[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 43 (Wednesday, April 17, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H1389]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               ENERGY INDEPENDENCE FOR THE UNITED STATES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the 
important issue of energy independence for the United States.
  We have seen very clearly since the developments of 9/11 that we have 
significant foreign policy complications emerging from the development 
of Muslim fundamentalists, extremist violence in the Middle East, and 
of course, we have seen the tremendous tensions that have been raised 
in recent months within the area of Israel and Palestine and the 
tremendous conflicts, and in particular, the very, very difficult 
situation of the suicide bombers who are blowing themselves up in cafes 
and restaurants and killing innocent men, women and children, in many 
instances, leaving often dozens of people severely maimed and deformed.
  What is particularly disturbing is to read news reports that one of 
our supposed allies in the region, Saudi Arabia, has actually been 
paying the families of these suicide bombers, essentially aiding and 
abetting the commission of these horrific acts of violence against 
innocent civilians by these suicide bombers.

                              {time}  1830

  Mr. Speaker, the situation that exists today is that the United 
States is dependent on foreign oil for about 50 percent of our energy 
requirements. I believe for us as a Nation that is an intolerable 
situation and that we need to take stock of this.
  The President put forward a very positive proposal to open up for 
drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and pursue a host of 
additional reforms that we passed out of this House and the other body 
is taking up, and I applaud the other body for finally getting to the 
issue. I believe we need a more aggressive proposal to reduce our 
dependence on foreign oil, specifically Middle Eastern oil over the 
next 10 to 15 years. What I put forward is that we begin an aggressive 
program using every tool that we have available in our research and 
development budgets, in our Tax Code, to do things to make electric 
vehicles more attractive for people to purchase, to develop alternative 
energy sources.
  We have a tremendous potential with wind energy, with solar energy. 
Indeed, I sit on the Committee on Science and Technology, and we have 
held hearings on the concept of space-based solar power, energy that 
can be collected by satellites from space and beamed to the Earth, 
energy that can be collected from the surface of the Moon and beamed to 
the Earth.
  The potential for fusion energy is another great area where we should 
be investing more. We in the United States need to embark in the 
months, weeks, years ahead on an aggressive proposal to reduce our 
dependence on foreign oil and specifically Middle Eastern oil. I 
believe many of our so-called allies in the Middle East are not allies 
at all. They are working directly contrary to the interests of the 
United States and, really, democratic nations all over the world. We 
should be about the business of moving any dependence we may have on 
those nations; and the best way to secure that for our future and the 
future of our children is to develop these alternative energy sources 
so that we as a culture and society can deal with those countries on a 
more even basis.
  It is very obvious to me when we look at what is going on in Europe 
that the European community is collectively too dependent on Middle 
Eastern crude. I believe we in the United States could end up in the 
same way in the next 10 to 20 years; and, therefore, I believe we need 
to develop these alternative energy sources, and we need more 
conservation. This should be a long-term project over the next 5 to 10 
years where we employ every tool available to us so we are no longer 
importing oil.
  Not only do I believe this would be good for our foreign policy 
positions, I believe it would be good for peace throughout the world. I 
think it would be good for peace in the Middle East; and certainly it 
would be good for our domestic economy, our balance of payments. I 
implore the House of Representatives, particularly those who serve on 
the Committee on Science and Technology, those who serve on the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce, the Committee on Appropriations, to 
collectively come together in the weeks and months ahead and develop a 
cogent solution to deal with this pressing problem.

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