mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman for yielding me this time . 
mr. speaker , i rise in strong opposition to this bill , the so-called gasoline for america 's security act . 
now , this is not a partisan rant . 
i am a democrat , but i supported the last energy bill . 
it had considerable merit and a few flaws . 
this bill is very flawed and has very little merit . 
let us talk about refineries . 
over the past 20 years , u.s. demand has increased 20 percent . 
no new refineries have been built . 
in fact , refining capacity has declined by 10 percent . 
but contrary to what my colleagues just heard , there are no barriers stopping the refining industry from building new refineries and expanding capacity . 
in fact , the key thing people need to understand in this debate is that the profit margins for the refineries has gone up 255 percent . 
they are making more money than anybody else . 
so there is no reason why we should give them some big subsidy or big benefit to encourage them to build refinery capacity . 
this bill really is outrageous in terms of having the taxpayers pay the refineries to cover their unanticipated costs . 
it is in the bill and it is called stand-by support , stand-by support . 
what that means is if they encounter some sort of reasonable delay , government regulation , or something like that , and they suffer losses and they can not open on time or they are delayed in their operations , we , the taxpayer , get to pay for that . 
that is not unusual . 
that is not a crisis situation . 
that is not the airlines after september 11 . 
that is not an unusually high-risk situation . 
these are delays in the normal course of business ; but , yet , this bill would have the taxpayer pay for those losses , and that does not make sense . 
let me take a minute and talk about price gouging . 
now , they came out of committee with a very limited bill that basically talked about gasoline , and now they say , well , we want to broaden it a little bit . 
let me suggest that the broadest possible protection for the american people in terms of price gouging comes from the democratic substitute . 
it gives the broadest jurisdiction over the most types of fuel , including propane , home heating oil , crude oil . 
that is where we need to be , not with the limited approach of the republicans . 
they also do not deal with market manipulation , and market manipulation is where the consumer takes the hit . 
i urge rejection of the republican bill and adoption of the democratic alternative . 
