[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13555]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         USE IT OR LOSE IT HOAX

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX. I am here on the floor tonight to set the record straight 
about false claims that Democrats are peddling as a ``use it or lose 
it'' hoax. With American families and small businesses continuing to 
feel the pain at the pump, House Democrats have begun offering a series 
of hollow bills that will do nothing to reduce gas prices.
  Today's bill, purportedly meant to address price gouging, serves no 
purpose other than to provide political cover to Democrats who continue 
to divide the will of the American people who are calling on Congress 
to increase the supply of American energy. In fact, today's bill is a 
rehashed version of a similar price gouging bill passed by the House 
last year.
  Still to come in this week's series of no energy bills, the 
Democrats' ``use it or lose it'' hoax, with no facts to back up their 
desperate rhetoric, Democratic leaders continue to make misleading and 
inaccurate claims with the hope of confusing the American people.
  Following are some of the most prevalent examples. Myth. If the 
American people want increased production of American energy, Congress 
must force energy companies to use their leased Federal lands to 
produce oil or lose those leases.
  Here's the fact. Use it or lose it is already the law of the land. As 
a matter of fact, in a bipartisan vote, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader 
Hoyer, and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rahall each voted for 
it in 1992. Under the law, Federal energy leaseholders already must 
produce oil or natural gas within 5 to 10 years after drilling on the 
land begins, and the Secretary of the Interior has the power to cancel 
the lease if the energy company fails to comply.
  If Representatives Pelosi, Hoyer, and Rahall all had voted for ``use 
it or lose it'' 16 years ago, then why are they so insistent on forcing 
another vote on the exact same concept this year? Could it be because 
they have no meaningful plan of their own to bring down gas prices?
  Another myth. Oil companies are sitting on 68 million acres of 
Federal lands without drilling for oil or gas on any of it. This is 
another false claim, which has become one of the Democrats' top talking 
points, but they can't back it up with any facts.
  Energy companies already are actively exploring their currently 
leased lands to find oil or gas. Once they determine that oil or gas is 
present, only then can they actually begin drilling. The entire process 
can take years.
  As the Independent American Association of Petroleum Geologists noted 
in a letter to House leaders yesterday, oil and natural gas exploration 
is not simple and it is not easy. It requires geological ingenuity, 
advanced technologies, and the time to do the job right.

                              {time}  2145

  It also requires access to areas where exploration ideas can be 
tested. The greater the number of areas available for exploration, the 
higher the chance of finding oil and natural gas traps. In other words, 
energy companies cannot be expected to drill on every acre of land 
every single day, and the Democrats know it.
  Another myth: 4.8 million barrels of oil per day and 44.7 billion 
cubic feet of natural gas per day may be ``extrapolated'' from the oil 
companies' unused federally-leased lands. In fact, no Democrat, not 
Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm 
Emanuel, and not Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall can 
explain where they got those figures. In fact, Democrats have refused 
to respond to a written request from Natural Resources Committee 
Republicans for this information. Did they just make it up?
  Mr. Speaker, we know that what will help this problem and our 
country, the ``Pelosi premium,'' which has driven up gas prices to over 
$4 a gallon, is to increase the supply. We must increase the supply in 
order to meet the demand. The Democrats act as though they have 
repealed the law of supply and demand, the most basic law of economics. 
They can do a lot of things, Mr. Speaker, but they can't repeal the law 
of supply and demand. What they have to face up to is the fact that we 
need additional supply.
  Republicans have offered commonsense solutions to this issue. We have 
many plans and many bills out there that would increase the supply and 
relieve the burden on working Americans. Democrats need to understand 
that. They need to stop trying to fool the American people with their 
hoaxes on use-it-or-lose-it, and help us put together a plan to bring 
greater supply to the American people and give them some relief.

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