[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7821]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            ENERGY PLAN NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
South Carolina (Mr. Barrett) for 1 minute.
  Mr. BARRETT of South Carolina. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  This past week for the first time, some Americans paid $4 a gallon 
for gas. The national average for regular unleaded gasoline now is 
$3.61 a gallon. Americans have never paid such a tremendous amount of 
their hard-earned dollars on gasoline, Mr. Speaker, and the high 
gasoline prices are taking a toll on their pocketbooks.
  Many issues are responsible for the higher gas prices, but in order 
to lessen America's dependency on foreign and unstable energy sources, 
we need to be looking right here at home. We're relying too much on 
foreign energy sources and our dependency on these sources is a risk 
for our national security. We have natural and technological resources 
to support domestic production and find oil sources here at home. We 
can increase our domestic energy exploration and production in the U.S. 
while also utilizing alternative energy sources such as hydrogen, wind 
and solar power.
  Citizens can't afford the price of gas. For our people, for our 
country, the majority must bring an energy solution to the floor now so 
that American families are no longer paying an unprecedented $4 a 
gallon for gas.

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