[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 147 (Tuesday, September 16, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H8148]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THIS BILL WILL NOT SOLVE THE ENERGY PROBLEM

  (Mr. WITTMAN of Virginia asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WITTMAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, today we have before us an 
energy bill, an energy bill that was presented to us at 9:45 last 
night, 260 pages long, and very little time to digest what is probably 
one of the more important pieces of legislation that we will address in 
this century. I will tell you this is extraordinarily important.
  People in my district ask me all the time, ``Rob, we see this issue, 
it's an important issue for our Nation, why can't we come together and 
use some commonsense to solve it? Why can't Congress work together?''
  Well, folks, this is not the way to work together. This is not an 
inclusive process. When we are given the opportunity to make sure that 
the best and brightest ideas come forward for a policy that's so 
important to the future of this country, we need to make sure the 
opportunity is there to bring forth the best solutions to this.
  We will not solve this energy problem with this bill. This will not 
happen. It doesn't provide for nuclear energy, it doesn't unlock the 
resources that we have here. We're the only nation in the world that 
refuses to use its own resources to solve its own problems.
  Folks, we have got to make sure that everybody's ideas make it into 
this bill. This bill does not provide for that. It's not acceptable to 
the American people. We should not have this going forward.

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