[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12174]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            WE NEED A PRESIDENT NOT TIED TO THE OIL INDUSTRY

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, the administration's energy program will 
be rubber stamped once again by this Congress. It is the rubber stamp 
Congress; anything the president wants, they get it.
  Let me summarize it. The Vice President holds secret meetings with 
oil representatives, and then gas prices soar to the highest levels in 
two decades; American consumers pay $25 billion more; oil companies 
make $34 billion more; oil company profits increase 165 percent at one 
company and 294 percent at another company; and now the administration 
wants to drill in ANWR, the fragile Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.
  At this rate, the administration will make an oil drilling rig part 
of the new Visitor's Center complex out in front of the Capitol.
  This administration has sold out the American people to big oil. It 
is time for that well to run dry before there is more damage to the 
wallet of American consumers or the fragile environment that we need to 
protect. We need a President who is not tied to the oil industry.

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