Senator Collins
The following excerpts are from an oil policy proposal by moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins:
“1. Terminate Purchases for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. I was joined by Senator Carl Levin of Michigan in passing a bipartisan amendment that directs the Department of Energy to by requiring the Department to avoid filling the SPR when prices are high....It is a bad deal for taxpayers for the Department of Energy to be purchasing oil when prices are so high....I have called on the President to stop filling the SPR until prices drop. It simply does not make sense for the Department of Energy to be purchasing oil for the Reserve at a time when oil prices exceed 100 dollars per barrel. The federal government is taking oil off the market and thus driving up prices at a time when consumers are struggling to pay their fuel bills.
“2. Extend Federal Regulation to Oil Futures. “Excessive speculation on futures markets may well be another factor pushing up oil prices. Unfortunately, there is a lack of publicly available data to track the effect of speculation on prices, and manipulation can go undetected on certain electronic markets that are unregulated. Experts testifying before our Investigations Subcommittee all agreed that greater transparency and better reporting of trades could help prevent abuses such as occurred in the natural gas markets in 2006. One witness noted, “the current high oil prices are inflated by as much as 100 percent... driven by excessive speculation.”
“3. End Tax Breaks for Oil Companies and Direct Funds into Alternative Energy. Congress should repeal unnecessary tax breaks for big oil companies and use the billions of dollars instead to fund the remaining proposals in my Ten-Point Energy Plan....My proposal would redirect that revenue to support renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives. My amendment was accepted as part of the Senate-passed Budget Resolution. We need to continue that...
