[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 42 (Tuesday, March 10, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H3127]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1430
                            GREEN HARD HATS

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, someday we may be using alternative 
energy, and we must work to that end. But right now we need clean crude 
oil for energy.
  We should drill safely off our own shores because that will make us 
energy independent. It will increase jobs. Some of those offshore jobs 
pay up to $100,000 a year. The leases that oil companies pay for are 
expensive, and that lease revenue comes to the U.S. Treasury.
  Madam Speaker, we are also going to need crude oil in the future for 
other things, and here is why. Last week on one of the coldest days in 
D.C. during 8 inches of snow, the global warming folks were in town. 
They were all wearing green hard hats, and I asked one did she know 
what that hard hat was made out of, and she told me plastic. Well, I 
asked her where did the plastic come from, and she said, ``Well, it's 
plastic. It's made out of plastic.''
  Madam Speaker, plastic is not an element or mineral. That plastic 
helmet and much of what we use daily is a derivative of crude oil. We 
are always going to need crude oil for the thousands of products that 
come from it.
  We need to take care of America and drill safely off our shores and 
keep jobs and revenue in America instead of sending it to the Middle 
East.
  And that's just the way it is.

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