[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10939-10946]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1850
                        HOUSE ENERGY ACTION TEAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Duncan) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, the last Congress was 
known as the Congress of bailouts, takeovers, taxation, and regulation. 
This Congress is working to be the Congress of free markets, achieving 
American energy independence, and job creation.
  Back in May, the House passed three sweeping pieces of energy 
legislation designed to help end our country's dependence on Middle 
Eastern oil and help create American jobs by allowing deep sea energy 
exploration and production.
  Tonight we are going to talk about American energy independence and 
how energy is a segue into job creation, how we can put Americans back 
to work. As a proud member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, 
we passed three I think very, very strong bills that would put America 
back to work, especially in the Gulf of Mexico. We passed H.R. 1229. 
This is the Putting the Gulf Back to Work Act. It would end the Obama 
administration's de facto moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico in a safe, 
responsible, transparent manner by setting firm

[[Page 10940]]

timelines for considering permits to drill, which will provide 
certainty and allow employers and workers to get back on the job.
  I don't know how many Members of Congress have been out in the Gulf 
of Mexico like me and looked at offshore drilling and offshore energy 
production. There is a difference between drilling and production. 
Drilling is finding the oil, drilling that well. Then they move a 
production platform in there to start producing that. And I talk with 
my colleagues from Louisiana and Mississippi and Texas that understand 
that the Gulf States are hurting because it's not the Big Oil companies 
that are out of work. It's the folks that work on those rigs out in the 
gulf, doing the day-to-day labor of tapping that American energy 
resource.
  But it's also the folks back on the beach that are providing the 
service industry, the ones that go out and provide the food and the 
transportation to the workers going back and forth. It's the ships that 
pull the anchors when the drilling platform wants to move somewhere 
else. It's the pipefitters and welders back on shore that are providing 
the necessary service to that industry. We want to put the gulf back to 
work. We urge the Senate to pass H.R. 1229 that we sent over in May. 
And let's put the Gulf of Mexico back to work. In a few minutes I'm 
going to yield to the gentleman from Louisiana, who is going to talk 
more about that.
  Then we passed the Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act, 
which would require the Obama administration to move forward and 
promptly conduct offshore lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. I served 
on the Outer Continental Shelf 5-year Planning Subcommittee that looked 
at oil and natural gas leases on the Outer Continental Shelf all around 
the United States. And I know what a convoluted, long process it is to 
have a lease sale.
  The administration is failing America by not having lease sales in 
the Gulf of Mexico, or off the coast of Alaska, or really anywhere else 
on the Outer Continental Shelf. It's time to restart that leasing 
program so that we can tap the American resources that we have in this 
country. H.R. 1230 is another bill we passed out on May 5. The Senate 
needs to act on that one, Mr. Speaker. We passed it with a bipartisan 
vote of 266-149.
  The third bill that came out, Reversing President Obama's Offshore 
Moratorium Act, H.R. 1231, another one the Senate has failed to act on. 
This would lift the President's ban on new offshore drilling by 
requiring the administration to move forward on the 2012 to 2017 lease 
plan with energy production in the areas containing the most oil and 
natural gas resources.
  We know where those resources are. They are off the coast of 
Mississippi and Alabama and Texas and the western Gulf of Mexico. They 
are also off the coast of South Carolina and Virginia on the Outer 
Continental Shelf. They are in the Alaskan Sea and off the coast of 
Alaska, where recently we saw the EPA deny Shell Oil Company an air 
quality permit.
  Now, Americans need to listen. This isn't an oil drilling permit. 
They were ready to go. They had their drilling permit. But the EPA 
denied them an air quality permit. And a drilling platform does flare 
off the gas that sometimes seeps through when they are drilling for 
oil, and they flare that gas off to keep from having a dangerous 
explosion like we saw in Deepwater Horizon. Flare gas, natural gas 
that's flared off.
  They are denied an air quality permit because 70 miles away on the 
coast, 70 miles away is an indigenous village of 250 people. So this 
administration's going to keep us from harvesting our natural resources 
in Alaska by not denying a drilling permit, but by denying an air 
quality permit to a drilling platform in the Alaskan Sea because it 
might impact a small village in Alaska. That's the kind of 
administration policies that we're dealing with and we're fighting here 
in this Congress.
  Folks, we want to put America back to work. Energy is a segue to job 
creation. Think about it. The refining capacity that needs to be 
expanded as we expand the harvesting of oil and natural gas. New 
refineries in this country. It's been over 30 years, I believe, since 
we've had a new refinery permit in this country. We often think about 
energy, we think about fossil fuels, hydrocarbons, oil and natural gas. 
But when I talk about energy, I think about expanded nuclear power and 
how one nuclear power plant can put 5,000 people to work, 10,000 people 
to work in my area with new construction jobs. And then once the 
construction phase is over with, we've got long-term, good paying jobs 
like we have at the Oconee nuclear power plant in Seneca, South 
Carolina.
  I believe in nuclear power as a stable, reliable source of energy in 
this country. We've got to expand nuclear power. We've got to look at 
modularization and miniaturization. At any given time, folks, we've got 
over 100 small nuclear reactors floating around the seas of the world 
in the United States Navy. And you know what? We haven't had a single 
mishap. Small, modularized nuclear reactors that work. Thinking outside 
the box, do we do that for small communities, neighborhoods, or small 
cities with smaller nuclear reactors like we have on aircraft carriers 
and submarines?
  Recent studies from the American Petroleum Institute showed the 
United States is poised to create thousands of new jobs next year only 
if the Federal Government stops blocking the permitting process. There 
is a study that says that in Alaska alone--this was conducted by the 
University of Alaska--over 54,000 jobs could be created and sustained 
with deep sea production in Alaska.
  I am going to yield in a little while to the gentleman from North 
Dakota, who will tell you that North Dakota's got one of the lowest, if 
not the lowest, unemployment rate in the United States, 3.2 percent. 
It's because of the energy jobs that are being created in the Bakken 
oil field in North Dakota. He is going to tell you more about that 
because it is a wonderful success story on how energy-related jobs 
expand the economy and put Americans back to work.
  At this time, I would like to yield to the gentlewoman from 
Washington State, who knows that putting Americans back to work can 
happen if we harvest the natural resources that we've got in this great 
country.
  Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Thank you for that. I couldn't agree more. You 
know what we're talking about here is jobs, job creation. And the best 
way to do that is to explore for energy here, to develop our energy 
resources. And that's why I am pleased to be a part of this Congress.
  When I hear from folks back home, they say, ``Jamie, we sent you to 
D.C. for solutions.'' And that's precisely what this Congress has been 
about. With the gentleman you are going to hear from and others, I 
helped launch the House Energy Action Team, or HEAT is what we like to 
call it. It's an initiative with my House colleagues that we've started 
to bring forward energy solutions that put forward jobs for Americans. 
And I am a solutions-oriented person.
  Solutions are definitely what America needs right now. And I see this 
from the vantage point of my corner of this country in southwest 
Washington State. Here is a good example. Just a few weeks ago, I met 
with John Leber. He is the owner of Swanson Bark in Longview. And 
basically, his business moves material for the forest products 
industry, including biomass for energy producers.
  Now, the first problem we have encountered, and he has seen here with 
regard to some of these regulations, is we have very strict boiler MACT 
rules that are on hold. But if they are implemented, they would cost 
the forest products industry alone $5 billion to $7 billion to 
implement. And that's not hiring new people, that's not expanding their 
business, that's just costs of complying with Federal Government rules.

