[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4944]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               U.S. NEEDS COMPREHENSIVE ENERGY POLICY NOW

  (Mr. HALL of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HALL of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to begin a series of 
remarks on energy. Energy, or the lack of energy, has caused many of 
the wars of the world. Once again, the uncertainties of the Middle East 
have caused prices in oil markets to rise; and from what we read in the 
news, the current uncertainty is, unfortunately, likely to last for 
quite some time.
  My goal with this series is simple: to impress upon my colleagues the 
need to develop a national energy policy, and that policy should 
include all of our resources: fossil fuels, coal, nuclear renewables, 
and yes, conservation. We need them all.
  In this country we are blessed with an abundance of energy choices. 
We have abundant coal reserves, in fact, some of the largest in the 
world. We have a tremendous potential for the development of solar and 
wind resources; and even though for many years we produced huge volumes 
of crude oil and natural gas and even supplied some of the world with 
it at times, we still have significant oil and gas resources in the 
ground.
  Much of the rest of the world is envious of our energy resources and 
the choices we have. In the coming days and weeks, I will address some 
of these options and see what we can do to bring them into reality.

                          ____________________