[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13025]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              OIL COMPANIES DON'T WANT TO FOLLOW THE RULES

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, I think I have walked into a meeting of 
the Republican drilling caucus. If they would remember a little 
history, they would remember that Mr. Cheney had a meeting down at the 
White House back in 2001 and all of the oil company executives came in, 
and it was a secret meeting.
  We have yet to find out who was there, what the agenda was, or 
whoever. But we can now, 8 years later, see the agenda, create chaos in 
the Middle East, attack Iraq, destabilize the oil fields, threaten 
Iran. Let's drive up the price of oil.
  Gasoline was $1.47 when George Bush took control, and here we are, 
it's $4. They have absolutely succeeded.
  Now at the end of that meeting they said, and, really, the best part 
of this is, we are going to get the right to drill in ANWR. Let's blame 
the environmentalists. They won't let us build refineries.
  The reason we don't build refineries is because oil companies don't 
want to follow the rules. The only thing they drill the hole in is the 
bottom of the economic boat in this country.

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