[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2696]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                AMERICA IS SUBSERVIENT TO OPEC COUNTRIES

  (Mr. GEKAS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, how long can we Americans tolerate the 
spectacle of our country groveling at the feet of OPEC countries and 
begging them to produce more oil, pleading with them to send us more 
oil, pleading with them to reduce the cost of gasoline at the pump, of 
our energy costs?
  We are subservient to the OPEC countries. The greatest country in the 
world is being dictated to in its practices by OPEC. We cannot tolerate 
that. We shall not sustain that.
  For those purposes, we are going to begin to circulate very soon a 
bill which will create a blue ribbon commission to determine how within 
10 years we can become self-sufficient in energy. No more of this 
dependence on foreign oil. We can do it ourselves and we must.
  We must explore to the fullest extent the oil possibilities in our 
own land, in Alaska, and wherever energy can be produced and conserved. 
We must give offshore drilling a fair chance with due diligence and due 
respect to the environment. But we must do everything possible so that 
we do not have to be enslaved by OPEC.




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