[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11057]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              ENERGY INDEPENDENCE THROUGH RENEWABLE ENERGY

  (Mr. TEAGUE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. TEAGUE. Madam Speaker, when I was 17 years old, I went to work in 
the oil fields making $1.50 an hour on a pulling unit to help support 
my family. Over the years, I have done just about everything there is 
to do in oil and gas around New Mexico. People know that I am an 
oilman, and I am proud of that.
  In 2007 when I announced that I would be running for Congress, people 
were surprised to find an oilman like myself campaigning for energy 
independence through renewable energy. I told people in Hobbs, Roswell, 
Carlsbad and all across southern New Mexico that technologies like 
wind, solar and biofuels were not only good for the environment but 
would also create jobs in our communities and bolster our national 
security.
  If we are going to keep up with an increasing demand for energy, we 
need to put Americans to work producing energy from the wind, the sun 
and such new and strange things as algae. Our energy future should not 
be defined by dependence on one source of energy, the vast majority of 
which we do not control.
  Like I said, I am an oilman, always have been, always will be; but 
sometimes it takes an oilman to say it: America simply can't continue 
to be addicted to foreign sources of oil.

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