[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 21823]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  AMERICA'S NEED FOR FUEL INDEPENDENCE

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, at one time the United States of America 
overwhelmingly was an agrarian country, but today only 2 percent of the 
population are farmers. Yet those 2 percent feed all 100 percent of us 
and a great portion of the rest of the world as well.
  Now, when it comes to energy, however, we import 60 percent; yet 
America consumes 25 percent of the world's oil. We need, for the sake 
of national security, fuel independence. In 2004, we bought over $100 
billion of oil from non-democratic countries, countries like Saudi 
Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Venezuela, countries that are not always 
with the United States on a lot of matters and particularly on their 
votes in the U.N.
  When we do this, we are funding both sides in the war on terrorism. 
We need to move towards alternatives: biofuel, ethanol, hydrogen. These 
technologies are already out there; we just need to have a national 
commitment to have fuel independence.
  I have proposed a bill, H.R. 4409, which is cosponsored by Mr. Engel 
of New York, that moves us in that direction in 20 years. I urge my 
colleagues to join us and take a good serious look at fuel 
independence.

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