[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13422]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                MOTHER NATURE IS NUMBER ONE OIL POLLUTER

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, the number one polluter of oil off our coast is 
Mother Nature. Crude oil seeps to the surface, and Mother Nature causes 
62 percent of the crude oil pollution off our coast.
  So the way we resolve this problem and get even with Mother Nature is 
we ought to drill where Mother Nature has that oil, take it out from 
the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, and use it to take care of America.
  But there is a problem with that. We don't drill anywhere except off 
my native Texas coast, off Louisiana, Mississippi, and part of Alabama. 
The rest of this, where it is red on this chart, is prohibited.
  It is time for Congress to take the handcuffs off of this inaction 
and allow leasing off these shores.
  Now they say that the oil companies have enough leases; why don't 
they drill there. The problem is when they drill there, they get a dry 
hole. And common sense says when they get a dry hole, they quit 
drilling even though they must continue to pay for those leases.
  So it is time to let America take care of America. It is time to let 
our oil go and take care of ourselves, otherwise this red area that we 
see here will remain off-limits, and it should be drilled for the crude 
oil to take care of our country.
  And that's just the way it is.

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