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| The State of our District |
June 18, 2001 |
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Congresswoman Heather Wilson (R-NM-01)
Albuquerque, New Mexico
It’s always a pleasure to be home and to be among friends.
I hope that by living here, in Albuquerque, and commuting to Washington I stay more connected to people’s needs and lives.
My staff, many of whom are here today, get a fair number of “grocery store” cases from me with names and details scrawled on the back of shopping lists. I have a good team of people and I could not do this job without them, and I wanted to ask them to stand and be recognized for their work on behalf of New Mexicans who need assistance.
And I’m here to tell you today that the State of New Mexico is strong. And, while we will always face our challenges, there’s plenty of good news for New Mexico and for Albuquerque.
We are very fortunate to live in this time of such remarkable peace and prosperity. While we have seen some troubling economic signs, unemployment is low; we are living longer, healthier lives than any generation before us; and America continues to be the beacon of hope for people around the world.
While we work diligently on the challenges that face us, we should be mindful of how lucky we are to live at this time.
A RECORD OF ACCOMPLISHMENT
We’ve had a busy six months in the 107th Congress -- a period of solid accomplishment.
We have continued for the third year in a row to balance the budget without raiding the Social Security Trust Fund.
We have paid off $354 billion of public debt in the last 2 years and we will pay off another quarter of a trillion this year.
That’s good news for the State of our District.
TAX RELIEF
We’ve kept the promise of tax relief for working families. Two weeks ago the President signed the most significant tax relief bill in 20 years.
Here in New Mexico, over half a million taxpayers will see a rebate check from the U.S. Government this summer. It’s your money, not the government’s money and you should decide how to spend the overpayment.
That’s $212 million into the New Mexico economy this summer.
Our economy has been slowing since late last year. One of the best things we can do to keep the economy going is to give people, as my mother used to say, “some jingle in their jeans.” The rebate is the right thing at the right time.
I was at Wal-Mart on Friday night. It’s a busy place on payday. I hope rebate checks will make Wal-Mart and your business even busier.
And that’s good news for the State of our District.
The tax bill also phases out the death tax by 2010.
Steve Garcia came by my office recently. His dad, Andy, and the entire Garcia family, own Garcia’s Tents, which you’ve probably seen over on fourth street near downtown.
Andy has never liked to take on debt. Steve and Andy and the rest of the family worry about taxes.
The sad truth is, if Andy were to die sometime soon, the Garcia family might be out of business because of the death tax.
You can say we have a little Father’s Day present for Andy and for his kids. We’re burying the Death Tax.
That is good news for the State of our District.
And, the Garcia family might tell you, that’s proof that the Republican Party is the big tent party!
EDUCATION
I’d like to say a few words about education.
First, thank you for your efforts to improve our schools. There are very few business organizations that make education their top priority. You should be proud of what you have accomplished. But don’t stop now.
The two most important factors in a child’s education are the quality of the teacher and the support of parents.
With great teachers and involved parents we are on our way to a wonderful public school system.
Last month the House passed HR 1. That’s President Bush’s education reform plan, the “No Child Left Behind Act”. It’s probably the most significant education reform legislation to pass the Congress since the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was written 35 years ago.
The Senate just passed it last week. We’ll have to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions, but it should be… I hope that it will be… on it’s way to the President very soon.
And that’s good news for the state of our district.
A number of the provisions I worked on were included in the bill.
Working with one of my Democrat colleagues, Ruben Hinojosa of Texas, we significantly increased funds for bilingual education, migrant education and foreign language education.
There are provisions in the education bill that address teacher training and mentoring, which I have long advocated. And there’s some additional help for Charter Schools, which are blossoming in New Mexico.
The education bill gives more flexibility to local school districts, demands results, empowers parents, and provides a safety valve for children trapped in failing schools.
That is good news for the state of our district.
ENERGY
Chet told you earlier about me running into somebody at the Diamond Shamrock as I was filling up my car with gas.
Electric bills and natural gas to heat our homes and cook our food are hurting everyone, especially people on fixed incomes.
We don’t think about energy until it becomes a problem. We have not had a national energy policy for over a decade.
We are more dependent on foreign oil today than we were at the height of the energy crisis in the 70s. 55% of our oil is imported, mostly from the Middle East, making us dependent on foreign governments, many of whom are not our friends.
