[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11970]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             BIG OIL NEEDS TO DRILL WHERE THEY HOLD LEASES

  (Mr. SIRES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SIRES. Madam Speaker, President Bush and congressional 
Republicans continue to blame today's record gas prices on our refusal 
to open more land up for drilling. They claim that if we allowed big 
oil to drill more, gas prices would fall. What Republicans neglect to 
say is that the number of drilling permits increased dramatically over 
the last 5 years from 3,800 permits in 2002 to 7,500 last year.
  That's right. Big oil is actually getting access to more land to 
drill, but is doing nothing to bring down the price of gas. Big oil has 
access to millions of acres of Federal land. But for some reason, they 
have yet to do any drilling. According to a new Natural Resources 
Committee report, oil and gas companies hold leases to nearly 68 
million acres of Federal land that they are not currently drilling. If 
big oil really wants to drill more, why aren't they drilling?
  Madam Speaker, Washington Republicans are wrong again to rely on big 
oil to bring down the prices at the pump. After all, while American 
consumers battle these record prices, big oil is laughing all the way 
to the bank.

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