[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 112 (Wednesday, July 31, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H5256-H5257]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF GEORGE MITCHELL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Olson) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, as a member of the House Energy Action Team, 
I want to open this Special Order by paying tribute to a man who made 
American energy independence possible in the 21st century, George 
Mitchell.
  Mr. Mitchell left us this past Friday. He was 94 years old, 6 years 
short of a century. He was truly a larger-than-life figure in Texas, 
America, and the world. He spent more than 20 years of his life risking 
tens of millions of his own dollars looking to unlock the natural gas 
and oil that he knew existed in shale plates all across this country.

                              {time}  2030

  In the mid-1990s, Mr. Mitchell finally succeeded in tapping into the 
Barnett shale plate outside of Dallas and Fort Worth. He got his first 
operation well, profit well, after 35 wells. The 36th one was the one 
that made the difference.
  The Barnett shale plate led to the Haynesville shale plate in western 
Louisiana and eastern Texas. That led to the Marcellus shale plate in 
western New York, western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. That led to 
the Bakken shale plate in North Dakota and eastern Montana. And that 
led back home to the Eagle Ford shale plate south of San Antonio, going 
down to the Rio Grande border with Mexico.
  Mr. Mitchell came into this world with a very special title--``BOI,'' 
born on island, a title of reverence for someone who is born on 
Galveston Island. He was born on May 21, 1919. Galveston was still 
struggling to recover from America's worst natural disaster--the 
Galveston hurricane of 1900, in which at least 6,000 Americans died in 
one night in September of that year.
  But being ``BOI,'' Mr. Mitchell did not despair. He felt resurgence, 
he felt hope. He took that resurgence and hope to College Station and 
Texas A&M University where he studied petroleum engineering and 
geology. He finished first in his class and was the captain of the 
varsity tennis team. Texas A&M gave him the tools he needed to succeed.
  He gave tools back to Texas A&M. He donated $4.2 million for a new 
Aggie tennis stadium and $35 million for two new physics buildings.
  When Alzheimer's took his wife of nearly 70 years, Cynthia, he gave 
the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas' oldest 
medical school, millions to study research like Alzheimer's.
  He gave $20 million for biomedical research at the MD Anderson Cancer 
Center and brought Dr. Steven Hawking to Texas A&M to help with 
studying degenerative diseases, like the one Dr. Hawking had that he 
overcame for most of his adult life.
  George Mitchell literally built The Woodlands north of Houston, one 
of the fastest growing and safest communities in America. George 
Mitchell has a very special place in my heart because my daughter, 
Kate, saw her idol Taylor Swift at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion 
in The Woodlands.
  Mr. Mitchell never forgot his hometown of Galveston, Texas. He had 
the vision to restore the Galveston Strand, bringing the cruise ships 
back to Galveston, and started a Mardi Gras celebration larger than New 
Orleans.
  George Mitchell was a visionary who tapped into American 
exceptionalism and left a lasting mark on Texas, America, and the 
world.
  George Mitchell gave my kids and every kid in America a very special 
gift--the gift of freedom that comes from knowing that a foreign nation 
cannot hurt our economy by taking away the oil and gas we need.
  I saw this firsthand in 1979 when the Ayatollah overthrew the Shah of 
Iran. The Shah came here to America in exile being treated for cancer 
that ultimately took his life. The Arab world was not happy that we let 
the Shah come to America, and so OPEC took away every drop of oil that 
they had been giving our country for over 20 years.
  I was 16 years old when that happened. I had just got my driver's 
license. My job was to drive our Chevy

[[Page H5257]]

Silverado pick-up truck down to the gas station, depending upon the 
last digit of my license plate, odd or even, to fill up the truck with 
a maximum of 20 gallons of gasoline. The price of that gasoline doubled 
overnight.
  Because of George Mitchell, American children will never have to go 
through that again if we can follow his dream of developing shale 
plates all across this great Nation.
  George Mitchell embodied the qualities of hard work, innovation, 
compassion, and a can-do spirit that make America the greatest Nation 
on Earth.
  We are better off today because of George and Cynthia Mitchell. May 
God bless the Mitchell family, their 10 children, and everyone whose 
life was touched by their presence.
  In naval aviation we say ``bravo zulu, Mr. Mitchell, bravo zulu.'' 
You are cleared to depart the pattern and rejoin Cynthia in a life of 
shared eternity.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________