News from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission

Jim Palmer, Director of Information

March 28, 2000

NEWS ADVISORY: ATTENTION NEWS DIRECTORS AND ASSIGNMENT EDITORS:

OKLAHOMA CORPORATION COMMISSIONER DENISE BODE TO TESTIFY IN WASHINGTON ON "AMERCIA AT RISK: U.S. DEPENDENCY ON FOREIGN OIL"

BODE IS LEAD WITNESS BEFORE JOINT U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE

At the request of U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski, Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Denise Bode will address America’s risky dependence on foreign imported oil and the need for a national energy policy when she goes before the joint Senate committee.

Senate Majority leader Trent Lott confirmed Sunday on "Meet the Press" that oil imports and lack of a national energy policy will be hot issues before the senate over the next few weeks.

It was when Bode was President of the Independent Petroleum Association of American (IPAA) that she and the IPAA membership requested a study of the national security risks imposed by America’s growing dependence on foreign oil imports. The study and its results were completed in 1994 and are the reasons Bode will testify Tuesday.

The hearing is set for 3:00 p.m., ET, Tuesday, March 28, in room SH-216 of the Hart Senate Office Building.

Just prior to her Senate testimony, Bode will also be a guest on Alaska Senator Murkowski’s TV show. If you want to request a feed of the show you may call Cindy Bookout with Senator Murkowski’s office in Washington D.C. at 202-224-8767.

-occ-