[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13393-13400]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             ENERGY POLICY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. LATTA. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the 
opportunity on this special order this evening to talk about a very, 
very important issue that's facing this country, if not the most 
important issue, and that is energy.
  We have several Members this evening that will be addressing the 
House to talk about the energy policies, or lack thereof, in this 
country. And the first gentleman that I would like to recognize is the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wittman).
  Mr. WITTMAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio 
for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, as I drove around the district today, I got to speak to 
a number of folks, in fact, even over the weekend; and the number one 
issue on their mind is our energy policy in this Nation. And they asked 
me, Rob, what are we going to do about fuel prices? What are we going 
to do about making sure that we have the long-term interests of this 
country at heart when we develop this energy policy?
  You know, I get to experience that every day. I'm privileged to live 
close enough to the Capitol here where I commute back and forth every 
day. I live in a little town that's about 80 miles from here, and I 
drive that every day. So I get to know what the cost of gas is, and I 
can really relate to folks back in the district when they ask me, What 
are we going to do about making sure that we have a good, comprehensive 
energy policy and making sure that we address fuel prices.
  For me, it is about an 80-mile commute, and it is very similar to 
other folks who live back in the district, whether they live in the 
upper part of the district in the Fredericksburg area or down in 
Hampton Roads. Many of them commute day after day. They have to deal 
with the cost of commuting to get to their work. And they also have to 
deal with that as they commute to take their families, whether it's to 
school or whether it's to after-school activities for their children. 
It's really putting a crimp in their budgets, and they are very, very 
concerned.
  As I drive through the district, I get to see the price of gas each 
day, and it ranges anywhere from $4.10 a gallon up in the Washington 
metro area down to $3.83 a gallon down in the Tappahannock area. So I 
know the range of fuel prices in the district, know where the best 
places are to buy fuel. But it's still extraordinarily expensive for 
people. And that really makes it difficult on them. It really puts a 
crimp in their budgets. It creates challenges for them, and it creates 
hardships for them. And that's something that they say, Why isn't 
Congress acting? Why aren't you coming up with a solution for these 
real problems that we have to deal with day in and day out?
  And it's frustrating for them. They watch a Congress that really kind 
of stumbles and doesn't do anything. And I can understand their 
frustration and understand why they are frustrated with us.
  You know, I would like to relate a couple of different stories.
  Earlier in the district, I spoke with some folks in the 
Fredericksburg area, the Sherman family, and they run a small business, 
and they rely on diesel trucks in their business. And they said, Rob, 
we bought diesel trucks for a specific reason. We bought them because 
of the hauling that we have to do, and diesels are more economical as 
far as hauling and heavy work. And diesel fuel, when they first bought 
those vehicles, was less than gasoline. And now we know today diesel is 
significantly more expensive than gasoline, and they're frustrated. 
They said, We made that decision. We made that decision based on good 
business sense, and now today their business is being affected by that.

                              {time}  2045

  In fact, they're having to park their trucks, and it's cutting into 
their business. So not only is it costing them more to operate, but 
they also have to make up for that by parking trucks, which reduces the 
amount of business that they're able to do and affects their bottom 
line. So not only are they in a situation of having to deal with higher 
fuel prices, but their margins get pressed, and they do less business 
because of these higher fuel prices. And they said, Rob, we can't stand 
that for very long. This really is going to affect what they're able to 
do.
  So we don't have businesses that are growing. We have businesses that 
are retracting, and they're asking me, Rob, what are you going to do? 
Why isn't the Congress coming up with a sensible energy policy? And why 
isn't there a sense of urgency?
  You know, folks are saying, look, this is something that affects us 
day in and day out. We want to feel like Congress has a sense of 
urgency and is going to Washington to get things done. And they don't 
want us to sit by idle. They are tired of words. They want action, and 
I can't blame them.
  You know, we have the opportunity to work together to develop a 
comprehensive energy policy that provides relief to consumers for these 
high gas and diesel fuel prices and also addresses the issue of our 
reliance on foreign oil.
  A lady today told me she had a great analogy, and I think it's 
perfect. She said, Rob, did you ever see the movie ``Apollo 13?'' And I 
said, yes, I did. She reminded me of a scene there where, as the 
command module and the service module were going to the moon, there was 
an explosion in one of the oxygen tanks there, and it damaged the 
primary oxygen tank, which was there to fuel the rocket to send it to 
the moon. So, obviously, they cut that trip short. But then all the 
members of the crew, the three members had to move to the command 
module, and the command module wasn't designed for them to stay in 
there. You know, those command modules had scrubbers to take

[[Page 13394]]

