[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7233]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             ENERGY PRICES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Westmoreland) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WESTMORELAND. Madam Speaker, I am glad the gentleman who has just 
left was talking about the energy prices, because that is what I want 
to talk about, too, the energy prices.
  I was elected to Congress 4 years ago, and I came up here and you 
really think you are going to be dealing with some smart people. It 
took all I could muster up just to graduate from high school. I did 
attend college for 2 years. But I have come up here and I have found 
out that evidently a lot of people in this body don't understand either 
business or the economy or economics or something, because I keep 
hearing about the majority wanting to bring down gas prices, but they 
want to do it by raising taxes and taxing oil companies.
  Now, the gentleman just spoke about getting the President's help. 
Well, I think he has tried to help. I think he has put together some 
good proposals, but they don't want to do any drilling.
  On April 24, 2006, Speaker Pelosi put out a thing, they were trying 
to get into the majority, and it said: ``Democrats have a commonsense 
plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices.'' And at the time, gas 
was probably $2 a gallon and, as the gentleman stated a while ago, it 
is about $3.80 now. Oil was probably $60 a barrel, and it is about $120 
a barrel now. But you passed H.R. 6. That was one of the first 100 
Hours, one of these great proposals, the Energy Independence and 
Security Act of 2007.
  Well, we did a little research. In that bill, which is over 300 
pages, ``crude oil'' is mentioned five times. Over 300 pages, ``crude 
oil'' is mentioned just five times.

                              {time}  1945

  ``Gasoline'' is mentioned 12 times in over 300 pages.
  ``Exploratory drilling'' is mentioned twice.
  ``Offshore drilling'' is mentioned, none.
  ``Domestic drilling'' is mentioned, none.
  ``Domestic oil'' is mentioned, none.
  ``Domestic gas,'' zero mention.
  ``Domestic fuel,'' zero mention.
  ``Domestic petroleum,'' zero.
  ``Gas price'' or ``gas prices,'' zero.
  The word ``commonsense,'' zero.
  What is mentioned is ``greenhouse,'' 103 times.
  ``Green building,'' 101 times.
  ``Ecosystem,'' 24 times.
  ``Climate change,'' 18 times.
  One of their favorite words ``regulation,'' 98 times.
  ``Environmental,'' 160 times.
  ``Geothermal,'' 94 times.
  ``Renewable,'' 333 times.
  The word ``pool'' because, Madam Speaker, there was the Swimming Pool 
Safety Act attached to the Energy Independence and Security Act. Here 
is the thing I found interesting. The word ``pool'' was mentioned 47 
times; or nine times more than crude oil and four times more than the 
word ``gasoline.''
  ``Lamp'' or ``light bulb'' is mentioned 350 times; 350 times they 
talk about lamps or light bulbs.
  So get the picture here. The Democratic plan for lowering gas prices 
is not drilling, it is not using domestic production, it is becoming 
more reliant on foreign oil; and it is going to do it through 
greenhouse, green building, regulation, geothermal, swimming pool 
safety, and light bulbs.
  Now I have a hard time when I go home to the people of the Third 
Congressional District explaining to them that that's our plan for 
energy independence. And I don't know if I am the only one that is 
having the problem of convincing my constituents that this is what 
Congress is doing to lower gas prices.
  Now just another side note here. Tonight we passed Senate bill 2739, 
Consolidated Natural Resource Act of 2008, but I see my time has 
expired.

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