[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 48 (Thursday, March 22, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H1525]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THE PRESIDENT NEEDS TO GET WITH THE PROGRAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, last week President Obama was in 
an oilfield in New Mexico, and the President said:

       Under my administration, America is producing more oil 
     today than at any time in the last 8 years. That's a fact. 
     That is a fact.

  He went on to say:

       You have my word that we will keep drilling everywhere we 
     can, and we'll do it while protecting the health and safety 
     of the American people.

  And he said:

       A recent independent analysis showed that over the last 36 
     years, there's been no connection between the amount of oil 
     that we drill in this country and the price of gasoline.

  ``There's no connection,'' he went on to say. And then the President 
added:

       Even if we drilled every square inch of this country, we'd 
     still only have 2, 3, or 4 percent of the world's known oil 
     reserves.

  That's just not true. It's just simply not true. Today, on 
television, the former president of Shell Oil, John Hofmeister, said--
and he ought to know, he was in the oil business. He says that there is 
a trillion--a trillion, get that; not a billion, but a trillion-plus 
barrels of oil in America, more oil than there is in Saudi Arabia, and 
it's not counted by the President, and he's misleading the American 
people.
  The reason he said that is because when the President talked about 
the increase in oil production, he was talking about the increase in 
oil production on private land outside the Federal Government's grip.
  When you talk about the Federal lands, where we know there's tons of 
oil, oil production fell by 11 percent last year. It went down. So 
we're not drilling for that oil. We're not drilling off the Continental 
Shelf. We're not drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. We're not drilling in 
Alaska and the ANWR. We're not using coal oil shale for oil.
  And so we could have another trillion barrels of oil, much more than 
we'll ever need, more than in Saudi Arabia, if we just did what the 
President says that we're already doing. But we're not doing it.
  I'm going to be down here on the floor next week, and I'm going to 
show that the applications for permits to drill in this country have 
gone down, gone down by 36 percent since President Obama took office in 
2008. So he says we're drilling everywhere. The permits that have been 
requested by the oil companies and those who will produce gasoline in 
this country have gone down by 36 percent since the President took 
office.
  Now, let me just end up by saying this: the price of gasoline, from 
2000 to 2009, was an average of $2.09 a gallon. The average retail 
price of gasoline when President Obama took office was $1.85 a gallon. 
And the average price of gasoline today is $3.88 a gallon, and 
everybody in America knows that. That's an increase of 86 percent.
  So when the President goes on these trips around the country to make 
statements to the American people about the great things they're doing 
for energy production in this country, he should get his facts correct. 
Either he's misleading us intentionally or somebody's giving him the 
wrong information. But we have an abundance of energy in this country 
that's not being tapped.
  I have no problem with us looking at alternative energy sources like 
solar, wind, geothermal, all those things, nuclear, but those things 
are going to take a long time, and we're still going to have to depend 
on oil and fossil fuels for many years to come. And the President needs 
to tell the truth and get with the program.


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, let me just say, if I may, that I 
try my best not to direct any comments to the President. When I speak 
on the floor, I usually say, ``If I were talking to the President.'' So 
I always qualify that.
  Thank you very much. With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance 
of my time.

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