out carbon dioxide, these lithium oxide scrubbers, and they weren't 
designed to keep folks alive for 4 days.
  So what happened? They called back to mission control, and the folks 
in mission control went to the engineers, and they went together and 
they put together all the pieces of equipment that they had on board in 
both the service and command modules, and they put it in a box and they 
took it in the room with the engineers, and they dumped those items on 
the table, and they said, come up with a solution to the problem. And 
they gave them a very specific time limit because obviously their 
oxygen was going to run out. And those engineers took that time and 
they came up with an idea, and they solved that problem which assured 
that those astronauts got back to Earth alive.
  That's the same sort of spirit of ingenuity to solve problems that we 
need to bear with this energy problem. We can do it. We've seen that. 
We've seen that American ingenuity come to light. We've seen it solve 
problems, and we know with this particular situation we can put 
together a comprehensive energy policy that includes everything. We 
need to put everything in that box, just like those Apollo engineers 
did, and put it on the table and say let's develop a comprehensive 
energy policy for this country.
  And again, it has to include everything. We have to make sure that we 
look at domestic sources of energy, again to create energy 
independence, and looking at our refining capacity to make sure that 
meets our future needs.
  You know, we have vast resources here of energy. We need to make sure 
that we bring those things to the table, whether it's oil shale out 
west, oil sands, oil and natural gas in the Outer Continental Shelf. 
And we can do those things, and we can do those things in an 
environmentally sound manner. We have the technology to do that to make 
sure that we don't harm the environment, at the same time creating 
energy independence for this country. And we do have that ability. 
Whether it's in ANWR, whether it's offshore, or oil sands, or oil 
shales, we need to be doing that.
  You know, we haven't constructed a refinery in this country in over 
30 years. We need to do that. We have the ability to do that. We have 
the ability to create and build environmentally sensitive refineries 
and develop our energy here in environmentally sensitive ways.
  You know, at the same time, it's critical that we encourage the 
development of clean energy sources, again, all different parts of the 
puzzle, and we need to bring those pieces together. We need to look at 
clean energy sources like wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal power. 
The technology is there. The technology is really developing at this 
particular point. We need to make sure that we enhance that, that we 
encourage that.
  You know, environmentally friendly power production needs to be part 
of our portfolio, too, in addition to conservation. You know, I think 
we all agree that development of our domestic sources has to be part of 
the puzzle, but we can't take that off the table. It has to be part of 
what we do in this suite of available resources that we have to solve 
our energy problems here and to come up with a comprehensive energy 
policy.
  You know, it's that energy policy that's going to determine the 
health of our economy in years to come. We have to conserve. We have to 
look at alternative and renewable sources of energy. We have to look at 
the existing sources that we have here. We have to look at nuclear 
power. We have to look at every available means to make sure that this 
country can meet its energy needs and to create energy independence.
  You know, we have to really ramp up the effort for research and 
development, not only of these resources, but of conservation and of 
other sources of energy. And we have to do that aggressively, in 
addition to aggressively pursuing the sources of energy that we have 
already. And we can incentivize conservation, and we can make sure that 
we encourage the use of more energy efficient equipment, in addition to 
developing our domestic sources.
  So, again, we have to look at an across-the-board comprehensive 
energy policy and realize that there's no silver bullet for increasing 
gas prices. You can't just say we're going to do one thing and that's 
going to create a solution to this problem. We have to, just as the 
Apollo 13 engineers did, put everything on the table, put everything in 
that box, and then put that on the table for us to solve these issues.
  But the American people are looking for Congress to take clear-cut 
action to try to solve this problem, and they expect us to work to come 
up with that policy. They expect us to hear them, to literally feel 
their pain, and to make sure that we get things done here. They want to 
make sure that we're investing in these clean sources, in addition to 
investing and making sure that we develop the sources that we have here 
in our continental United States.
  And you know, we should not cut off resources within our borders. I 
mean, we have that available. We don't see other countries throughout 
the world saying, well, we have these resources and we're not going to 
use them. And you know, we're in a world economy where we're competing 
against those other nations, and those other nations are buying energy 
abroad. They're developing their own sources. If we are going to 
compete with those economies, we cannot neglect the resources that we 
have here. We have to make sure that we have those resources available 
for us just to be able to compete.
  I know there's some folks that say, well, you know, that's not going 
to come on line for 2, 3, 4, 15, 20 years down the road. Well, we need 
to do this now because it does have an effect on price. We all talk 
about speculation in the market, and speculation is based on the 
expected supply, and if the expected supply goes up because the United 
States develops its own sources, that will have an effect on prices, in 
addition to the effect on prices that conservation and other 
alternative sources will have. So we can multiply that effect if we 
make sure that we don't take anything off the table in developing this 
energy policy.
  And you know, as I said, I know that we as Members of Congress have 
an obligation to act, and the American people demand that we act, and 
they demand that we take a comprehensive look at what we do to address 
these energy needs, and we come up with a comprehensive energy policy.
  You know, we had the opportunity years ago when we went through an 
energy crisis to develop a policy, and we didn't. Now, we have a 
renewed opportunity to do that and do what's best for the American 
people. They demand it. They tell me every day the things that I need 
to be doing as a Congress Member, and they say, look, you and your 
colleagues need to be doing that across the board.
  So I think we need to make sure that we're cognizant of what the 
demand is and what the requirement is from the American public on what 
we should be doing here, and that's a comprehensive energy policy that 
includes everything.
  Again, we need to take that Apollo 13 box, dump it out there, and say 
let's have at it, let's create a comprehensive energy policy that 
ensures the long-term economic viability of this country.
  I can tell you, we can no longer afford to wait, and my constituents 
demand that as well of every other Member of Congress. Now is the time 
to create a comprehensive energy policy, taking all the tools that we 
have.
  Mr. LATTA. I thank the gentleman for his statement on energy policy 
in this country.
  I'd like to next recognize the gentlelady from Minnesota, 
Representative Bachmann. Good evening.
  Mrs. BACHMANN. I thank Representative Latta. I appreciate your 
leadership on the issue of energy, and although you are a brand new 
Member of Congress--you haven't been here for a long time--you've shown 
just extraordinary leadership on the issue that's probably facing more 
Americans today than any other, and that's the dramatic increase in the 
price of energy, and I know how passionate