California expanded its consumption of energy by 10,000 megawatts over the last decade, while building only 800 megawatts of power plants.
I don’t do “megawatts” very well. Think of it this way. If your kids became teenagers and started drinking 10,000 more gallons of milk a year (which is probably about right!) and you only planned for 800 more gallons to be in the fridge. Now that’s a problem.
California didn’t plan. They ignored the need and now Californian’s are paying a very heavy price.
* America needs reliable, affordable, clean energy to support an expanding economy, a growing population and a rising standard of living.
* When you flick the switch, the lights should go on.
* When you go to work, you should have energy to produce the goods and services that make jobs, serve customers, and improve our quality of life.
* When you fill up at the gas station, the price should be reasonable and not driven by a foreign dictator.
* And when you come home, you should enjoy clean air, clean water, and clean land with your family.
* The energy crunch we confront today was not created last night. It wasn’t created last week or last month. And it also will not be fixed in a day.
While there are some things we can and should do to provide immediate short-term relief, it is more important to get the long-term policies right so that this will never happen again. Band-Aids aren’t answers and some of the "quick fixes" do more harm than good.
It’s long past time to develop a balanced, long-term approach to make sure America has a safe and stable supply of energy.
New Mexico is an energy producing state. Oil, coal, natural gas, and uranium are plentiful here. Last year, oil and gas produced in New Mexico amounted to $2.6 billion.
We also live in the most beautiful state in the nation.
I believe that we can meet America’s energy needs in a way that preserves the beauty of the home we love. We’ve made tremendous progress in the last twenty years cleaning up the air, water and land and there’s no turning back.
No one wants to.
The good news is, from what I’ve seen in half a year of hearings, briefings, and tough questions on our energy prospects I don’t think we have to.
We can have a safer, cleaner, healthier environment and meet the growing energy needs of our prosperous nation.
To do so we need to act now. If we don’t act we need look no further than California to see our future.
Rolling blackouts. Skyrocketing prices. Two or even three dollars for a gallon of gas.
So what do we do? Where do we go from here, and what makes for a balanced, long-term energy policy?
The comprehensive energy legislation we will pass in the House before August will implement four strategies: conservation, increased production, building infrastructure, and government reform.
We will also pay special attention to gasoline prices.
Conservation
Conservation must be a pillar of our energy strategy. Conservation allows us to use less energy to produce the goods and live our lives the way we want to.
Refrigerators today use 1/3rd less electricity than a refrigerator built in 1972.
Cars get more miles to the gallon and new research in hybrid vehicles may double gas mileage without compromising power or range.
Contrary to what you sometimes hear, Republicans want to reduce use of energy and the waste of precious resources. Republicans are. . . well. . . “conservative”. We don’t like to waste things, whether it’s the gas in our cars or that half-eaten burrito I have in my fridge that one of the kids didn’t finish at Taco Bell.
Homebuilders like Jerry Wade of Artistic Homes in Albuquerque are making their businesses strong by building homes that are energy efficient. Artistic Homes has partnered with the Department of Energy in the “Building America” program.
In Congress we are looking at changing the federal home mortgage loan programs to make it easier for first time buyers to get an energy-efficient home. That’s good for the environment, and keeps the monthly bills down.
Renewable fuels like ethanol made from corn, co-generation of electricity and heat, advances in solar power all hold potential for reducing our energy use and must be part of our national energy policy.
But we cannot conserve our way out of this energy crunch any more than I can feed my growing family just by not wasting the burritos. But we cannot drill our way out of it either. We must have a balanced approach that addresses both conservation and increasing energy supply.
Increasing supply
We must diversify and increase energy supply while protecting the environment.
Coal generates a little over 50% of our electricity generated in this country today and nuclear power is about 20%. But the only plants now on the drawing boards are natural gas. The demand for natural gas will rise sharply over the next 20 years and we may not have enough domestic supply to meet the demand.
It would be a mistake to rely only on one source of electricity generation. We need to have nuclear, hydro, clean coal, natural gas, distributed generation, and renewable energy as components of our supply.
