[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7284]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  SOARING PRICES, SILENCE AND SECRECY

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, the President announced that he's open to 
ideas to lower soaring gasoline prices. That's good news because I 
noticed gasoline prices began to rise not long after Vice President 
Cheney held secret meetings with the energy companies. So the first 
thing the President ought to do is have the Vice President release the 
transcripts from those secret meetings. The American people still don't 
know what the Vice President's energy cabal cooked up. The gasoline 
prices have skyrocketed ever since.
  The President's solution is to allow his oil pals to drill in the 
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That keeps us addicted to oil, risks 
environmental catastrophe but feeds the profits of oil companies. Two 
of the oil companies, BP and Shell, reported almost $19 billion in 
profits from the first quarter, and their surrogates in the White House 
can only meet soaring gas prices with silence and secrecy.
  The President claimed he's looking for new ideas. How about an old 
reliable one: open government. Tell the people what happened in those 
secret meetings. Maybe then we will find out why I paid $3.75 for a 
gallon of gas last night. It was $1.90 when the President came in.

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