[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 102 (Friday, July 20, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H4368]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  AMERICA NEEDS A BALANCED APPROACH TO ENERGY DEVELOPMENT, INCLUDING 
                   SEEKING ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES

  (Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, the United States has about 2 
percent of the known reserves of oil in the world. We use 25 percent of 
the world's oil, and we now import 56 percent of the oil that we use. 
This is up from 34 percent that we imported at the time of the Arab oil 
embargo.
  Since 1970, except for a short blip produced by Prudhoe Bay, every 
year in the United States we have found less oil and pumped less oil.
  Mr. Speaker, it does not make good sense to me that if we have only 2 
percent of the known reserves of oil in the world, that we should rush 
out and find it and pump it. If we were able to do that tomorrow, what 
would we do the day after tomorrow?
  Mr. Speaker, we need a balanced approach, which means we need to rely 
very heavily on alternatives, and we need to start moving in that 
direction.

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