[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11034]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     OIL IS CRITICAL ENERGY SOURCE

  (Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, oil is a critical energy 
source for both the United States and the world, and for us it is a 
very uncertain energy future because there are only about 1,000 
gigabarrels of known reserves of oil in the world. Certainly we will 
find more oil, and maybe the additional oil we find will be enough to 
take care of the additional demands for oil.
  If we take this 1,000 gigabarrels of oil and divide it by the 80 
million barrels of oil that the world burns, uses each day, this comes 
out to roughly 40 years. This is certainly not forever. Of this 80 
million barrels that are used each day, the United States uses 20. That 
is about 25 percent of the total oil used in the world is used in the 
United States.
  We have some reserves. They are off the Florida coast. They are under 
Lake Michigan, and they are in ANWR. Should we drill those? There are 
two arguments. One is that we need it. The other is we may need it more 
in the future. We have to determine when it would serve our interests 
best, to use it now or to wait for a rainier day, which will surely 
come.

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