[[Page 13395]]

you've been on this issue. You've worked tirelessly in your district, 
and the people of your district in Ohio are fortunate to have you as 
their representative. Thank you so much for working so hard on this 
issue.
  It's one, Mr. Speaker, that I believe probably every Member of this 
body is hearing from their constituents over and over and over again. I 
know that I have as well. I had conducted a meeting with several 
members of my community who own gas stations, independent owners of gas 
stations. And one thing that they told me that broke my heart, they 
told me that they are seeing 30 percent fewer sales at the pump, and 
they're also seeing 30 percent fewer sales inside their store, and 
they're hurting.
  One gentleman told me that normally he would spend $10,000 to 
purchase the gasoline that would go into the ground in the holding 
tanks, $10,000, and that's money that's out of his pocket, sitting 
there in inventory until it can be sold. And he said, now, I pay 
$40,000 to have that inventory in the ground, and now sales are 30 
percent less. And so he has more money in the ground, not producing for 
him, at a higher and higher price level, and he said this is eating up 
my entire profit margin. There are people going out of business.
  And so what he told me is we've got to do something to get gasoline 
back down from its $4 a gallon, and that's what we're about here 
tonight to say there's very good news on the horizon.
  It's doom and gloom when you wake up in the morning and you see and 
you hear on the radio and you see when you drive to the gas station 
what the price at the pump is. But the good news is, there is an 
answer, and America can go back to $2 a gallon gasoline or less. It's 
entirely possible.
  Why? Because we have the answer right here in our country. We are 
standing on our own solution. We have energy that's available to us, 86 
billion barrels, that's according to our own United States department, 
86 billion barrels of energy right now that's available to us in the 
form of oil in the Outer Continental Shelf area.
  We have over 10 billion barrels of oil that's fully recoverable up in 
the arctic energy slope. This is an area of land that Congress 
originally set aside specifically for the purpose of accessing that 
energy through drilling to bring back down to the United States. I had 
the privilege back in the mid-1970s of working two summers up on the 
Aleutian Chain in Alaska. That's when the Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, trans-
Alaska oil pipeline was built. That oil pipeline is currently up. It's 
running, but it is only half full.
  With very little effort, we could actually tap into that oil 
pipeline, the 10 billion barrels that we know are already in Alaska, 
and we could fill that pipeline. Rather than having it half empty, we 
could fill it and bring down another million barrels of oil a day.
  And Mr. Speaker, 1 million barrels of oil a day translates into 27 
million gallons of gasoline, and that would mean a 50 percent increase 
in American reserves than we're already tapping today. That's just 
those 10 billion barrels. That doesn't include the 85 billion barrels 
that are also available in the Outer Continental Shelf in the deep sea 
energy reserves that America only has.
  But Mr. Speaker, I think most Americans aren't even aware that 
America is the only country in the world that has voluntarily made it 
illegal to access its own energy. That's right, Mr. Speaker, we are the 
only country in the world that's made it illegal to access our own 
energy.
  Congress caused this problem. The problem is not OPEC and the problem 
is not speculators. The problem is the United States Congress. I 
believe part of the reason why we are seeing Congress's approval 
ratings at an astoundingly low 12 percent is because Congress has 
chosen to make it illegal to access the answer that we need, and that's 
our own energy resources.
  Here's another great fact. In the gulf coast region, we have what is 
probably the world's largest reserve of natural gas. We have 420 
trillion, 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that's available to us 
right now off the shore in the Gulf of Mexico. We can access this, and 
we can bring natural gas into our country, use it to fire up our 
electrical grid, and also, we could even change our cars and buses, run 
them on natural gas as well.

                              {time}  2100

  America also is home to 25 percent of the Earth's supply of coal 
right here in the United States, almost an unlimited supply. We have 
clean coal technology today that's available to us that can process 
coal and transmit that almost unlimited supply of energy all across the 
United States.
  And as well, nuclear energy. I have a nuclear energy facility in my 
home district in the Sixth Congressional District of Minnesota, Mr. 
Speaker. And I'm so grateful we have that because nuclear power 
supplies almost 20, 25 percent of Minnesota's energy needs. It's a 
clean, safe, reliable form of energy, and it has zero emissions. I am 
so excited about this wonderful technology, but unfortunately, Mr. 
Speaker, again, Congress has made it illegal for us to be able to tap 
into this wonderful source of energy.
  Whether it's nuclear, whether it's coal, whether it's natural gas, 
whether it's the oil reserves that we have, America has the answer. In 
fact, this is the industry that we can tap into right now. We don't 
need to find a magic bullet or a magic alternative. This is energy that 
we have available to us today that we could tap into today so we can 
see the American people very soon get back to paying $2 a gallon.
  One thing that happened not too long ago was this body, the United 
States Congress, sent out stimulus checks to Americans all across the 
country. Why, Mr. Speaker? Because people in the United States Congress 
were worried about the economy, so we went to the United States 
Treasury and we wrote checks that are still being sent out to Americans 
all across this country. Why? We wanted to encourage Americans to spend 
money to stimulate the economy.
  Do you know what I believe the greatest stimulus would be to 
Americans? It would be to get gasoline back to $2 a gallon. And it's so 
possible. It was just about 18 months ago that the Democrat majority 
took over in this body. And when they took over, gasoline, on average, 
at the national level was $2.33 a gallon. Mr. Speaker, that average 
today is about $4.07 a gallon. That's a dramatic increase in the price 
of gasoline, unheard of increase in the price of gasoline. It took us 
25 years in the United States for gasoline to go from $1 a gallon to $2 
a gallon. And just in the time that the Democrats have held the gavel 
they have taken this country from $2.33 to $4.08 a gallon.
  I was listening to the previous discussion that occurred, and I heard 
some suggestions about why the price of gasoline has gone up so 
dramatically. And I find it interesting, because if you look at the 
votes from 1994 until today, this Congress has already voted on whether 
or not we should explore in ANWR. We voted on it. In fact, the 
Congress, back in 1995, sent a bill to President Bill Clinton to say 
that we should be drilling in ANWR. The House passed that bill, the 
Senate passed that bill. Unfortunately, it was President Bill Clinton 
that vetoed that bill; otherwise, we would have already been drilling 
in ANWR. We wouldn't be in the pickle that we're in today.
  But this is the vote and these are the facts. I'm not trying to be 
partisan because we need to come together, as Democrats and 
Republicans, and solve this problem now because Americans are feeling 
real pain and the economy is reeling over energy prices. But here's the 
facts, Mr. Speaker. This is a fact. Any American can go and find out 
what the voting has been on ANWR exploration, of bringing energy down 
from Alaska.
  Ninety-one percent of Republicans have voted to explore in ANWR and 
drill for oil in ANWR, 91 percent; 86 percent of Democrats have opposed 
drilling. And that hasn't changed today because we already know what 
the Democrat plan is for energy, they've made it abundantly clear. It 
is very simple. Their plan has been, let's have the United States 
Government--that created this problem--take over the oil

