[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12169]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             FALSE REPUBLICAN RHETORIC ON ENERGY SOLUTIONS

  (Mr. ETHERIDGE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, we have been hearing a lot of talk this 
week about high energy prices. The Republican talking point for the 
week is that Democrats are causing high gas prices because we won't 
allow drilling. That is false rhetoric.
  It is the oil companies that are choosing not to drill on 80 percent 
of the leases already available for drilling in Alaska. It is the oil 
companies that are choosing not to increase drilling in the Naval 
Petroleum Reserve, one of the largest petroleum reserves in the Nation 
and one that President Clinton made available for drilling.
  Meanwhile, it is the Democrats who have put 70,000 more barrels of 
oil per day on to the market by halting shipments to the Strategic 
Petroleum Reserve. It is the Democrats that have passed legislation 
that would allow OPEC to be investigated for price fixing, legislation 
that the President has threatened to veto.
  It is time to stop the rhetoric, Mr. Speaker. I challenge the 
President to demand fair play from OPEC and the Republican Party to 
stand up for the American people and not Big Oil.

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