[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13887]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        DEVELOP AMERICAN ENERGY

  (Mr. AKIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. AKIN. Madam Speaker, America has a problem because we have not 
been developing our American energy. The tip of the iceberg is 
particularly obvious now at $4 a gallon, but there were warning signs--
nuclear reactors, 1960s vintage technology, no new refineries sited in 
30 years. That's going back to the Vietnam era. We have not been 
developing American energy. Why? It is not because we don't have 
American energy. We have plenty of varieties of American energy that we 
could be developing, and it is not because we don't have the technology 
or the innovation to be able to develop American energy.
  No. Unfortunately, this is strictly a matter of will. It is a 
decision, and it is strictly a party-line decision.
  Over the last 8 years, Democrats on all kinds of votes on energy have 
voted 90 percent of the time not to develop American energy. 
Republicans have voted 90 percent too. Whether it is recycling nuclear 
fuel, drilling in ANWR or in the Outer Continental Shelf, we need to 
agree that the time has come to develop American energy.

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