Bill Nelson, U.S. Senator from Florida: Statement: Forum Club of the Palm Beaches

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to speak to you today about the long-term security and safety of our nation. But the events of this day five years ago bear remembering first.

Today is a day once again for all the people of this country to share the pain of our national loss on September 11, 2001.

We still share the pain with the families of thousands of innocent people who lost their lives when cowardly terrorists struck in New York City and Washington.

And we cannot forget the courage of our firefighters who gave their own lives. God bless them and keep their souls.

Sadly, we will face similar tragedies in the future. We haven’t seen the end of terrorism; and, we haven’t seen the end of cowardly and brutal acts.

In today’s world, we must focus our attention on securing our borders and ports, protecting our transportation system and expanding intelligence gathering.

As a nation, we can, and we must, do more to keep terrorism from infringing on our way of life.

In this effort we also must confront our troubling dependence on foreign oil.

Until we break free from our oil addiction, we will remain reliant on unstable and undemocratic governments thousands of miles from home.

The unfortunate fact is America has only about 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves, but still consumes one-fourth of all the oil produced on earth.

Under these circumstances, we will always be dependent on Middle East oil, or on other oil-rich countries, like Venezuela, led by Hugo Chavez.

We will – unless we act, and act now to make America energy independent in ten years.

We must act because this dependence constitutes an explicit threat to the peace and security of all Americans.

A year ago, a group of former high level officials, including a former EPA Administrator and a former CIA Director, conducted an economic and military war game, called Oil Shockwave.

The simulated scenario was created to explore the potential security and economic consequences of an oil supply crisis.

The simulation started by assuming that political unrest in Nigeria, combined with unseasonably cold weather in North America, contributed to an immediate global oil supply shortfall. This sent prices to over $80 a barrel.

The simulation then assumed that three terrorists struck ports and processing plants in Saudi Arabia and Alaska.

Oil prices immediately soared to $123 a barrel - and $161 barrel six months later.

With a gallon of gas then costing about $6, the country goes into recession, millions of jobs are lost and the average household pays almost $3,000 more each year for fuel.

You can see why some of us in the Senate have been strongly advocating for a dramatic increase in the production of alternative energy vehicles and alternative fuels, like ethanol. It’s the best way we can make America independent of Middle East oil.

It was about 30 years ago now that people first saw long lines at the pump and the price of gas skyrocketing; and, the president then declared we would have energy independence.

Well, a few months ago, Brazil – not the United States – announced it would achieve energy independence this year – a goal U.S. leaders have sought since the first oil crisis of the 1970s.

In Brazil, drivers are filling up their cars with ethanol, instead of gasoline.

And today in America, President Bush says, “We have a serious problem. America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world ."

Well, it’s not the American people who are addicted to oil. It’s the administration that’s addicted to oil.

Further, the president’s words are not backed up with the tough policy changes needed to make a real difference.

The administration’s emphasis is on drilling, a strategy many experts say won’t make a dent in the U.S. oil problem.

Even the new Chevron find in the deep Gulf of Mexico, southwest of New Orleans, will have relatively little impact. The federal agency that oversees drilling tells me it’s too early to know whether the find will increase our share of the world’s reserves at all.

That means after ten years we likely will still have no more than 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves. Yet we’d still be using 25 percent or more. We cannot drill our way out of this problem. We must take more dramatic steps, including conservation. First, we must confront some powerful interests, including the oil lobby. There should be a congressional investigation of oil company profits. Next, more hybrid vehicles, and alternative fuels, such as ethanol made from cost-effective crops, would make a huge difference – and, relatively quickly. We have the technology to raise the mileage standard for all passenger vehicles to at least 40 miles per gallon. The administration has urged only a modest increase for light trucks.

We should produce synthetic fuel from coal, with attention to global warming concerns.

We should set a course of developing an engine that is powered by a new source of energy such as hydrogen, which will also be less polluting.

With the world’s oil market being tightly stretched, with new demands from China and India, it’s clear that the slightest disruption in supplies could wreak economic havoc.

The oil crisis is coming.

It may be, as the simulation showed, terrorists disrupting the flow of oil to an oil thirsty world; or,

It may be a foreign country, such as Venezuela, refusing to sell us oil as President Chavez has threatened.

Right now, he supplies us with 12 percent of the oil we consume daily; or,

It may be a mega-hurricane that goes right up Galveston Bay and shuts down the refineries in Houston.

Whatever the cause, the crisis is coming! And so America must act now, before our dependence on foreign oil puts a chokehold on the safety and security of all Americans.

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