[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 46 (Friday, March 29, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H3174-H3175]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
            AMERICAN LIBERATION FROM FOREIGN OIL DEPENDENCE

  (Mr. PETE GEREN of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PETE GEREN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join many of my 
colleagues in a month-long effort to bring attention to our growing 
dependence on foreign all. On the fifth anniversary of the end of the 
Persian Gulf war and the liberation of Kuwait, it is the logical time 
to reflect on our domestic oil production, which is at a 40-year low.
  Today there are 85,000 fewer people working in the oil and gas 
industry in

[[Page H3175]]

the United States than there were at the beginning of the gulf war. 
Everything that the United States had at stake at the beginning of the 
gulf war is still on the line, even more so. Americans consume 17 
million barrels of oil a day, and today over 50 percent of that 
consumption is imported from foreign sources.
  Last year, a Department of Commerce study revealed that the Nation's 
reliance on foreign oil was a threat to our national security, because 
it increases our vulnerability to oil supply interruptions.

  Mr. Speaker, foreign oil dependency can be alleviated. One way would 
be to allow our Nation's industry more access to promising areas 
offshore. Our Government also must lift unnecessary and burdensome 
regulations that provide no environmental benefits but cost American 
jobs and drive our oil and gas industry overseas.
  Congress must take the lead in developing a Federal energy policy 
that encourages rather than punishes domestic oil and gas production. 
As the world's leader, America must learn from history's mistakes 
rather than repeat them. This is a job's issue, it is a national 
security issue, and time is not on our side.

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