[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13060]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                               GAS CRISIS

  (Mr. CHABOT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, the first summer of the new millennium is 
well under way. Americans have been looking forward to summer vacations 
with their families all year. Unfortunately, they are discovering that 
the temperature is not the only thing rising this summer. Across the 
Nation, gas prices are shooting through the roof; and American families 
are feeling the pinch in their wallets.
  But since the beginning of the gas crisis, the Clinton-Gore 
administration has been missing in action. In fact, Energy Secretary 
Bill Richardson even admitted that ``we were caught napping.'' The 
response of the President's spokesman, Joe Lockhart, to the high prices 
was, ``Prices tend to go up a bit this time of year.''
  Well, Mr. Speaker, it is high time that Secretary Richardson and the 
rest of the administration woke up. The Vice President, Al Gore, has 
long tried to increase gas prices and taxes on gas as a way to get us 
out of our cars and supposedly to clean up the environment. Well, he is 
getting his way.
  Let us face it, we are not being gouged at the gas pumps, we are 
being gored.

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