As the title for this hearing highlights, energy independence and reducing demand for oil and gasoline is not just an environmental issue but a national security issue.

A critical development regarding this most important of resources is that it is being leveraged by enemies of the U.S. and the West in general, as a weapon to undermine our foreign policy efforts overseas.

Another critical problem regarding our dependence on foreign sources of oil is not economic or technological, but political. 

This natural resource is concentrated in regions such as the Persian Gulf that are characterized by enduring instability and in countries such as Iran and Venezuela that are actively anti-U.S. 

The lure of riches from oil has focused the attention of countries around the world on exporting as much of it as they can find and develop. 

Russia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, to name only a few, are rapidly expanding production. 

With vast and untapped reserves, these countries are planning for massive increases in output and sales on the world market.

Russia is already the world’s second largest producer, after Saudi Arabia, and has only begun to tap its enormous potential. 

Already, it is using its rapidly increasing output of oil and gas to exert political pressure on its neighbors, not merely on countries such as Ukraine and Georgia but on all of Europe, which is becoming increasingly dependent on Russian energy. 

Other potential sources of oil pose more challenging problems. 

Finding and extracting the oil are only the first hurdles. 

Getting the oil to market is a major challenge in itself, not only technologically but strategically. 

Here again, foreign leaders seek to destroy free access to the market by securing monopoly control over other countries’ exports, be that by pipeline, ship, or other means.

Our interests call for creating as many options as possible in order to reduce the ability of any enemy to choke off supply.
 
To address this problem, the U.S. and other countries have invested considerable resources in constructing oil and gas pipelines through the Caucasus and Turkey, for example, as part of a larger effort to reduce the world’s dependence on Russia’s unreliable cooperation, even as we encourage that country to increase its own production.

A far greater strategic problem is the Middle East, where two-thirds of the world’s oil reserves are concentrated. 

The most vulnerable location of all is the Strait of Hormuz through which a significant percentage of the world’s oil supply moves.

The Strait itself is a narrow chokepoint where the danger of collision from high ship traffic alone is a major cause for concern. 

But the greatest threat is from Iran, which has made clear its intention to assert a commanding role over the entire Persian Gulf. 

The threat is not hypothetical. 

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned that his country would disrupt the world’s oil supply if it is attacked.

As a result of Iran’s growing power, just today, it is being reported that other Gulf states are considering a series of options for oil pipelines to bypass the Iranian-dominated Strait of Hormuz.

A report by the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center has proposed six options for a trans-Gulf pipeline.

"This project will give a new boost to the stability of oil," GRC security analyst Mustafa Alani said.
One option called for a 2,500-kilometer pipeline that would move through Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to the Omani capital of Muscat on the Arabian Sea.
Another proposed pipeline would end in Yemen.

The study noted that any overland pipeline must be protected from insurgency attack.
Given that the U.S. oil supply is inseparable from that of the world as a whole, we need a global strategy. 

However, securing global cooperation is not an easy feat. 

After all, for years, we have been trying to convince our allies to do the right thing and to stop investing in Iran’s energy sector and deny the regime the financial resources to engage in its threatening activities.

Instead, what we have seen is a rush to provide Iran an economic lifeline by increasing investments in Iran’s energy sector and doing whatever is necessary to generate a profit.

Just today, we see reports about the head of France’s oil group, TOTAL, being held in custody over suspected corruption and bribery to gain a gas contract in Iran in 1997.

The pursuit of Iranian oil and gas by Western European, Asian, and Russia entities does not stop there.

Foreign government export credit agencies are subsidizing many of these investments in Iran.

To address this loophole, I introduced H.R. 957—the Iran Sanctions Act Amendments.

This bill was overwhelmingly adopted by this Committee on February 15th.

However, we understand that, due to objections from the Democrat Majority of other Committees, the report has not yet been filed.

This is of grave concern to me.

I would like to highlight that the language in H.R. 957 was adopted by the full House last year as part of my Iran Freedom Support Act (co-sponsored by Chairman Lantos and over 360 other Members of the House).

All the other committees of jurisdiction discharged the legislation so that it could move quickly to the Floor.

In the end, the language was not included in the version that became law due to other provisions taking precedence.
 
It is my hope that this non-controversial Iran bill—H.R. 957-- and my Iran divestiture bill—H.R. 1357-- will be moved expeditiously to the Floor.
 
Our focus today is on oil, but I want to take this opportunity to highlight an emerging threat to the global supply of natural gas that the U.S. must take action to stop, namely the creation of an OPEC for natural gas. 

Through its artificial scarcities and efforts to destroy any semblance of a free market in oil, OPEC has done nothing but harm to the world. 

Now there are troubling efforts by Russia and other major producers, such as Iran, to set up a similar cartel for natural gas. 

It must be a priority for U.S. policy to stop this in its tracks if we are to prevent yet another permanent threat to arise to the world’s energy supplies.

Let me end my remarks by saying that we can talk about solutions to our problems that may be decades away, but we must focus our efforts on practical objectives that can be accomplished here and now.