mr. chairman , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
before i discuss the merits of this amendment that i seek to offer , i want to extend my appreciation to the chairman of the committee on energy and commerce , the gentleman from texas ( mr. barton ) xz4000180 , for his courtesy to me in allowing me to offer this amendment . 
i hope that i can convince him and my colleagues to support this amendment . 
a balanced energy bill should not just be production of more energy , but it should be conservation , reduction of the demand side of the equation , and i feel that the legislation is lacking in that regard . 
what my amendment would seek to do is to reduce the amount of oil that is wasted every single year . 
let me tell my colleagues what the amendment does not do . 
it does not mandate anything . 
it does not mandate an increase in the cafe standards for automobiles , although i think that is a good idea , but we do not mandate it . 
it does not mandate any new , burdensome regulations or expensive technologies , and it does not force americans to change their personal habits . 
it simply calls on the president to come up with a plan to lead in an effort to reduce the waste of oil . 
now , in this house , even this is controversial , as amazing as it may seem . 
this seems to be the only place in america where trying not to waste oil is a bad thing . 
the other body voted on this very same amendment , and they voted to accept it 99 to 1. now , i know we are going to hear in a minute that this is a back-door way to impose new standards or regulations . 
that is nonsense . 
the amendment only asks the president to come up with some ideas for not wasting oil , and there are a lot of different things that can be done : keeping tires properly inflated , improving air traffic management , ensuring that we reduce heavy truck idling , use fuel-efficient engine oil , weatherize homes that use heating oil . 
now , all that we have to have the president do is to come up with ideas and to appeal to the american people on a patriotic basis that they simply should be more conscious of the waste and perhaps shut off their cars when they run into a starbucks . 
i have no doubt the american people would respond . 
it worked in california . 
when we had our energy crisis a few years ago , we had a real energy crunch , and the people in california pitched in and , almost overnight , reduced energy waste by 4 to 10 percent , depending on whose numbers you accept . 
overnight , with no preparation , california achieved the small reduction that this amendment calls for . 
that is the least we can do . 
this legislation that is before us overall is going to increase the amount of oil we are going to have to bring in from the middle east . 
we are going to be more and more dependent . 
for our national security 's sake , we ought to simply reduce some of the waste in oil that goes on every single year . 
i am particularly struck that at a time when we have so many brave american men and women serving overseas , willing to sacrifice everything for us , we may not be able to muster the political will to ask the american people to chip in a little and reduce the waste of oil . 
if we defeat this amendment , we are waving the white flag . 
we are waving that white flag to surrender to the oil companies and the other special interests . 
we will be saying we simply will not even try . 
the greatest country in the world can not even find the will to achieve small reductions in the waste of oil . 
i do not think that is the message we want to send . 
i would ask that my colleagues support this . 
this is a minimal step . 
it is common sense . 
at least it can put us on the side of trying to reduce waste . 
the president is simply called on to exert that leadership to come up with a plan . 
if he does not think he can do it , well , he does not have to do it . 
but if he has some ideas , let us try to do at least the minimum we can do to reduce the waste of oil that is causing us to bring in and use , and in fact overuse , oil that we have to bring in from overseas . 
mr. chairman , i reserve the balance of my time . 