[[Page 13396]]

industry and nationalize oil refineries. That's what they said last 
week at a press conference, let's nationalize oil refineries. Well, 
that's not a new idea, but it's not an American idea. And that's not an 
idea that the American public wants us to embrace. They don't want us 
to embrace socialism. But that's what we heard Democrats say last week.
  Here's the other part of their plan: It is, drive less and pay more. 
Drive less and pay more. That's not what the American people want. But 
Senator Obama, the nominee of the Democrat party, just recently said it 
isn't the high price of gasoline that has him worried, it's how quickly 
that price went up. Well, I'll tell you one thing, Congressman Bob 
Latta, Congressman Paul Broun and also Congressman Rob Wittman, who was 
on the floor tonight, it's the high price of gasoline that's bothering 
us.
  Republicans don't want to see gas at $4.08 a gallon, or $5 or $6--or 
whatever that price could be by the end of summer. We don't want it 
that price because we know for a fact we can get gasoline back down to 
$2 a gallon or less very simply if all we do is explore what we already 
know we have. We've got the resources, we've got the technology. We can 
do this thing, we're Americans. We're Americans, and we can do this, 
just like Congressman Wittman said, like we did with the Apollo 13. We 
can do this, and it's exciting.
  We don't have to go with the Democrat agenda, which is, nationalize 
the oil industry, take over the oil refineries. We think the United 
States Government--who didn't do such a great job at Walter Reed 
Hospital--is going to be brilliant and bring down the price of gas by 
taking over oil refineries? I don't think so. I don't think that's who 
I want to trust, not with the American people saying that we have a 12 
percent approval rating; I don't think they would trust us either.
  And I don't think the American people want us to drive less and pay 
more. I think what the American people want is what the Republicans are 
offering. And that's why I'm so grateful to Congressman Latta tonight 
for sponsoring this important hour on energy. Because what Congressman 
Latta is trying to let the American people know is that we can get back 
down to $2 a gallon of gas or less if we open up the key to our own 
answer, which is, open up America's supplies and do it in a clean, 
safe, environmentally sensitive way, which we've already done.
  How do I know that to be true? Because the United States was one of 
the only countries in the world last year that actually reduced its 
emissions. That's right, Mr. Speaker, the United States is one of the 
only countries in the world that reduced its emissions. All these other 
countries that signed onto the Kyoto Treaty, the EU, that signed onto 
this elaborate, bureaucratic-driven cap and trade system, their 
emissions all went up, ours went down. What's the difference?
  We, in this country, believe in freedom. We believe in freedom and we 
believe in free markets to solve our problems. And they do, free 
markets solve the problems. It's not socializing our oil industry like 
the Democrats have suggested. It's not sitting home, putting a sweater 
on, turning our thermostat down, that's not going to solve the problem. 
It's not going to be paying more at the pump; that's not going to solve 
the problem. It is unleashing American ingenuity and finding these new 
sources of supply, which we already have, with technology that we 
already have, and bring the supplies in so we can make it happen.
  I am so excited about what Congressman Latta is doing. And I just 
want to end now with these other statistics, and they're very simple. 
House Republicans voted 97 percent of the time to have coal-to-liquid 
technology, to give us more oil at cheaper prices. Democrats opposed it 
78 percent of the time.
  Oil shale exploration. The United States is the Saudi Arabia of oil. 
We have more oil just in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming than all of Saudi 
Arabia, over 1.3 trillion barrels of oil. Republicans said yes, let's 
explore that oil 90 percent of the time. Democrats opposed exploring 
that oil 86 percent of the time.
  Outer Continental Shelf, where we have 86 billion barrels of oil. 
House Republicans voted 81 percent of the time, let's explore, let's 
access that energy. Democrats, almost the flip, 83 percent opposed 
exploration.
  On refinery increase. Because, you know, we had over 300 refineries 
not too long ago in this country, we're now down to somewhere near 150 
refineries. The Republicans voted 97 percent to increase the number of 
refineries, Democrats opposed it 96 percent.
  I don't take any glory in reading those numbers, but if you average 
them all together, over 90 percent of the time, Mr. Speaker, 
Republicans have voted to explore American energy, explore it now so 
that Americans can pay less. That's our answer. We're not new to this 
dance. This has been the answer that Republicans have been giving since 
1994. That's the answer we want to have. Democrats, since 1994, almost 
90 percent have said no, let's not access American resources; in fact, 
let's make it illegal to access these resources. Well, that's not what 
the American people say.
  Mr. Speaker, over 70 percent of the American people have had it up to 
here. They're seeing their lives change; they're seeing jobs lost, jobs 
sent overseas. They want us to explore here, explore now, so they can 
pay less.
  And, Mr. Speaker, we agree with the American people. And Congressman 
Latta is leading the charge tonight to let the American people know 
that we're with them, we're in their corner. We don't think they are 
the problem. We think the American people are way out in front on this 
solution.
  So I yield back, Congressman Latta. I yield back because I can't wait 
to hear what more you have to say on this issue. And thank you for that 
opportunity.
  Mr. LATTA. Well, I thank the gentlelady for yielding back, and also 
for her enthusiasm and her knowledge of this subject because this is 
what we have to do in this country because we've got to get the word 
out to the American people. But as you said, the American people are 
actually far ahead of Congress right now and they know what we need to 
do. So I just want to thank you very much for your eloquence tonight on 
your statement.
  At this time, I would like to yield now to my good friend, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Broun), to speak on energy.
  I appreciate your being here this evening. Thank you.
  Mr. BROUN of Georgia. I thank my good friend for yielding, and I 
appreciate what you're doing tonight.
  Energy is the lifeblood of the American economy. Our economic 
prosperity is closely tied to the availability of reliable and 
affordable supplies of energy. Unfortunately, U.S. energy production 
has grown only 13 percent while energy consumption has increased 30 
percent since 1973.
  According to AAA, the average American is paying over $4.07 per 
gallon for gasoline today. Instead of traveling to spend time with 
loved ones, record gas prices will keep many Americans home this 4th of 
July weekend.
  Skyrocketing gas prices and a risky dependence upon fuel supply by 
volatile foreign nations highlight our need for an American energy 
policy that emphasizes production and decreases our reliance upon 
foreign oil.
  Many here in Congress bemoan America's addiction to foreign oil, yet 
they refuse to allow access to American oil and gas supplies necessary 
to cure this addiction. America has been blessed with abundant natural 
resources, and we should not be hesitant to tap into them, especially 
at a time when energy cost is so high.
  We've heard time and time again about how drilling off the coast in 
the Outer Continental Shelf will harm the environment. This is pure 
hogwash. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed or damaged literally 
hundreds of drilling rigs without causing the spill of a single drop. 
Yet congressional Democrats continue to pander to the far left 
environmental whackos instead of mending the pains of hardworking 
Americans.
  We cannot even drill for oil or gas 200 miles off our own shore. 
Meanwhile,

