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




                           END OIL'S MONOPOLY

  (Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, if I had a monopoly on 
apple pies because the law said that my backyard was the only place in 
town where you could grow apple trees, I would charge whatever I wanted 
for those apple pies. I would be even more excited when I would start 
jacking the price way, way up for those apple pies and would make huge, 
record apple pie profits.
  If the government decided that the way to fix that problem would be 
to give me, and only me, permission to grow one more apple tree in my 
backyard 10 years from now, well, it would sound pretty ridiculous, 
right?
  Unfortunately, even though the analogy is a little bit simple, that 
is basically the Republican's plan for high gas prices. Instead of 
actually creating competition for the oil industry by concentrating on 
growing renewable energy sources, they just call for a little bit more 
drilling, giving their friends in the oil industry even more profit.
  Well, we shouldn't fall for it. With 2 percent of the world's oil 
reserves here in the United States, the only way to bring gas prices 
down is to end oil's monopoly and to start growing apple trees in other 
people's backyards.

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