{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.inhofe.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/inhofe-opening-statement-at-epw-oversight-hearing-on-domestic-renewable-fuels", "Inhofe Opening Statement at EPW Oversight Hearing on Domestic Renewable Fuels", "2013-12-11", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "OK", "James Inhofe", "I000024", "www.inhofe.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Inhofe Opening Statement at EPW Oversight Hearing on Domestic Renewable Fuels\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWednesday, December 11, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWashington, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), senior member of the Environment Public Works\u00a0(EPW)\u00a0Committee, today provided the following opening statement at an EPW hearing entitled, \"Oversight Hearing on Domestic Renewable Fuels:\"\r\nAs prepared for delivery:\r\nChairman Boxer, I want to thank you for having this hearing.\u00a0 It\u2019s about time.\u00a0 The last time we had one on the RFS was in 2008.\u00a0 And the time before that was in 2006, when I was chairman of this Committee.\u00a0\r\nI\u2019m disappointed, though, because I think today\u2019s hearing will just be another \u201ccheck-the-box\u201d exercise where the status quo is affirmed and the need for Congress to respond to the many problems of the mandate is minimized. But a lot has changed since 2008.\r\nWe can all remember when the RFS was expanded back in 2007, and one of the main arguments to do it was to improve our national security.\u00a0 Later, we\u2019re going to hear from Retired General Wesley Clark, who has been on the dime of the ethanol industry for several years now.\u00a0 General Clark has repeatedly accused the US government of fighting wars simply to secure foreign sources of oil.\u00a0 In one interview he said it quite simply: \u201cthat\u2019s what people fight wars about.\u201d\r\nLast Saturday was December 7, and every year we remember the attacks on Pearl Harbor.\u00a0 It\u2019s the day that lives in infamy.\u00a0 And for good reason.\u00a0 It\u2019s what drew us into World War 2.\u00a0 Americans fight wars to protect their fellow Americans from evil harms abroad.\u00a0 Period.\r\nThat doesn\u2019t mean energy security and national security are disconnected, but if we want to have a conversation about that, we should look no further than the domestic oil and gas industry.\u00a0 Since 2008, the energy market has been turned upside down. The combination of precision drilling and hydraulic fracturing has opened up the shale revolution that no one saw coming.\u00a0 In 2007, oil production was down and we were in the middle of building massive terminals to import liquefied natural gas.\u00a0\r\nSince then, oil production is up over 50% to nearly 8 million barrels of oil per day and we have so much natural gas, at such competitive international prices, that we\u2019re converting the import terminals into export terminals.\u00a0\r\nAnd the news just keeps getting brighter.\u00a0 In October, the EIA published a report stating that the US will overtake Russia this year as the largest oil and natural gas producer in the world; and in November, the IEA reported that by 2035 we\u2019ll be able to meet all of our energy requirements from domestic sources alone.\u00a0 This is because of oil and gas \u2013 and it\u2019s happening in spite of the RFS mandate.\r\nGeneral Clark should know quite a bit about this because he\u2019s also a director of BNK Petroleum, which has oil and gas operations all over the world, including in my state of Oklahoma.\u00a0 I\u2019d be curious to know how he thinks the shale boom has impacted our national security compared to biofuels, especially since there\u2019s no mandate to use it.\r\nLast month the EPA announced the 2014 volume requirements for the RFS mandate, and for the first time ever, the Agency lowered the mandated levels across the board for traditional ethanol, advanced biofuels, and cellulosic phantom fuels. \u00a0In so doing, the EPA has admitted the mandate is completely broken.\u00a0\u00a0\r\nI\u2019ve been highlighting the mandate\u2019s problems for years, and it\u2019s clear that the chorus of agreement is growing louder every day.\u00a0\r\nOklahomans of all stripes understand that the RFS is a bad deal. Roy Lee Lindsey, head of the Oklahoma Pork Producers told me, \u201cThe RFS has imposed artificial, federally-mandated, year-after-year growth in the demand for corn ethanol, raising pork input prices and making the market incapable of adjusting to or mitigating the worst effects of severe supply shocks like last year\u2019s drought.\u201d \u00a0Michael Kelsey, head of the Oklahoma Cattlemen, echoed his sentiment when he told me, \u201cThe RFS has created artificial demand for corn and has increased the price of this crucial commodity to cattlemen around the country and in Oklahoma.\u201d\r\nAnd our drivers are just as aware.\u00a0 They\u2019d rather eat their food than burn it, and fuel stations all around the state, like the one in the photo behind me [Chart 1], advertise that they have \u201cclear\u201d gasoline.\r\nUnfortunately, it\u2019s only going to get harder for Oklahomans to find clear gas because the RFS mandate only gets worse from here.\r\nThe chart [Chart 2] behind me shows the blend wall in relation to the skyrocketing RFS mandate under current law. Over the next ten years, the RFS mandate rises to more than 3 times the levels allowable with the blendwall.\u00a0 But that\u2019s hardly the only problem.\u00a0 The fuels in the green and red bars, cellulosic and advanced fuels, either don\u2019t exist or are largely imported from places like Brazil.\r\nIf current law is maintained, and these volumes of fuels are mandated into the system, it will not only make fuel incompatible with most engines on the market today, but it will also push the price of fuel significantly. \u00a0\r\nIf Congress does nothing to fix the RFS mandate, what\u2019s in store for Oklahomans and other consumers around the country?\u00a0 Abandoned cars, broken fuel infrastructure, lost jobs, and significantly higher fuel costs.\r\nThis is not bad news for Oklahoma.\u00a0 It\u2019s bad news for the nation.\u00a0 And it means that the RFS \u2013 all of it \u2013 must be repealed.\r\n###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tPress Contact\n\t\t\t\t\tWashington, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), senior member of the Environment Public Works\u00a0(EPW)\u00a0Committee, today provided the following opening statement at an EPW hearing entitled, \"Oversight Hearing on Domestic Renewable Fuels:\"", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.inhofe.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/inhofe-opening-statement-at-epw-oversight-hearing-on-domestic-renewable-fuels"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8824830874800682, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}