[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7037]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   GIVING MORE ACCESS TO AMERICAN OIL

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, the pain at the pump is real. In this, the 
most difficult economy in the last 25 years, my constituents have gas 
prices on their mind, and with due cause: $4.18 a gallon average back 
in the Hoosier State, higher than the national average, gas prices have 
climbed more than $1 over the last year. And, frankly, with the summer 
travel season upon us and with the rising treacherous waters in the 
Mississippi threatening our refinery capability, we could see $5 a 
gallon gasoline in the near future.
  It is time to give the American people more access to American oil. 
Starting last week and this week, this majority in Congress will 
continue to move legislation that opens up our own domestic energy 
reserves in the Gulf of Mexico and offshore to the American people. The 
answer to the pain at the pump is energy independence. Part of that 
answer is by giving the American people more access to our own domestic 
reserves.
  I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting measures on the floor 
this week and last week and lead us toward that lodestar of energy 
independence and relieve the pain at the pump once and for all.

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