[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 96 (Wednesday, June 11, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H5302-H5303]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               THE ENERGY CRISIS AND THE AMERICAN ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, we have been talking about the 
energy crisis in this country now for some time, and it has captured 
the imagination and the attention of probably every person in America, 
all 300 million people, because the price of gasoline is now over $4 a 
gallon.
  It has affected every family as far as their ability to live the kind 
of life they want to because they have to spend so much money on 
energy. It has affected the price of our food because the people who 
transport our commodities across the country--the truckers--are now 
paying $4.50 to $5 a gallon for diesel fuel. In fact, they've 
demonstrated here at the United States Capitol with their trucks 
because it's so expensive for them to do their jobs.
  We had a hearing today on how China is being involved in the United 
States and in Central and South America. They're buying up more and 
more of the oil because they have an economic expansion program, 
funded, in large part, by the money that we give to them in trade. 
India is now taking more and more energy and oil. So the demand around 
the world is growing at a very rapid rate.
  My colleagues on the other side of the aisle are always talking about 
new energy--new sources of energy, new technologies. I'm for all of 
that. We all want to clean up the environment, but with the demand for 
oil growing at such a rapid rate all around the world and with these 
countries that have more and more ability to buy oil and to use oil 
because they need more because their populations are growing so 
rapidly, we need to do something about energy in this country.
  We have the ability from coal shale, I understand, to take care of 
this country for a couple of hundred years, as far as oil is concerned, 
by converting that shale into a usable energy oil shale. We have the 
ability to get 1 million to 2 million barrels of oil a day out of the 
ANWR in Alaska. We're not doing that. We have the ability to get 1 
million or 2 million barrels a day off the Outer Continental Shelf. 
We're not doing that. We have up to a 500-year supply of natural gas in 
this country. We're not drilling for that. It's all because of what 
people call environmental concerns.
  I would just like to say to my colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle that we should be concerned about the environment, but we should 
also be concerned about the economy of this country. We can't survive 
if the energy costs continue to go up and up and up while we wait on 
the transition to new technologies. Those new technologies are going to 
come, but it may take 1 year, 5 years, 10 years from now before they 
are able to pick up the major part of the energy needs of this country. 
We can't wait that long. We simply can't. We could become a second-rate 
economic power if we don't get control of our energy needs and are able 
to get the energy that is necessary for this country to grow 
economically.
  I just don't understand why my colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle and in the other chamber on the other side of the aisle continue 
to say we should not drill for oil in our own country.

                              {time}  2015

  The American people, if you went out on the street and asked anybody 
at any service station, will tell you they don't care where we drill, 
because they want their gas prices down.
  Now, we can drill in an environmentally safe way, but my colleagues 
on the other side of the aisle will not allow us to do it. It is just 
unexplainable, as far as I am concerned. We have the resources in this 
country, we have the ability in this country, to provide for the oil 
resources that are necessary to lower the gas prices in this country, 
and we are not doing it. And we are not going to do it as long as the 
other side, the Democrats in this Congress, continue to block us, 
because of ``environmental concerns.''
  There has to be a balance between the economic concerns in this 
country and the environment concerns, and my colleagues on the other 
side of the aisle are simply not realizing that. They have the 
``ostrich syndrome.'' They have got their heads in the sand.
  Gasoline prices have gone up $1.50 in the last 2 years since this 
body has been taken over by the Democratic Party. This is intolerable. 
They said they were going to do something about the energy crisis in 
this country when it was $1.50 less per gallon. We have to do something 
about it, and we have to start now.
  We talked about energy independence during the Carter years back in 
the

[[Page H5303]]

seventies, and we haven't done anything about it. We had gas lines real 
long back in those days and we were going to become energy independent. 
We have not done it. The Congress of the United States has been 
controlled by the other party up until 1994, and we haven't done 
anything about the energy shortfalls in this country.
  It is time that we become really bipartisan in the search for energy. 
It is time for us to work together. We need to be able to explore this 
country for the natural resources we have, the oil that we have in the 
ground and the natural gas we have in the ground, and we are not doing 
it.
  I would just like to end by saying this, Mr. Speaker, to my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle: Let's work together. Let's 
explore and drill for the oil that we have in this country so we can 
truly move towards energy independence and at the same time move toward 
the new technologies that will give us more and more of a clean Earth. 
That is what we all want. But at the same time, we have got to have 
energy now. We have to drill for it now. And I hope my colleagues will 
realize this before it is too late.
  This is going to be a major issue in this campaign this fall, and I 
hope they will realize that and come to the conclusion that we ought to 
become truly energy independent and move in that direction.

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