[[Page 13397]]

communist China and Fidel Castro's communist Cuba are moving forward 
with plans for drilling for oil and gas only 45 miles off of the shores 
of Key West. Liberal Democrats have also prevented any access to the 
billions of barrels of oil located in ANWR.
  The entire area of ANWR is larger than the combined areas of five 
States--Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey and 
Delaware--yet the proposed drilling area is equal to one-sixth the size 
of Dulles Airport here in Washington, D.C.
  Development of American oil and gas on these lands will help bring 
the price down and help break the stranglehold on energy that hostile 
countries in the Middle East enjoy. And this can be done in an 
environmentally sound manner and should be immediately implemented.
  The environmental groups haven't allowed a new oil refinery to be 
built in the United States for decades, about 30 years. It does little 
good to increase our use of domestic supplies of oil when we do not 
have the refinery capacity to quickly convert it into a useable form, 
gasoline. Members on both sides of the aisle need to stand up to these 
fringe groups and implement policies that encourage the construction of 
new refineries in the United States.
  Liberals also suggest mandating ethanol and renewable fuel production 
and selling it as the answer to America's energy needs. The 2007 ``non-
energy'' energy bill, or ``lack of energy'' bill has already proven 
that the Democratic solution is wrong, dead wrong. Mandating the 
production of renewable fuels has only led to an increase in world food 
prices. It is, at best, disingenuous, and at worst, an outright lie to 
say that renewable fuels can meet America's needs in the near future.

                              {time}  2115

  As a good southerner, I love my cornbread and grits. It makes no 
sense to me to put corn in the tank of my pickup truck.
  Energy prices are soaring, and the financial pain that families are 
feeling at the pump is forcing them to decide what they can and cannot 
spend. Congressional Democrats act as if they have been living under a 
rock by continuing to ignore the demands of the American people and 
refusing to do anything to lower these burdensome prices. Skyrocketing 
gas prices and a risky dependence on fuel supplied by volatile foreign 
nations highlight our need for an American energy policy that 
emphasizes production and decreases our reliance upon Middle Eastern 
oil.
  The United States is the only nation on Earth that forbids 
development of its own natural resources. Listen to me. Right now 
America is drilling for ice on Mars; yet we cannot drill for oil in 
America. That makes no sense. It's idiotic. It's stupid. We must drill 
on our own lands and we must do it now. We must streamline our oil 
refinery processes, and we must end our dependence upon Middle Eastern 
oil.
  Our energy prices were not created overnight and will not be solved 
overnight. Congress must act swiftly to address this growing energy 
crisis. America's energy policy must make us stronger and less reliant 
on countries that are hostile to freedom. Passing any so-called energy 
bill that fails to produce even a single kilowatt of new energy or 
produce a gallon of gas is not a solution. We must pass legislation 
that will allow for responsible use of our known American supplies of 
energy, that reduce excessive and burdensome environmental policies, 
and that encourage the development of alternative forms of energy. We 
need to increase nuclear power. It's the only thing that has proven to 
be incredibly safe. It's a successful source of energy, and it's the 
only thing that makes sense economically.
  I stand ready to fight for this, and I encourage my colleagues to do 
the same.
  Mr. Latta, I appreciate your working tonight to bring this issue 
forward. It's absolutely critical for the American public that we stop 
this dependence upon Middle Eastern oil. These countries want to 
destroy us. They hate our freedom. They hate our market system. They 
hate everything that we stand for. They even hate women. They want to 
use them as tools. And yet we are funding these countries that want to 
destroy us. It makes no sense. We have got to develop an energy policy 
that makes sense economically, environmentally, and makes us not 
dependent upon these countries that want to destroy us.
  I highly commend your effort tonight. I am glad to have joined you 
tonight, and I look forward to working with you and the rest of the 
Members.
  Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, I just love you and I appreciate your 
passion and your fervor in fighting for change in our policy. It's 
absolutely critical. So I applaud your efforts. I know last week I saw 
you fighting down here on the floor again for the same issues, and I am 
at awe of your fervor towards this. But we must end our dependence on 
foreign oil, and I appreciate both of you as well as Congressman 
Whitman's participation tonight in this Special Order. Thank you so 
much, and I just praise God for you and your efforts tonight.
  Mr. LATTA. Thank you very much, my good friend from Georgia. I really 
appreciate your being here tonight. And, again, what you say is 
absolutely what we have to be doing in this country, and I appreciate 
it. And, again, as we said a little bit earlier, the American people 
back home get it, but we are not getting it down here in Congress. So I 
appreciate your words this evening.
  Mr. Speaker, we aren't listening to the folks back home. I got home 
on Friday night from Washington at about 8 o'clock, and gas down at the 
local gas station was $4.03. I had to speak at our Buckeye Boys State, 
which was going on at Bowling Green State University on Saturday 
morning, and I attended one of my county fairs that day and also went 
to an event at Bowling Green State University that evening. And the 
only topic that people are talking about right now is what are we going 
to do in this country about the high prices of fuel? And, again, they 
understand there's a problem, but, unfortunately, here in this Congress 
there is a real question if we actually are getting it.
  My district, the Fifth Congressional District, is kind of unique in 
that we are number nine in manufacturing in the entire United States 
Congress, ninth out of four hundred thirty-five.
  What made this country great was the Industrial Revolution. After the 
Civil War, we watched what happened as the country took off. We had a 
situation where we had the resources, we had the people, and we were 
able to produce a product that the rest of the world wanted. And we did 
great. But the big thing we have to look at today is that energy equals 
manufacturing, which equals jobs for Americans, and if we are not going 
to be doing that, we're in trouble.
  Another great privilege and honor that I have got out there, I am 
able to go around my district and go to the manufacturing facilities 
and talk with a lot of the people that are working in these plants. And 
one of the questions that I always ask them right upfront is how many 
miles do you drive to work? or how many folks do you have that are 
driving out of the area? It's not uncommon to hear 30, 40, 50 miles one 
way for people to come into work. So you multiply that out, and some 
people driving 500 miles a week. And some people are saying to me, you 
know what? There's a real problem out there. What happens when gas gets 
to the price that I'm not going to be able to afford to drive to work 
and it's not going to be sound for me to do that? We have got a real 
problem. We have got a real problem. Because the Fifth Congressional 
District is 140 miles east to west. It's not as large as going to 
Montana or Wyoming or some other spots in Iowa or some of the other 
States. But when you're driving that many miles to work, people are 
going to start asking, is it worth it for me to actually get to work?
  At the same time, we have a lot of different manufacturing facilities 
in Northwest Ohio. We also have certain very unique ones. We have a 
float glass plant in my district. Five years ago

