mr. inhofe: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: today i introduce s. 2248, a bill that will ensure and clarify that we'll keep the regulation of the process of hydraulic fracturing at the state level as opposed to the tphrefrl. i'm joined by -- federal level. i'm joined by senators risch, cornyn and lee. however, since this is not about a judge, i would yield my time to the junior senator, who is also a cosponsor of this, from utah, senator lee. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: thank you very much, mr. president. mr. president, i rise to express serious concerns that i have with the nomination of miranda du to serve as a judge on the u.s. district court for the district of nevada. in 2007, the very same court to which ms. du has now been nominated, imposed sanctions on ms. du for multiplying the proceedings unreasonably and vexatiously under 28 s.c. section 1927. the basis of sanctions order was ms. du's refusal to dismiss a complaint she filed on behalf of her client, even after the party her client wa

mr. inhofe: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: i ask for 30 sect. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: mr. president, i -- i've had the rankings of the most conservative member of this body many times and have often said there are two areas where i'm a big spender. one is national defense. one is infrastructure. we desperately need this bill. and it's interesting to me that so many of my good friends -- and they are friends, including the senator from tennessee -- that they'll vote as they did back in 2008 for $700 billion for a bailout and then something like this comes up and -- and somehow this is an excuse to kill the bill. you can kill the bill and we can go back and start all over again. i wish and i think that the finance committee's going to come up with something that is going to allow us to get this done by the time we get in to conference. and i would urge my conservative friends particularly to go ahead and vote for a highway bill. mr. corker: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator fr

mr. inhofe elaborated this argument to a christian radio show this week saying, quote, my point is, god's still up there, the arrogance of people to think that we human beings would be able to change what he is doing is to me outrageous. we could not screw the earth up even if we wanted to, only god can do something that's that big a deal. you know what the ohio department of natural resources said today? they said apparently we can cause earthquakes. and we have been, in ohio. quote, since march 2011, the youngstown, ohio area has experienced 12 low magnitude seismic events. ranging from 2.1 to 4.0. 12 earthquakes in youngstown, ohio. it's not exactly san francisco, not earthquake territory. all 12 of these earthquakes were clustered less than a mile around this. this is the north star one well. a class two deep injection well used for oil and gas fluid waste disposal. remember the night of the michigan republican primary when rick santorum pulled the rock out of his pocket and started banging on the podium? >> this is oil. oil. out of rock. shale. it leaches oil. >> the way you get oil

mr. inhofe: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: mr. president, we're going to have a vote this afternoon. it's going to be a procedural vote. some will be voting different ways, but there is a substance behind the issue at large. last week the president, president obama, visited curbing, oklahoma. it may have been the first time he's been to oklahoma. i don't know. he claimed under his watch -- and i'm quoting now -- he said america is producing more oil today than any time in the last eight years. unquote. it seems that in the midst of the four to five-dollar a gallon gasoline, he's trying to convince the american people he's not the one to blame. clearly he is the one to blame. that's why i think it's important to set the record straight. after all, it was obama's energy secretary, steven chu -- we can't forget this -- who said -- quote -- "somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in europe." that was his energy secretary that was speaking in behalf of president obama. so the motive is to raise t

mr. chair. >> thank you very much senator inhofe. senator webb is next. >> thank you mr. chairman and mr. chairman and senator inhofe both actually the writer in me has to say this. before you use that quote from general burgess, believe the first person who made that statement was winston churchill when he said that the united states and britain were two countries separated by a common language. i did not want to out you general burgess but someone was going to do it sooner or later. it actually goes to one of the points that i need to make this morning and to ask both of you for your advice and that is ports do count. i also sit on the foreign relations committee and the last few days we have been trying to put together a resolution with respect to syria and first i would say director that your comments, your testimony and your comments were very helpful today and you can hear the frustration from people like senator mccain on the fact that people think they need to do something but we have to be careful what we do and we have to be careful about the statements that we

mr. inhofe: thank you. madam president, i voted against the motion to proceed to the menendez bill on monday because, quite frankly, it is just a bill to continue raising gas prices. i talked for quite sometime yesterday on the floor about this, that by raising taxes on the oil gansdz industry, it sounds -- the oil and gas industry, it sounds good because people don't like the oil and gas industry, they've been vilified, so everybody thinks we ought to get the oil and gas industry. i think they understand it, but what they don't admit is that that's the way you increase prices at the pump. you've simply got to pay for all that stuff. so even senator menendez and several democrats have said this bill is not going to lower gas prices. it would raise gas prices. and i don't think anyone who looks at it logically could come to any other conclusion. as i discussed monday on the floor, the democrats' plan goes against everything we know about basic economics -- higher taxes and limits supply. whenever you limit s

mr. inhofe has been talking up one of his main arguments for how we can be sure there is no gloloba warning. genesis 8 cln 22. while the earth remains, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease. genesis 822. >>> he said "my point is god still up there, the arrogance of people to think that we human beings would be able to change what he is doing is to me outrageous. we could not screw the earth up even if we wanted to, only god can do something that big a deal. you know what the ohio department of natural resources said today? they said apparently we can cause earthquakes. and we have been, in ohio. "since march 2011 the youngstown ohio area experienced 12 low g magnitude seismic events. 12 earthquakes in youngstown, ohio. it's not exactly san francisco, not earthquake territory. all 12 of these earthquakes were clustered less than a mile around this. this is the north star one well. a class two deep injection well used for oil and gas fluid waste disposa disposal. remember the night of the primary when rick santorum pulled the rock out of the pocket and banging it on the podium.

