[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6624-6625]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               GAS PRICES

  (Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the average for a gallon of gas in 
Ohio is over $4 a gallon. In eastern and southeast Ohio, this is 
particularly hard on families who live in rural areas. Farmers, 
ranchers, seniors, working families who have limited means of 
transportation--these high gas prices are having a negative impact on 
everyone. The higher gas prices go, the more of an impact it has on our 
economy and on our chances for a real economic recovery.
  Small business owners are watching money they could otherwise invest 
in their businesses go to paying for fuel, and working families are 
anxiously redoing their budgets to account for higher fuel costs and 
looking for ways to cut back.
  We're blessed with an abundance of natural resources in Ohio. We're 
one of the highest coal-producing areas, and

[[Page 6625]]

with the Marcellus shale right next door in West Virginia, we're poised 
to make an enormous contribution to making America self-sufficient in 
energy. We need an energy strategy that will help us become energy 
self-sufficient so we stop relying on other countries to meet our 
energy needs.
  Now is the time to levy a ``permatorium'' on developing American 
energy resources. Let's open up our American resources and put our 
country on the path to ensuring our energy security, instead of 
continuing to rely on foreign sources for energy.

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