[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 86 (Wednesday, June 15, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H4194-H4195]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  NATURAL RESOURCES AND AMERICAN JOBS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Denham) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DENHAM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about natural resources 
and whether or not they can create American jobs. The answer is yes; 
with oil production alone, 1.2 million jobs between the three bills 
that Republicans passed out of committee and off of the House floor; a 
total of 2 million jobs if you add in the American Energy Independence 
and Price Reduction Act; 2 million American jobs. Not only could we be 
energy independent in our great Nation, but we can put Americans back 
to work with 2 million jobs alone in this area.
  We need to have States' rights, allowing States to explore oil 
exploration or natural gas or utilize all of their natural resources, 
whether you're in Alaska and you want to drill in ANWR, or you're the 
Governor of California and you want to pass Tranquillon Ridge and clean 
up the old oil wells off of the coast. States should have those rights 
to be able to do that and to be able to put their own people back to 
work in those States.
  The President's policies on our natural resources are just flawed. My 
friends across the aisle continue to talk about the bills that come off 
of this floor, whether they create jobs or not. This is indisputable, 2 
million jobs. You don't have to like these jobs, but nevertheless, they 
are American

[[Page H4195]]

jobs and it gives us our energy independence.
  The President has said we have 2 percent of the world's oil, but we 
utilize 25 percent of the world's oil with our vehicles. Now I agree, 
we use 25 percent; we've got a lot of cars on the roads, we have a lot 
of goods movement, but 2 percent? The number is flawed again. As we 
went through the Natural Resources Committee, we have over 65 percent 
of the world's natural resources between natural gas, oil, and oil 
shale, we just have to be willing to go get it. So rather than going to 
Brazil, rather than going to the Middle East and putting our troops at 
risk, we ought to be self-sufficient and utilize our own natural 
resources and put Americans back to work in the process.
  Now in my district, we've got natural resource issues as well. We've 
seen timber issues across the Nation. In Arizona, we've seen 
catastrophic disasters with national forests. In my district we've got 
national or natural forests as well. These national forests we've got 
to manage better. We've got to be able to take the fuel off of the 
forest floor. We've got to be able to harvest some of the timber. We'll 
never catch up at this point because our timber harvesting plants are 
so far behind. But nevertheless, we've got to put Americans back to 
work, we've got to put Californians back to work dealing with our 
timber industry.
  And in the Central Valley, where we have the largest abundance of ag 
production, all of the fresh fruits, the nuts, packaged salads, we have 
so many different things that California produces and yet we see some 
of the highest unemployment in the Nation. As our national unemployment 
continues to escalate, we're at 9.1 percent now, we're double that in 
the Central Valley, and it's a direct correlation to the water. One of 
our natural resources, when you shut off the water to the valley and 
only give it 10 percent of the contracted allocation, you have 36 
percent unemployment. And in some cities it's even higher. When you go 
to the food lines and you see Americans--44 percent unemployment in 
some cities--it seems un-American to not utilize our natural resources.
  So we have the ability in this great Nation. We have the bills that 
we're passing off of this floor. What we need to do is have the will to 
move them through both Houses and encourage the President to have 
American jobs--not Republican jobs, these aren't Republican jobs, not 
Democratic jobs, but American jobs; putting people back to work; 
avoiding the natural disasters that happen with forest fires and the 
natural disasters we have with flooding when we don't manage our water; 
creating clean energy in the process. But the most important issue, 
when you've got 9.1 percent unemployment and escalating across the 
Nation, when you've got double that in the Central Valley and 
continuing to escalate but you have the natural resources and the 
ability to solve your own problems but ignore the fact and don't do so, 
we have an American problem with jobs.
  As Republicans, we are willing to fix that problem. We will continue 
to pass these natural resources bills, but at some point we would ask 
our friends across the aisle to work with us. We will not solve 
California's energy problems or the Nation's job issue without 
addressing our natural resources.

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