mr. inhofe: would the nor yield for a question? mr. menendez: i'd be happy to at the end of my remarks. what a heartwarming story of robin hood in reverse. taking from the american taxpayer to give to the rich. so congratulations, big oil. you got $2 billion extra in profits, and we got 4% less oil. but, of course, we're not just seeing less oil. we're also seeing the american driver gouged with higher gasoline prices. so what happens when taxpayers are forking over $2 billion in subsidies a year to highly profitable oil companies who in turn produce less? we get a double whammy with $4 a gallon gas at the pump and a bigger burden on taxpayers. how is that a fair return on our taxpayer dollars? it's pretty generous to big oil which stands to profit $1 trillion over the next decade while getting $24 billion in subsidies. but it's a bad deal for consumers struggling to make ends meet. so first, the repeal big oil tax subsidies act takes back $24 billion in taxpayer subsidies to big oil, stops that insanity. the next step the bill takes is investing in alternatives to big oil: biofuel, nat

inhofe? >> thank you, mr. chairman. the first question i'm going to ask, i know the answer, but i'm going to have to ask it just to get it in the record. in yesterday's "wall street journal," they talked about the president obama's meeting with russian president medvedev yesterday, monday, when president obama said, and i assume he said this without knowing that the mike was on, that this needs to be on the record, and i ask the record reflect this accurately, quote, on all these issues but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it's important for him incoming russian president putin to give me space. this is my last election, after my election, i have more flexibility. unquote. so the question is, do either one of you want to comment? i didn't think so. second thing that i'd like to mention is that general alexander, first of all, thank you for making the trip that you made out. just real briefly, kind of tell me what you found out during your visit to tulsa university. >> thank you, senator. first,

mr. president, to support the leadership of senator barbara boxer and senator inhofe from oklahoma who have worked, mr. president, for over a year to bring a very balanced and fundamentally important and essential infrastructure bill to the floor of the house. now, we have many arguments on this floor. we've been arguing about judges. i heard senator grassley give a pretty tough speech about his opinion of some of our supreme court justices. i don't agree with much what he said, but he's entitled to his opinion, and we have those debates, and they're good people on both sides. we're debating oil taxes and whether the oil industry is paying too much or too little. so you can have arguments about that. but even -- even our children in kindergarten, even our citizens who don't pay attention to some more difficult arguments understand roads, bridges, and mass transit. they understand hard-hat jobs. they see people every day laying bricks, pouring concrete, going to work at steel mills and, you know, factories that produce the materials that build our infrastructure. they drive over potholes, mr

mr. clean magic eraser extra power. >>> joining us tonight for the interview, i'm very happy to say, is senator james inhofe, the ranking republican on the environment and public works committee. thank you very much for being here, i'm very happy you're able to be here. >> rachel, you won't believe this, but i'm happy to be here with you. >> when i talk about all those investigations clearing the scientists and the university and i talk about the general consensus what happened with climate gate being different from your consensus, do you feel i'm part of the hoax, do you feel i'm being misled, how do you feel about that? >> first of all, you talked about fox news and some of the right wing, as you refer to them. let me talk about the left wing and how they responded to it. this climate gate was a big deal, listen to this. the uk telegraph, one of the biggest ones in london said it's the worst scandal of our generation, the stink of the corruption is overpowering, the ippc -- this is one that came from the united nations, a fraud on a scale i have never seen before. the u.n. scientists, and this guy's dr. p

inhofe. >> thank you, mr. chairman. than me again for apologize for not being here. let me start off by saying that the sharp response to our good friends, senator sanders as i disagree with everything he is saying. [laughter] but i would like to do, mr. chairman, i have made a request that in december -- in december asked the question for the record that you send me something talking about this allegation of harassment and intimidation that you are being accused as. i ask what actions he planned to take to address the allegations and intimidation for safety managers. you want to respond to that weekly? >> well, i appreciate your question and i think as they talked about at the last hearing if there's any time of ever done anything intentionally to cause anyone -- >> the acquisitions are there. i'm seeing how are you going to respond to accusations of intimidation? >> as i said at the last hearing, i think that i've never done anything intentionally to intimidate or do the things that i think were being talked about the last time. and so, in the end what i think i'm