And let me emphasize the need for nuclear energy to be a part of our energy strategy. For too long, nuclear energy has been in the “too hard” column. Today, nuclear power is safer and produces more power than it did 10 years ago.
Nuclear power is cleaner than other kinds of electricity generation and helps us to stay independent from foreign countries for our energy.
Research in new designs can change the economics of nuclear power and revitalize the nuclear industry.
It’s time to take nuclear energy out of the “too hard” column.
The energy bills we will work on in the House will streamline the licensing of hydro power. It can take 10 years of regulatory nightmare to put a turbine on a dam even if the dam is already built.
And we will try to find a better balance to allow exploration on public lands like Otero Mesa in New Mexico.
Fixing our infrastructure
California’s problem wasn’t just that they didn’t build power plants to meet the need, but they also didn’t build power lines to get the electricity to where it will be used.
I mentioned our shortage of refineries. We also have only one port in the country that can off-load liquefied natural gas.
And, in an age of sophisticated remote sensing, many of our pipelines are still inspected by people “walking the line” looking for discoloration’s in the soil.
We must modernize and expand the nation’s energy infrastructure, including safe pipelines, adequate transmission and refining capacity, and enough redundancy to reduce the consequences of single point failures.
Government reform
And finally, government reform.
We must integrate federal energy, environmental and economic, and foreign policy development so that we avert future energy problems over the long haul.
I doubt there is anybody here who thinks our federal government is one large, well-oiled machine with gears that smoothly mesh and work together.
Right now, the EPA, or the State Department, or Transportation or Agriculture or Interior can each make major policy decisions that affect our country’s energy supply. And they can make these decisions based solely on their department’s view of the world, without regard to what happens to the price we pay for gas in Estancia, or how much it costs to heat your home in Northern New Mexico during the winter.
At a crunch time, like today, they are forced to consider energy impacts. But, when public attention subsides, bureaucrats don’t think about energy.
We must integrate federal policy when it comes to energy so that we can prevent this situation from happening again.
America’s national security policy making was integrated in 1948, and, for the most part, it works. It’s far past time to do the same for America’s energy security.
Those will be the strategies that define the House strategy for energy: conservation, production, infrastructure, and government reform.
But there will be special attention on gasoline prices.
Gas prices
A few weeks ago the price of a gallon of gas in Albuquerque went up 20 cents. It was $1.579 when I filled up yesterday.
In May, the Federal Trade Commission complete an investigation into gasoline prices, to see if there was any gouging going on when prices went up last summer. They didn’t find any. They did find other problems.
America has over 20 different formulas for gasoline set by states and, in some cases, local governments. Those formulas change in different seasons of the year. They are driven by the Clean Air Act, which is fine.
But when Milwaukee’s formula is different from Chicago’s and they change their formula in different weeks with differing local requirements as to whether gas stations have to drain their tanks before getting the new stuff, you can easily see how local shortages happen. And in any free market, a shortage of supply will drive up price.
One of the most helpful things we can do at the federal level to keep gas prices down is to establish regional formulas for gasoline.
We have not built a refinery in this country in 20 years and our refineries are working at over 95% capacity. Any fire or safety shutdown
affects supply.
Refining is a low margin business – about 4% profit, I’m told. It’s high risk with safety and permitting regulations that can drag on for a decade. We are exploring ways to change federal rules, including our tax policy, to expand our refining capacity.
One third of the oil we import is for our cars. Making our cars more efficient, with more miles to the gallon, alternative fuels and research into hybrid vehicles like the combined electric and gasoline motors will reduce the demand and the price of gasoline and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Conclusion
As Energy policy is worked out in the halls of Congress, where the process is often compared to that of making sausage, New Mexico will have seats at the table. Our two Senators, Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici, and myself, are all on committees and task forces where we can influence energy policy so that it works for New Mexico.
That is good news for the state of our district.
I’m working to make certain the state of our district remains strong… and I’ll keep working to that end. Tax relief, a public school system that is the envy of the world, and a balanced, long-term energy policy that works for New Mexico.
Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you so very much for your attention today. I’m just about done, and that is good news for the state of our district.
I hope that you if you see me at the check-out counter at Smith’s, or pumping gas at the Diamond Shamrock, you’ll say “Hi” . . . and ask me what the heck I’m doing.
Thank you, and good afternoon. |
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