[[Page 13398]]

their costs were around $10 million; today they are $30 million. There 
are 40 of these facilities being constructed in China today. Their 
labor force is cheaper. So when we are competing with cheaper labor 
compared to our more highly skilled labor, but at the same price of 
fuel, let's just say, they are going to win because their prices are 
cheaper. We can't have that happen.
  The other thing we have in Northwest Ohio, I come from the largest 
farming area in Ohio, and when you're looking at the farmers today, 
they have been planting corn and soybeans, and they are getting ready 
in the near future to be out there and are going to be harvesting that 
wheat. But it costs money. It costs a lot in diesel. It costs in 
chemicals. It costs in fertilizer. And this is all from the same thing, 
and all of it is coming from petroleum. So when people say they are 
getting X number of dollars for a bushel of wheat or beans or corn, 
you've got to look at what that production cost is. And it's rising. 
And not only is it rising for the farmers and the manufacturers, but 
also for that man and woman going into that grocery store every week to 
try to make sure they have food on the table for their family. The 
costs are going up.
  In Ohio 80 percent of all the goods that are delivered are delivered 
by truck. We don't have a rail system. We don't have a metro system. We 
don't have a bus system. People in my area, if you're going to get 
someplace, you can't walk. You can't ride a bicycle. You've got to get 
in that automobile and get to work or get to that store. So we have to 
make sure that folks have that ability to be able to purchase things 
because if we have too high prices for gasoline, home fuel oil, natural 
gas, electric costs, rising food bills, that's going to prevent 
consumers out there from having more disposable income. And when they 
don't have disposable income out there, what's going to happen? Well, 
they are going to quit buying, and pretty soon this economy is going to 
be in shambles. So we have got to do something right now. And, again, 
the American people understand it, but we have got to understand it 
here in Congress.
  A couple weeks ago when we were having another Special Order, a 
Member from Texas brought up an example of a person from his district. 
A trucker from Texas had a load to take to California. It cost $1,500 
in fuel costs to get that to California. That trip cost $1,500, and he 
got $1,700 for the entire trip. By the time you take out all the 
expenses, the taxes, the depreciation on the truck, he lost money. So 
we have got a real problem in this country, and that problem is coming 
up on us right now.
  The United States uses about 21 percent of the world's energy as we 
speak tonight, but the rest of the world is catching up. We were years 
ago able to make some dumb mistakes in this country because we were 
always able to correct them quickly because everybody was behind us. 
After World War II, most of the world all lay in shambles but the 
United States. But as time went by, these other countries have been 
catching up, and I think this chart explains it really quickly.
  When you look at the energy consumption in this country and where the 
other countries are, and I'm talking about India and China, you will 
see that right now we are leading. But in 2015 China and India are 
going to be at parity with the United States. In 2020 China is going to 
surpass the United States in energy usage. What does energy usage mean 
again? Energy usage means jobs. It means manufacturing. And if they get 
ahead of us, it's going to be very, very tough to catch up. Once again, 
we have got to do what we have to do for the American people, and that 
is to make sure that we have the energy to make sure that we have the 
jobs for the future.
  As my colleagues discussed a little bit earlier some of the issues, 
nuclear, let's just talk about nuclear for a few minutes. France, about 
75 percent of all their energy comes from nuclear power. Not only do 
they have that nuclear power, but they also have that nuclear power 
they can export to the rest of Europe. So they're producing it and 
they're shipping it over.
  Japan has 55 nuclear reactors with 2 under construction. Russia, 31 
reactors in operation and 37 to 42 currently or will be under 
construction and operational by 2020. India is building 30 new plants 
in 25 years. They're smaller, about 200 megawatts, but they are 
building. China, they are building 40 gigawatt nuclear power stations 
in the next 25 to 30 years. That's 40 in the next 25 to 30 years.
  What about coal? As my colleague from Minnesota brought up about all 
the coal that we have in this country, what is China doing? Well, right 
now in China, about 80 percent of their power is electrically generated 
and 18 percent is hydro, and they are getting into nuclear. China is 
investing in $24 billion in clean coal technology.
  India, the third largest coal producer and consumer in the world. 
India is right there at number three. India and China account for 45 
percent of coal use.
  Hydro, China is constructing the Three Gorges hydro plant, which is 
going to produce about 18.2 gigawatts, and the Yellow River hydro plan 
will produce 15.8 gigawatts.
  Oil, as my colleague from Georgia has mentioned, drilling offshore, 
the Chinese, as he just mentioned and as my colleague from Minnesota 
mentioned, China is negotiating for oil leases off Cuba 50 miles from 
the U.S. Canada is negotiating. Venezuela is negotiating. Those are in 
waters that would be considered areas that the United States should be 
drilling in, and we are not.
  The alternatives/supplementals, China is mandating by 2020 15 percent 
of energy from wind, biomass, solar, and small hydro plants.
  Things are happening across the world, but the real question is what 
is happening in this country? What is happening in this country? And I 
am afraid to report tonight not much at all.
  As we have talked about, what's been going with nuclear in this 
country? The last plant to be licensed in this country was in 1977. The 
last plant to go online was in 1996. When you're looking at these 
things, we are getting farther and farther behind. There is a lot of 
different things we can be talking about with alternatives or maybe you 
want to call them supplementals, types of powers, but I think people 
have got to know what we're talking about. When we're looking at what 
one 1,000 megawatt reactor would need, you would have to erect between 
1,250 to 1,700 wind turbines to get there. I think wind is great, but I 
think you have to remember we have to have a base load out there to 
make sure that we can run our plants.
  As the gentlewoman from Minnesota mentioned, the United States has 24 
to 25 percent of the world's coal. Well, what are we doing about it? In 
Ohio we have higher sulfur in our coal, and the problem with that is it 
costs more to scrub it. But we have the technology. We have an 
individual from Northwest Ohio that has helped bring about and invent a 
clean coal technology that we can consume this coal without emitting 
it. We have hundreds of years of reserves on our coal.
  As has been mentioned, the oil shale in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, over 
6 trillion barrels of oil equivalence out there, and what are we doing 
about it? Absolutely nothing.