inhofe? >> thank you, mr. chairman. the first question i'm going to ask, i know the answer, but i'm going to have to ask it just to get it in the record. in yesterday's "wall street journal," they talked about the president obama's meeting with russian president medvedev yesterday, monday, when president obama said, and i assume he said this without knowing that the mike was on, that this needs to be on the record, and i ask the record reflect this accurately, quote, on all these issues but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it's important for him incoming russian president putin to give me space. this is my last election, after my election, i have more flexibility. unquote. so the question is, do either one of you want to comment? i didn't think so. second thing that i'd like to mention is that general alexander, first of all, thank you for making the trip that you made out. just real briefly, kind of tell me what you found out during your visit to tulsa university. >> thank you, senator. first,

mrs. %. we've actually increased the document is very misleading and i would be very concerned about our ability to protect human health. >> will you send us the impact of the inhofe budget. >> sure. >> and i want to put a fact in the record that you made a point that funding to the states, and that includes the tribes, accounts for the largest percentage of your budget request. is that correct? 40%? >> that's correct. >> these really are pass-through funds. senator inhofe. >> thank you, madam chairman. getting back to all of the above, which was really our -- we are real sincere in that. that would include above includes coal. there's been a lot of concern that the max standards are so strict, the no new coal fire generating stations can be built. we know the existing ones because contracts are being canceled as we speak. information in the rule making doc indicates that the new unit max standard was set using performance data from logan units. the epa posted a chart and the doc is showing six separate with logan failing the standard five out of six times. well, we've told the public that the new unit max standards would not prevent new units from being built but

a very conservative member, jim inhofe from oklahoma; a very liberal member, barbara boxer, they have worked hard on this. just a little side note, mr. president. as we were struggling through trying to come up with these amendments, i was happy to hear from barbara boxer. she said to me privately, "i've talked to senator inhofe, and he thinks as we're coming to this agreement, this isn't what should be done." that was important to me in reaching consensus on how we move forward on this bill, because as i've said many times not everything we do this year should be a big fight. we should be able to move things forward without waiting for a month to get things done. this bill is truly indicative of how we have to get things done and why i appreciate the cooperation of boxer and inhofe. we have a dilapidated system of highways. we have 70,000 -- mr. president, i'm not misspeaking. not 7,000. 70,000 bridges in america that are in dire need of repair or replacement even. 20% of our raordz not up to -- of our roads are not up to safety standards. thousands of pedestrians are killed because they rely on unsafe sidewalks or nonexisting side

mr. sanders: madam president, i would like to congratulate chairman boxer and ranking member inhofe for all of their hard work on this very important bill. this legislation is a major step forward toward addressing the significant infrastructure needs of our country and creating desperately needed jobs. i appreciate the inclusion of an amendment i offered which increases the federal cost share for emergency relief permanent repairs in extreme disasters. my intent is that the provision will apply to all open disasters as of the date of enactment of this bill. is this the chairman's understanding as well? mrs. boxer: i want to say to the senator from vermont, first of all, thank you for all your hard work on the environment and public works committee. you focus on jobs like a laser beam and yes, you are correct. the intent is that this provision would apply to all open disasters which would include the states that were pummeled by hurricane irene last year. mr. sanders: with that i want to thank the chairman very much for her hard work and for her success. thank you very much. i yield. a sena

mr. alexander: thank you. i listened with great interest to the senator from california. i thank her for her hard work on the transportation bill and her work with senator inhofe i listened especially to her on her comments that it would be good for us to work together. it reminds me of the new speaker in the house of representatives in tennessee, a woman named beth harwell. she does a pretty good job, and she often reminds her colleagues in the tennessee legislature that the first lesson they all learned in kindergarten is work well together. and that's a good lesson for us as well. i'm here this morning to take four or five minutes simply to talk about a development that i think interferes with that. i came to the senate floor with a group of republicans and democrats not long ago, and we praised the majority leader,. mr. reid:, and the -- the majority leader senator reid and the republican leader senator mcconnell for working together to bring the appropriations bills to the floor. we said we're going to work together to help them do that. we tphreuplt them also for -- we compliment them also for the work on the transportation bill. mr. alexander: we're her

mr. inhofe: mr. president, first of all, i will make this very, very brief. i want to say how much i appreciate the comments of the majority leader. it is not necessary, but it is very meaningful to me personally. i want to also say about senator boxer, yes, she and i are probably at the opposite extremes in this room on almost -- on many, many issues. i have always said conservatives should be big spenders in two areas, national defense and infrastructure. we have to look at this and look at the future so we don't have to go through this again. i do want to thank all of those on your side, i say to senator boxer, and on my side, the only staff i will mention is ruth van mark. she has been with me for 22 years. she is now getting off of probation. i thank all of you for your cooperation on this. i urge a vote on it. the presiding officer: if there is no further debate, the question is on s. 1813 as amended. is there a sufficient second? there is. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators who wish to vote or to cha