[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5363]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 ENVIRONMENTALISTS ARE HURTING POOR AND WORKING PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, a few days ago it was announced that 
California utility rates were going up 50 percent on top of an earlier 
10 percent increase. Is this a sign of things to come for the rest of 
the Nation? Already people all over the country have seen their utility 
bills go up significantly in recent months.
  Also, a few days ago it was reported that OPEC has voted to cut oil 
production by a million barrels a day, and that our gas prices are 
going to greatly increase this summer. The Air Transport Association 
told me a few months ago that each 1 cent increase in jet fuel costs 
the aviation industry $200 million. Thus, if oil goes up even just a 
little more, airline tickets will have to go up, forcing huge numbers 
more onto our highways, which are hundreds of times more dangerous than 
flying.
  Who is responsible for all this? We can thank environmental 
extremists, who almost always seem to come from wealthy families, and 
who are not really hurt if prices go up on everything. In California 
they have protested and have kept any new power plants from being built 
for many years despite greatly increased demand produced by the 
Internet and population growth.
  All over this country, though, we have groups of environmentalists 
protesting any time anyone wants to dig for any coal, drill for any 
oil, cut any trees, or produce any natural gas. This has driven up 
prices for everything and has destroyed jobs and has hurt the poor and 
those on fixed incomes the most. It has hurt truckers and farmers, and 
has driven many of our manufacturing jobs to other countries.
  The current issue of Consumers' Research Magazine has an article 
entitled, ``Why Natural Gas Problems Loom,'' by an editorial writer for 
USA Today. Listen to parts of this article. ``The problem is that the 
same government pushing natural gas demand is also keeping vast stocks 
of it essentially bottled up underground through tight and sometimes 
absolute restrictions on what can be done on the land and sea above. 
Two hundred thirteen trillion cubic feet of natural gas are off limits 
to drillers, thanks to a vast web of regulations and moratoria on 
drilling. The reason for all this is simple,'' the article says. It 
says, ``Environmentalists and preservationists have long pressured 
government to restrict or ban drillers. President Clinton, shortly 
before leaving office, took still more supplies away through his 
national monument declarations.''
  Some of these environmental groups, Sierra Club, Earth First, and 
others, have gone so far to the left that they make even Socialists 
look conservative. They are really hurting the working people by 
destroying so many good jobs and driving up prices at the same time. 
They tell former loggers and coal miners and others not to worry, that 
they can retrain them for jobs in the tourist industry; ecotourism. But 
who in his right mind wants to give up a $15- or $20-an-hour job for 
one paying barely above minimum wage, which is what most tourism jobs 
pay.
  These radicals hurt most the very people they claim to help, and help 
most the big corporations they claim to be against. In the late 1970s, 
we had 157 small coal companies in east Tennessee. Now we have five. 
What happened? Well, we had an office of the Federal Government, OSM, 
open up in Knoxville. First, they drove all the small companies out, 
then the medium-sized companies were next. Federal rules, regulations, 
and red tape hurt small businesses and small farms the most. Big 
government really helps only extremely big business and the bureaucrats 
who work for the government.
  Mr. Speaker, I chaired the Subcommittee on Aviation for 6 years. 
Environmental rules and regulations have caused runway and other 
airport projects to take sometimes 10 or even 20 years to complete, 
projects that could have been done in 2 or 3 years. This has caused the 
cost of air travel to be much higher than it would have been, and has 
caused many of the delayed flights we have today.
  When I talk about the higher utility bills and all the lost jobs that 
environmental extremists have caused, nothing could potentially cause 
more harm to working people and lower-income families than the Kyoto 
agreement. There are not words adequate enough to thank President Bush 
for his courage in stopping this economic disaster from hitting this 
Nation. Our economy started slowing dramatically last June, according 
to the Christian Science Monitor, a liberal newspaper. This was 7 
months before President Bush took office. To enforce this Kyoto 
agreement at a time of economic slowdown would run the risk of putting 
us in near depression conditions.
  Yes, Mr. Speaker, when people see their utility bills shoot up, when 
gas prices go higher, when homes and every other product made from 
trees cost twice what they should, they can thank the 
environmentalists.

                              {time}  1915

  We have made great progress over the last 25 or 30 years with our air 
and water, but some of these groups do not want people to hear good 
things about the environment because their contributions would dry up.
  The really sad thing, Mr. Speaker, is that this is all about big 
money. Poor and working people are being hurt so environmentalists can 
scare people and get more contributions. And companies which benefit if 
we import more oil, OPEC countries, shipping companies and others, 
contribute to these groups so we will have to import more products 
which are made from natural resources. It is really sad what 
environmentalists are doing to the poor and working people in this 
country.

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