[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11456]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                BAD POLICY HAS BANNED DRILLING OFFSHORE

  (Ms. FALLIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. FALLIN. If I told you that a loaf of bread was $4, and there was 
plenty of wheat growing right here, but you said I could not harvest 
it, then I would be right to call you illogical. If I told you that you 
could bake more bread with a new oven, except that your rules say we 
can't build it, then I'd be right to say that your rules are hurting 
consumers. If I told you I needed to keep my bakery profits to expand 
my production, and you tax them away to ``punish'' me for market forces 
beyond my control, then you would be the one to blame for the rising 
bread prices.
  Sounds silly, doesn't it? Unfortunately, this pretty much sums up our 
current energy policies. Just substitute gas for bread.
  Bad policy has banned drilling offshore in Alaska where there are 
huge oil reserves. Bad policy has curtailed refinery construction. Bad 
policy taxes productivity, reduces the capital needed for new 
production, and the same basic rules of economics apply to bread and 
energy. When bad policies block production, you have shortages, and 
prices go up and people get hurt.

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