                              {time}  2130

  Congress is standing in the way. Oil and natural gas. When we 
reimport 65 percent of our oil in this country, that is a problem. That 
is a problem. We need to start doing something. Our friend from 
Virginia, Mr. Wittman, said a little earlier that what they did with 
Apollo 13, they had to come up with a solution, and come up with it 
now. We have got to do that in this country.
  John Kennedy, when he was in office, had said that we were going to 
put a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s. We did it with Neil 
Armstrong in 1969. But we have got to have a purpose and make sure we 
get that done.
  We are talking about places where we are restricting ourselves. The 
only country in the world to fight with both hands tied behind its back 
is this country. ANWR, we have approximately 10.3

[[Page 13399]]

billion barrels of oil. As has been mentioned, we are talking about an 
area of over 19 million acres, and only talking about drilling and 
exploring in 2,000 of those acres. When you are looking at 10.3 billion 
recoverable barrels of oil up there, we have got to get up there. As 
mentioned a little bit earlier, President Clinton, in 1995, vetoed that 
legislation, or we would be getting that oil right.
  Also, as has been mentioned, we have 420 trillion cubic feet of 
natural gas offshore. We have 86 billion barrels of oil. Of that, the 
Federal Government denies access to 92 percent for oil drilling and 90 
percent of that area for natural gas. As has been mentioned, even if we 
got that oil to this country, we haven't done anything for over 2\1/2\ 
decades on refinery.
  A bill has been introduced here to say if people have that NIMBY, 
that ``don't put it in my backyard,'' how about using an abandoned 
military base to put these facilities in, these refineries.
  The scary thing we have got going out there is this, is that as we 
watch more and more American dollars being spent on all of this fuel 
and all these other dollars going overseas, and of course we have a $9 
trillion debt right now, the scary thing that we have got going out 
there is who's buying our debt. Right now, we have about a $9 trillion 
national debt. About $2.6 trillion of that is owned by foreign 
countries. Japan owns, as of the April statement, about $592.2 billion, 
and the Chinese have about a half a trillion dollars of that debt.
  We have got to act now. We can't wait. We can't make mistakes. We 
have to explore, drill, we have got to conserve. We have got to do 
everything that has been mentioned here tonight. We have got to look at 
those alternatives of supplementals because, again, you talk to a lot 
of folks out there and the question as to alternatives, well, maybe 
don't have enough base load out there.
  So we have to make sure that we get those wind turbines up. Again, 
people object to those. In my district, out my back door I can see the 
only four wind turbines in the State of Ohio. We have solar, with two 
companies, one in production right now in my district, another going to 
be going online here in the near future, producing solar panels. I have 
another company in my district working on hydrogen. There's ethanol, 
there's biodiesel, but everything put together, we have got to go out 
there and do it all right, and do it all right, and we've got to do it 
now.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I think that the time is now. The American people 
are demanding action from this Congress, and we can't make the mistakes 
of the past because we don't have time to catch up.
  Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. LATTA. I yield to my friend from Georgia.
  Mr. BROUN of Georgia. I have got a comment and a question. Last week, 
we heard members of the other party come to this floor and talk over 
and over again about the oil companies have thousands of acres that 
they already have leased and that they are not drilling in them. It's 
my understanding that a lot of this is land that the oil companies just 
leased up so that they would have the prerogative to be able to do so 
in the future.
  I think this is correct, is that not so?
  Mr. LATTA. To the gentlemen, I believe that is absolutely correct. 
When you're talking about leases, as you said, you're buying and 
leasing a lot of an area. It doesn't mean they are all profitable, 
because if every time you put a well down and struck oil, everybody 
would be doing it.
  Mr. BROUN of Georgia. That is the point that I was just wanting you 
to bring up, is that all this land that the oil companies have leased 
over the years, they have temporary leases, that when those leases 
expire, the land turn back. In fact, I have got a friend, the Dudleys 
in Athens, Georgia, who lease some land in Alabama to an oil company to 
drill for gas. They had that lease for a number of years. The oil 
company never drilled. That lease has expired. So those friends of 
mine, Randy and Mary Dudley, in Athens, Georgia, today, don't have the 
lease money coming in as they did. The oil company never drilled there.
  That is true all over this country, from what I understand. We just 
hear from the Democrats over and over again that the oil companies have 
all this land, but it's land where there's no oil. They just lease it 
in case that they may be able to find oil or gas. But we know there's 
oil, we know there's gas on the Outer Continental Shelf. In fact, it's 
my understanding that only about 15 percent of the land in the Outer 
Continental Shelf is actually leased, that we could tap into. Is that 
correct?
  Mr. LATTA. That is correct.
  Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Well, in fact we know that there is oil and gas 
