By:  Parker                                           S.C.R. No. 79
                             SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
    1-1        WHEREAS, The Texas Legislature supports and commends the
    1-2  efforts of the President and both parties in the Congress of the
    1-3  United States to address the federal deficit and wishes to be
    1-4  supportive of those efforts and to call to the attention of our
    1-5  national leadership the strengths and weaknesses of various
    1-6  proposals; and
    1-7        WHEREAS, After rebounding from the recession of the 1980s the
    1-8  Texas economy is once again growing; and
    1-9        WHEREAS, Since the discovery of oil at Spindletop in 1901,
   1-10  the Texas economy has been strongly tied to the energy industry;
   1-11  and
   1-12        WHEREAS, Under President Clinton's new energy policy, Texas
   1-13  would bear the brunt of the proposed Btu tax; Texans would pay
   1-14  approximately $8 to Washington for every $1 the federal government
   1-15  would return; and
   1-16        WHEREAS,  An unfair and inequitable tax, the Btu tax would
   1-17  cost Texans an additional $54 million a day and the state, with
   1-18  only 6.5 percent of the national population, would bear 12.5
   1-19  percent of the United States energy tax burden; and
   1-20        WHEREAS, Not a broad-based tax, it will be borne by energy
   1-21  producers, just now emerging from 10 years of severe depression;
   1-22  and
   1-23        WHEREAS, Misguided energy policies have already driven many
    2-1  major oil companies overseas; and
    2-2        WHEREAS, President Clinton's plan could result in the loss of
    2-3  thousands of jobs and force the curtailment of energy production in
    2-4  the state and nation, increasing American dependence on foreign
    2-5  oil; now, therefore, be it
    2-6        RESOLVED, That the 73rd Legislature of the State of Texas
    2-7  hereby request the speaker of the house of representatives to
    2-8  appoint five members of the house of representatives and the
    2-9  lieutenant governor to appoint five members of the senate to form a
   2-10  delegation to travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with the members
   2-11  of the Texas delegation to Congress to express opposition to the
   2-12  proposed Clinton energy policy and urge them to reconsider support
   2-13  of this plan.