[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7031]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               GAS PRICES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Hurt) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HURT. Madam Speaker, all across Virginia's Fifth District, people 
are suffering from skyrocketing fuel prices. As I have heard from 
families and small businesses and farmers who are seeing a negative 
impact on their bottom lines, we need to take action now if we are 
going to address this serious problem of skyrocketing fuel prices.
  Instead of supporting policies that will help bring down the cost of 
gas, the Obama administration continues to actively block and delay 
domestic energy production, causing more pain at the pump, increasing 
our dependence on foreign oil, and destroying jobs. We only have to 
look at our soaring energy costs to see the consequences of these 
failed policies. Gas prices have doubled under the President's watch 
and are now hovering around $4 per gallon in Virginia; and as these 
rising prices continue to directly affect all central and southside 
Virginians and threaten our economic recovery, I believe we should take 
action now to address this crisis.
  Last week, the House passed a bill that would expand American energy 
production and create jobs by reopening the oil exploration in the Gulf 
of Mexico and off the coast of Virginia that has been delayed or 
canceled by the Obama administration. It is estimated that offshore 
energy development in Virginia, which has bipartisan support, could 
lead to the production of more than half a billion barrels of oil and 
2.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and create nearly 2,000 jobs 
for our State. At a time like this, there is no reason to leave these 
resources untouched when it will help provide relief to all Americans.
  This week, we are continuing our work to maximize American energy 
production by considering two bills that will end the White House's de 
facto moratorium on new American offshore energy production in a safe, 
responsible, and transparent manner. By reversing the administration's 
anti-energy policies and tapping into these resources to maximize our 
domestic energy supply, we will take a significant step towards 
lowering gas prices, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and 
creating thousands of jobs for the Commonwealth and our Nation.

                              {time}  1010

  I urge support of H.R. 1229 and H.R. 1231 and hope that the Senate 
and the administration will join us in our efforts to move towards 
achieving true energy independence by approving all three energy bills 
the House of Representatives has considered thus far.

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