[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 106 (Wednesday, June 25, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H6012]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 BIG OIL DOESN'T NEED MORE LAND TO DRILL; THEY SHOULD USE IT OR LOSE IT

  (Mr. WILSON of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. WILSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, with gas prices reaching $4 a gallon 
and rising, the American people are searching for real relief at the 
pump. While Washington Republicans continue to advocate for the same 
failed energy policies that got us where we are today, Democrats are 
providing American consumers with real solutions.
  We must increase drilling. I support a new piece of legislation that 
says to oil companies: Use it or lose it. Use the leases you have on 
land where we know there is oil or lose those leases to an oil company 
that is willing to drill.
  Oil companies that are raking in record profits are currently sitting 
on 68 million acres of leased oil-rich Federal land that they are not 
drilling. The amount of oil which could be produced from these reserves 
would nearly double the total U.S. production. If oil companies drilled 
those 68 million acres, the U.S. could produce an additional 4.8 
million barrels a day.
  Mr. Speaker, this week, we will have the opportunity to tell Big Oil 
to either use the leases they have or to lose them.

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