Feingold addresses crude oil prices
For The Reporter • May 21, 2008
Opening statement of U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-WI, hearing on “Exploring the Skyrocketing Price of Oil” Senate Judiciary Committee
“Americans may have a hard time believing this, as they fill up their cars, but the U.S. is the third top oil producing country in the world, exceeded only by Saudi Arabia and Russia. We produce four times more oil than Iraq, three times more oil than Venezuela, and over double the production in Canada, Mexico, China, and Iran.
“And yet we have never been able to meet our needs domestically because the U.S. consumes more oil than any other country in the world. Our annual consumption of 20.7 million gallons of oil a day is three-fold the consumption level of the next highest consuming country. In short, we have an insatiable appetite. An appetite that cannot be met even by adding an amount equivalent to all the oil in the top-oil producing country of Saudi Arabia. Even President Bush famously declared the United States is addicted to oil.
“The problem is clear. Now we need solutions. We do not need economists in the room to explain the basic principles of supply and demand. Given ever-increasing global demand and predictions of continued skyrocketing oil prices, we need to start the long-term transition to renewable energy and alternative fuels. [more]