[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 71 (Tuesday, May 22, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H2390]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          PRESIDENT'S PLAN MEANS SOLUTION TO THE ENERGY CRUNCH

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, America does not have enough energy to supply 
all of the demands today. Californians are facing rolling blackouts and 
Americans everywhere are paying nearly $2 a gallon for gasoline.
  Mr. Speaker, this energy crunch should not be a surprise to anyone. 
We have known for years that this was coming, and we have not built a 
major oil refinery in the United States in 25 years. It has been just 
as long since we have built a nuclear power plant.
  Our dependence on foreign oil has gone up since the 1970s and 1980s, 
not down, and the rules for when and where one can sell different kinds 
of gasoline are so complicated, it is amazing we can keep track of it 
at all.
  This energy crunch has been looming for years, and the previous 
administration did nothing to prevent it from happening. Last week, our 
new President presented a balanced comprehensive and sensible plan for 
getting us out of this mess. But the liberals in town are calling for 
price caps. If there is anything we learned in the 20th century, it is 
that Soviet-style command economies do not work. Just look at what 
happened in California.
  Mr. Speaker, we need real solutions. Congress needs to get behind the 
President's plan, and we need to do it now.

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