[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14510-14511]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      PANIC AND THE ENERGY CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Minnesota (Mrs. Bachmann) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BACHMANN. Mr. Speaker, we are at what I think is a very 
refreshing moment of clarity on the national energy debate that is 
occurring right now in hamlets and towns and villages all across the 
United States. We have captured people's attention because we really 
are at a crisis point because, at least in my district, the Sixth 
District of Minnesota, people are paying close to $4 for a gallon of 
gas. I know that the national average is at about $4.11 a gallon. It's 
at historic highs and people are frantic.
  When I was home over the break, I had met with people from all 
aspects of dealing with the energy issue. In particular, I met with 
some car dealers and they told me that people come into the dealership, 
this was Morrie Wagner Chevrolet, and they told me that they have 
people literally coming into the store with panicked looks on their 
faces saying, Take my truck, take my SUV. It's a new car. Take my 
minivan. It's new. We still owe quite a bit of money on it but we can't 
afford to drive this thing. Sheer panic and trying to find anything 
else because they just don't know how much higher prices are going.

                              {time}  1930

  But I say that we are at a refreshing point in this debate for this 
reason: We have clarity right now on the debate that we have never had 
before. Frankly, I have been baffled; baffled by how are we going to be 
able to get us back to $2 a gallon gasoline or less? And I mean that 
sincerely. I know that we can be at $2 a gallon again.
  It wasn't that long ago when I took office, 18 months ago. I am a 
first-termer in Congress, Mr. Speaker. When I came in, gas was $2 and 
change a gallon. Think of that. Eighteen months ago, gas was $2 and 
change, and here we are topping out at over $4 a gallon gasoline.
  What happened in that amount of time, when we have seen a 76 percent 
rise in the price of gasoline? What happened? We have seen worldwide 
demand go up and up and up, so that worldwide demand exceeds the amount 
of supply. That has fed into the price going up and up and up.
  Well, what do we do to deal with that? We need to get more supply so 
we can get the price down. Why isn't that happening? It is really clear 
to me now. And I was baffled about this. I couldn't believe it, but it 
is absolutely true.
  The Democrats' position so far, Mr. Speaker, has been drive less, pay 
more. That is where they are coming from. I find that really hard to 
believe. I grew up a Democrat in a Democrat home, and I thought that 
just can't be. It defies commonsense. Drive less, pay more? That is 
your plan?
  Well, that isn't just some Republican saying that. That is the 
Democrats' own words. There was just an aide of the Democrat leadership 
that just came out and said, ``This is what our plan is: It is drive 
small cars and wait for the wind.'' That is actually true. This was not 
a tongue in cheek remark. It is ``drive small cars and wait for the 
wind.'' Well, I don't know about you, but I think Members of Congress 
are going to be gone with the wind if we don't do something about the 
price of gasoline to bring it down again.
  Not only that, I was reading on the Hill from Roll Call newspaper and 
another Democrat leadership aide had this to say: They said that the 
majority is confident they would be able to defeat the offshore 
drilling amendment.
  Now, just think of that for a moment, Mr. Speaker. The Democrats are 
confident they would be able to defeat the offshore drilling amendment, 
which means what are we supposed to do for energy? We have got to go 
get it. We have got to drill for it. They want to kill being able to 
drill offshore to bring on line the energy that we need so we can get 
the American people back to $2 a gallon and so we can get the economy 
back on track. But they are confident that they can kill this bill.
  They have no intention of bringing more energy supplies on line. In 
fact, this aide was quoted as saying, ``We have defeated that amendment 
before, and we will defeat it again.'' They are proud of it. They 
admitted, at least I give them credit for that, yes, it is true, the 
Democrats are responsible for defeating drilling to get the energy that 
we need, and they are confident they are going to defeat it again.

[[Page 14511]]

  It is almost unbelievable to me, because, as this chart says, what we 
need to do is bring it on. If we are short on energy, we need to bring 
it on. We need to bring the onshore oil on line, we need to bring the 
offshore oil on line, and the new refineries on line, because we are 
the Saudi Arabia of oil. We have more oil in three States, Utah, 
Colorado, Wyoming, we have more oil in those three States than all of 
Saudi Arabia. We have 25 percent of the world's coal in this country. 
We can be the Saudi Arabia of coal. We have more natural gas. We have 
420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico, and we 
can't get it.
  Now, why is that? It is because of Congress. Congress created this 
problem. We are about the only country in the world that has made it 
illegal to access our own energy. Congress created this problem. 
Congress can solve this problem by making it legal to access our own 
energy reserves.
  Well, that can't be done. We hear, Mr. Speaker, from the Democrat 
presidential nominee, Senator Obama, it will take 20 years before we 
can get any of this energy on line. Are you kidding? That is 
balderdash, so-to-speak. Of course, we can.
  I have a bill that I am introducing this week that will fast track 
the permitting so we can have the Secretary of the Interior start 
immediately to get it online. We need to do this, the American people 
want us to do this, and we can get back to $2 a gallon gas.

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