[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 73 (Tuesday, June 13, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H4227]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                BLAME WHITE HOUSE FOR HIGHER GAS PRICES

  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, we understand that today there is tremendous 
growing concern about the rapidly increasing price of gasoline in this 
country. The American people need to know that the President, in 1995, 
vetoed legislation which would have allowed drilling and oil 
exploration in one tiny portion of the coastal plain of Alaska. Less 
than 3,000 acres out of the 19.8 million acre Arctic National Wildlife 
Refuge contains what the geologic survey tells us is up to 16 billion 
barrels of oil. This is 30 years of Saudi oil.
  The President also signed an Executive Order putting 80 percent of 
the outer continental shelf off limits for oil drilling. This is many 
billions more barrels of oil in those areas. So if the American people 
like higher oil prices, they should write the White House and thank 
them, because that is where the blame and the responsibility lies.
  Gas prices could be much, much lower if the President had not vetoed 
that 1995 legislation and if he would allow more oil drilling and 
exploration in the outer continental shelf.

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