[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 147 (Tuesday, September 16, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H8136]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           THE COST OF ENERGY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Wamp) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WAMP. Madam Speaker, over the last 14 years that I have had the 
privilege to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, I have tried 
not to be excessively partisan. Frankly, having grown up a Democrat and 
become a Republican during the Reagan movement in this country, I feel 
like neither party has an exclusive on integrity, neither party has an 
exclusive on ideas.
  But I feel compelled, Madam Speaker, to come to the floor today to 
say that one issue right now is burning in the American public like no 
other issue, and that is the cost of energy. This morning, the economy 
is sliding rapidly downward, primarily because of energy.
  Now there's talk in the House here and in the Congress of a second 
stimulus bill that includes a variety of things that the new majority, 
the Democrat majority, has cobbled together. But the most important 
thing we could do for the American economy is to pass the American 
Energy Act, which is the Republican bill that opens up all of our oil 
and gas resources in this country. That is the most important thing we 
could do for the economy. For jobs and productivity and exports and 
standing our country back up economically, it is the most important 
thing.
  Yet today it's going to be suppressed again because the Democratic 
energy alternative is a very limited, watered-down effort, designed, 
honestly, to just give some of their members a vote so they can say, 
Oh, we voted to drill a little bit and go home to campaign. Yet their 
idea of economic stimulus is going to be more government, more 
spending, more borrowed money, and it's really unfortunate.
  It's really unfortunate because the most important thing we could do 
is just pass this robust energy bill, and in our bill we share the 
revenues with the States that opt in, that want to have Outer 
Continental Shelf oil and gas exploration in the zone where the oil and 
gas is, in the Gulf or off the West Coast, this resource that's been 
locked up for a long period of time, that we now know has to be 
unlocked, and Hurricane Ike was another reminder over the weekend that 
we need to diversify our supply, increase our supply, and have a robust 
approach to this, and not a very limited approach.
  I will tell you where the problem lies. The American people are 
really frustrated. I have local officials calling me every day, angry, 
because the people they represent don't have anywhere to turn. Gas in 
east Tennessee was $4.99 a gallon this weekend. People on fixed incomes 
are hurting and hurting and hurting and they wonder what the heck is 
going on in Congress and how is this happening. I have got to tell you, 
it's called extremism.
  Now environmentalism is a good thing if it's a responsible, logical, 
commonsense resource management idea. It's a good thing. But extreme 
environmentalism is the problem. Extreme environmentalism has locked up 
our energy resources for a long period of time. And these Sierra Club 
types lobby the Congress and they score these Members and they say, If 
you don't vote with us all the time, you're somehow a radical person in 
the back pockets of oil and gas, and all this. Let me tell you, they're 
extreme.
  On every new permit in this country, every single one for oil and gas 
exploration, they have immediately filed a lawsuit to tie it up in 
court, and they have got an unlimited supply of lawyers to sue to keep 
us from bringing any new oil and gas resources on the market. That is a 
huge problem. It's called extremism in the environmental community.
  For years and years, they have been lobbying this place, and I have 
been here, and I have seen it. Now it's come home to roost. These are 
our problems.
  Today, we need to give the Republicans a vote on the American Energy 
Act today in the House, and let's unleash the economy again and lower 
the cost of energy before it's too late, guys.
  Ladies and gentlemen of the House, this is an important day. It's not 
about politics, it's about the people we represent and the fact they 
have nowhere else to turn. We need action. We need it today. This is 
not a partisan thing. There are really responsible people on both sides 
of the aisle that need to come together. And the liberals from San 
Francisco don't need to govern national policy.

                          ____________________