[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11200]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               RESULTS OF NOT DEVELOPING AMERICAN ENERGY

  (Mr. AKIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. AKIN. As America is becoming painfully aware, there has been a 
result of us not developing American energy. We have reports of police 
cars sitting idle because of the cost of gasoline; various assembly 
lines and automobile manufacturers closed down because of the fact that 
there's no demand for the type of vehicles that are being produced. We 
have a situation where parents have a hard time just putting enough 
gasoline in the tank to get the kids to school. And we have the AAA 
saying that the increase in motorists without gas has increased 15 
percent.
  Since Speaker Pelosi took office, gasoline prices have skyrocketed 71 
percent. Now, I am an engineer. The good news is there's a solution to 
this. It's called American energy. We need to stop looking at the 
American energy as something that is an environmental hazard and rather 
look at it as an asset that we can develop.
  The Democrats, year after year after year, 85 percent of the time, 
are voting against increasing supplies of American energy. We have to 
develop our own energy.

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