[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 120 (Tuesday, July 22, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1515]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             DRILL RESPONSIBLY IN LEASED LANDS ACT OF 2008

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                               speech of

                           HON. RUSH D. HOLT

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 17, 2008

  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the DRILL Act, H.R. 
6515. We continue to hear from my colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle that opening up more Federal lands to oil and gas drilling will 
be the magic bullet that will solve our energy crisis. They continue to 
try to mislead the American people into believing that drilling on the 
Outer Continental Shelf, OCS, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 
will bring instantaneous relief to American families desperately 
seeking help with painful gas prices. There is no easy solution to this 
crisis, and it is widely accepted that drilling in OCS would save only 
pennies per gallon, more than a decade down the road. It is unseemly 
that my colleagues would continue to take advantage of the suffering of 
Americans to promote their own political aims.
  Currently 81 percent of the oil and gas deposits known in our 
Nation's Federal lands is available to be leased for drilling. Sixty-
eight million acres, approximately 75 percent, of the lands open for 
drilling both onshore and offshore currently are leased by oil 
companies who are not using them for production. It is estimated that 
these leased but unused lands could produce an additional 4.8 million 
barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day, 
nearly doubling U.S. oil production and cutting oil imports by a third. 
This includes the 20 million acres with an estimated 10.6 billion 
barrels of oil in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, NPR-A, 
currently available for drilling but most of which is lying unused.
  The DRILL act would require oil companies to certify to the 
Department of the Interior that they actively are developing on the 
lands that they have already leased. If these oil companies are not 
producing on these lands, they either would have to relinquish these 
leases or start producing on them before they could apply to lease 
additional lands. It would encourage expedited oil production by 
requiring the Secretary of Interior to offer at least one lease sale 
annually in NPR-A. H.R. 6515 would require the Secretary of 
Transportation to extend the Alaskan oil and gas pipeline to NPR-A, and 
require the President to make improvements to the existing oil and gas 
pipeline so that we can export oil more expeditiously. Finally, the 
DRILL Act would prevent the export of Alaskan oil and gas so that this 
supply is available for American consumers.
  This is common sense legislation, and I urge my colleagues who keep 
shouting ``drill, drill, drill'' to support it. We do not need to open 
up more lands to oil and gas drilling when they are not utilizing the 
leases and resources they already have.
  This is only a short term solution to America's energy needs. 
Currently we produce 3 percent of the world's oil and consume 25 
percent. Unless we find a way to dramatically reduce our consumption we 
will never be able to drill our way to energy independence. I look 
forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to 
develop a long term solution to this crisis.

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