[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13419]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     THE PRESIDENT'S CALL TO LIFT THE BAN ON OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. McDermott) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, we've just been treated to a lecture to 
a third grade class about what pollution we ought to worry about. 
Apparently, my colleague from Texas doesn't understand that the problem 
is that, when you burn oil, you pollute the atmosphere, and that's 
where the real problem is and why finding more oil is not the answer to 
the world's problems.
  The American people have had a few days to consider the President's 
call to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling. The New York Times calls 
it ``The Big Pander to Big Oil,'' saying, ``This is worse than a dumb 
idea. It is cruelly misleading. It will make only a modest difference, 
at best, to prices at the pump, and even then, the benefits will be 
years away.''
  The Los Angeles Times was even blunter in its characterization of 
this proposal by our President. It said, ``It's nonsense for them to 
use the run-up in gas prices as an excuse to advocate offshore 
drilling.'' Continuing, ``What's really needed, though, is a moratorium 
on worthless suggestions from politicians for lowering gas prices.''
  The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's editorial, up north from Los 
Angeles, said, ``Offshore drilling: This well is dry.'' They said, 
``But drilling/plundering our coasts for about 19 billion barrels of 
oil--that's really all that's available--is akin to placing a Band-Aid 
on the hemorrhaging wound that is our oil-dependent, wasteful 
lifestyle.''
  The Seattle Times called it Bush's last gasp on oil, and their 
editorial said, ``Longing for a higher mileage vehicle in the face of 
gasoline at $4.30 a gallon? The President's response has been ANWR, not 
CAFE. (Corporate Average Fuel Economy)--drilling in a wildlife refuge, 
not fuel efficiency.''
  There's a pattern here from coast to coast. The American people are 
tired of rhetoric that fails to meet the reality test. The oil industry 
already has access to 68 million acres of Federal oil reserves, but 
they are only pumping out press releases. The President already has 
access to mountains of data on the urgent need to dramatically change 
our energy policy to focus on renewable resources, conservation and 
efficiency. Instead, the President gives us political expediency that 
will not fill a gas tank, that will not lower gas prices and that will 
not help our addiction to oil.
  For the first time, Congress will have to go it alone to shape energy 
policy for the 21st century. Nancy Pelosi, our Speaker, has shown that 
the people's House is up to the task. This week, the House will 
consider several bills from Democratic leadership that builds upon our 
existing record for bold, new energy legislation. We are going to take 
up legislation that holds oil companies accountable, but the fact is we 
may not get it all done, and we may have to wait for a new President. 
As long as the oil dynasty occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, we're not 
going to get any serious changes in this country.
  So hang onto your hats, folks. You're going to have a lot of trouble 
with oil prices and with gas prices over the next few months.

                          ____________________