[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13885]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  OPPOSITION TO NEW OFFSHORE DRILLING

  (Mrs. CAPPS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. CAPPS. Madam Speaker, I rise in response to recent calls for new 
offshore drilling. These arguments for new drilling hit a dry hole for 
several reasons.
  First, we are already drilling offshore. Eighty percent of the known 
offshore reserves are in areas where leasing and drilling is allowed. 
Today, the oil companies have nearly 6,000 untapped leases in the Gulf 
of Mexico alone.
  Second, with 3 percent of the world's resources and 25 percent of the 
world's demand, there is no way we are going to just drill our way out 
of this problem.
  Third, even the Bush administration admits consumers would see little 
savings at the pump from new drilling.
  Yesterday, Guy Caruso, head of the Energy Information Agency, said 
this about the impact of new drilling: ``It would be a relatively small 
effect, because it would take such a long time to bring those supplies 
on. It doesn't affect prices that much.''
  Democrats have a better plan. Let's pass legislation that moves 
America in a new direction on energy by closing the Enron loophole on 
Wall Street speculators who are driving up prices. Let's reduce mass 
transit fares and build the infrastructure there, and let's force Big 
Oil to use it or lose it on drilling permits.
  I urge my colleagues to join with me in bringing America to a new, 
more affordable energy future.

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