE standards.  He promises that if the Gulf Coast Energy Bill comes back from conference with the House including drilling in areas additional to those under the Senate bill, those on his side of the aisle will do everything they can to defeat it.  Let it be a warning, he says.  [The House version of the bill would allow drilling 100 miles off the coast of any state.    Such a provision would probably sink any such bill in the Senate.]

Sen. Leahy calls for an envoy, joins Sen. Chuck Hagel (NE) in doing so.  Imperfect results might come from negotiating with the likes of Hezbollah but fewer deaths will result.  We need a peacekeeping force to save lives.  We support Israel's right of self-defense.  Destroying Lebanon will not make Israel more secure.  Hezbollah might be strengthened by the destruction of Lebanon.  He yields and suggests the absence of a quorum.  The clerk will call the roll.  Mr. Akaka...

[15:48]

But here is Sen. Mark Dayton.  He is offering an amendment to the Energy Bill. He says it is his right, or should be, but because of parliamentary maneuvering by the Senate Majority leader...the tree has been filled...by such gimmicks as...changed the Bill's effective date, then changed it back again...uncalled for and unwise...mockery of Majority Leader's promise that Senate would vote on comprehensive energy reform by the end of the year...the days of this Congress are almost gone...

[17:50]

The Gulf Coast Energy Bill passed.  After it passed, Sen. Pete Domenici (NM) spoke for awhile, and said his thanks.  Sen. Frist spoke for awhile.  Sen. Reid announced that Sen. Max Baucus (MT) would not be here for the rest of the week in order to be with his family upon the death of Sen. Baucus's nephew, a marine who was killed in Anbar Province, Iraq.

Now, Sens. Ted Stevens (AK) and Daniel Inouye (HI) are talking about a defense spending bill.  This bill is for FY 2007 Defense Spending and is now before the Senate.

[17:53]

The Senate has gone into a period of morning business.  Sen. John Thune (SD) is on the floor.  He wants up to 15 minutes...[end of transmission]