[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19934]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



             ADMINISTRATION PLAN TO RELEASE OIL IS RECKLESS

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Madam Speaker, after 7\1/2\ years of no energy policy 
and skyrocketing fuel prices, the Clinton-Gore administration plans to 
release 30 to 35 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic 
Petroleum Reserve. It is not that we do not appreciate the gesture, but 
it is just a 2-day supply.
  But there is a bigger problem. This is the first time that the 
reserve has been tapped since 1991, when the United States was in the 
middle of the Persian Gulf War and our oil supply was in danger of 
being cut off.
  Madam Speaker, the administration's decision is ill-conceived, 
illogical, ill-advised, and perhaps even illegal. Even the 
administrations's own top advisors oppose tapping the oil reserve, 
including Treasury Secretary Summers, who said that the decision would 
be ``a major and substantial policy mistake.''
  This Republican Congress has tried to promote a sound energy policy, 
both domestically and abroad, but the administration has vetoed every 
attempt at doing so. Yet 46 days before the election, the Clinton-Gore 
administration announces a desperate plan, which will not lower oil 
prices but will endanger our national security.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the Clinton-Gore plan as a blatant 
political ploy.

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