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




                    FRUSTRATED WITH THE HIGH PRICES

  (Mr. ARCURI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ARCURI. Madam Speaker, people around America are talking about 
gas. That's all we hear.
  There is a difference, however. The people back home in upstate New 
York are talking about gas because they are frustrated with the high 
prices. Yet other people in this country are attempting to demagog this 
issue and to turn it into a political issue.
  We listen to the oil company executives say that we should drill, 
drill, drill. Drill our way to energy independence. Well, that's an 
impossibility. They say it as if we should believe what the oil company 
executives tell us, because, after all, they have always told us the 
truth in the past. That's just not the way it is.
  In fact, if you look at the facts, you will see that there are 68 
million acres available for drilling in this country that oil companies 
have failed and refuse to drill upon. Yet they continue to talk about 
drill, drill, because they don't want the alternative. They don't want 
to talk about conservation, and they don't want to talk about 
alternative energy.
  This is useless, and it's divisive to America. We need to find 
solutions by working together, not pointing the finger and blaming 
others.

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