out there; in fact, trillions of cubic feet of gas. Gas, when we burn 
it, is a very clean fuel. Those who adhere to this global warming 
hysteria, which I think is a hysteria and not fact; in fact, I am a 
medical doctor and scientifically I have looked at this issue, and 
there are many scientists on both sides, a lot that say that global 
warming that we are experiencing is due to natural causes and not due 
to an increase in carbon output by man's use. But we have got propane 
that is produced from the refinery of oil. We could produce that. There 
are a lot of cars and buses that run on propane.
  We have natural gas that, in my home in Watkinsville, Georgia, I have 
a natural gas hot water heater, natural gas stove that I cook my wild 
game on when I get home and have the opportunity to cook my game and 
fish that I love to hunt and fish. But all these are clean sources of 
energy, and we are just not tapping into those.
  I thank you for bringing these things up. We have got so many sources 
of clean fuels, even if global warming is caused by human causes, which 
I am one that I don't think there's enough scientific data to prove 
that fact. There are a lot of scientists that do say that. But 
certainly tapping into our own gas and oil resources can make us less 
dependent upon foreign oil, make us less dependent upon those who want 
to destroy us as a Nation. It's a national security interest for us to 
tap into those resources that we have here.
  As I said a few minutes ago, America is the only Nation in the world 
that won't tap into and develop its own natural resources. It makes 
absolutely no sense. It's stunningly stupid, stunningly stupid that we 
don't do that. Right now, we are drilling for ice on mars, yet we 
cannot drill for oil in America. I just cannot understand that. It 
makes no sense.
  We are being blocked over and over again by the people on the other 
side who are pandering to the radical environmentalists. I am a 
conservationist. I started my political activity coming up here as a 
volunteer, working on conservation issues. I think it's critical that 
we develop those oil sources.
  I congratulate you on bringing this forward tonight.
  Mr. LATTA. Thank you. I yield to my good friend from Minnesota.
  Mrs. BACHMANN. Thank you, Congressman Latta. I want to address a 
point that was brought up by Congressman Broun and really the absurdity 
of the remark regarding the oil leases that oil companies have taken 
up. These lands are owned by the American people and they are leased 
out to oil companies or natural gas companies. These oil and gas 
companies have to pay for these leases. They aren't just given to them 
free of charge. They have to pay for the right to search for the oil.
  They take all the risk, and they find the natural resource and they 
access that natural resource. It doesn't make any sense economically 
for a company to lease something and waste money on leases that they 
aren't going to use. It's already in law that if the companies that 
lease this land, if they are not productive, it's already a law they 
have to turn the leases back. They can't just lease them forever, get 
them for free, not pay for that right to lease the land. They have to 
already turn them back if they aren't productive, because the companies 
know if there's oil on the land, or if there's gas on the land, they 
already know if it's there.
  Just because they have leased land doesn't mean that there's oil on 
it or

[[Page 13400]]

that there's gas on it. It just doesn't make sense someone is going to 
waste money if they are in a private company. That takes away from 
profit, and you need to have profits to be able to go forward.
  Again, this is the 75th anniversary of the New Deal, and it reminds 
me of Solomon, who said in Ecclesiastes, ``There is nothing new under 
the sun.'' And there is nothing new under the sun with a lot of these 
suggestions we have seen. As a matter of fact, the plan we have seen so 
far from the Democrats has been this, and it's pretty simple, it is: 
Drive less, pay more. That is pretty much the plan that we have seen. 
Oh, yeah, also, let's increase taxes on the domestic production of 
American energy. That doesn't take too much for the American people to 
figure out.
  If Congress would decide we are going to start taxing food, do you 
think food would cost more? Of course it would. What about if Congress 
decided, Let's add taxes to health care, as if that wasn't expensive 
enough. Would that cost more? Of course it would.
  This is not the way the American people want us to go. They don't 
want us to jack up taxes on American production of oil. They don't want 
to drive less, they don't want to pay more. They don't want to have 
America socializing and taking over oil refineries. What the American 
people want, pure and simple, is freedom. They want freedom, they want 
the free market, and they want to see energy prices get back down to $2 
a gallon or less.
  I know it's possible, I know it can happen, and that is why I am so 
thankful for your brilliant leadership tonight, Congressman Latta, and 
also for Congressman Paul Brown, and also for Congressman Wittman, who 
was here earlier this evening speaking, because here's an answer. 
Here's an answer.
  It's here, it's ours, it's for the taking. We can be environmentally 
sensitive. We can explore here in America now, and we can have 
Americans pay less. I yield back.
  Mr. LATTA. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. We appreciate the 
opportunity to be here tonight on this Special Order.

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