                              {time}  1900

  And there is more. The second problem is thousands of manufacturing 
and industrial facilities across this country use incinerators that 
would be affected, meaning they are going to have to

[[Page 10941]]

spend more money, not to hire more people or to grow their business, 
but to comply with Federal Government rules.
  Now, instead of stepping on the air hose of employers like John 
Leber, I cosponsored legislation and a solution that would allow the 
EPA to make the Boiler MACT rule more reasonable. Makes common sense; 
right? In turn, this would help the promising industry of biomass and 
the jobs that would come with it.
  Now, the gentleman from South Carolina very rightly pointed out the 
energy exploration solutions that we passed here off this House floor. 
This is just one solution that I think is going to help, and I want to 
add it to those four. We are working on that. HEAT members here tonight 
are joining together to call on the Senate.
  We have passed at least four bills that provide American energy 
solutions that will promote American energy jobs. The Senate needs to 
step up. I am going to share for you and reiterate some of those bills 
that we passed because they are very important. This is important to 
America's energy security and America's energy independence.
  The first one is the Jobs and Energy Permitting Act of 2011. This 
would have simply required the EPA to speed up its approvals for energy 
exploration in Alaska. That's it. Speed up your approvals. That's 
pretty simple.
  Developing and safely exploring for energy here would have produced a 
million barrels of oil per day, and it would create more than 54,000 
American energy jobs. Now, not all of us like the gentleman from North 
Dakota have such low unemployment rates. I think it was quoted as about 
3 percent. I would be doing backflips for 3 percent unemployment.
  In southwest Washington, we have had double-digit unemployment now 
for 3 years, 3-plus years, and it's horrible. So we need to get these 
things moving here in America and create those jobs, especially when 
it's within our reach to do.
  And one of the other solutions that we worked on as a team was 
reversing President Obama's offshore moratorium. This would contribute 
over 1.2 million new jobs for Americans who are hurting across this 
country; 800 million in revenue would have come in if the Senate would 
move this bill.
  Now, as we are talking about the deficit and deficit reductions and 
the debt ceiling--and I agree with what one of the Senators said. We 
don't need new taxes; we need new taxpayers. So getting more people to 
work, paying taxes is going to help us get out of the debt that this 
country is facing, and it's going to create more jobs.
  The third bill that we worked on and passed off of this House, one of 
the solutions that we have already pushed through this Chamber, is the 
Putting the Gulf Back to Work Act, and that bill simply reinforces 
safety measures through permitting inspections while increasing 
American energy.
  I hope you are sensing a theme here tonight: American energy 
solutions and American jobs.
  And the fourth one that we were pleased to get off this floor a few 
months ago was the Restarting the American Offshore Leasing Now Act. 
Now, this moves us forward with lease sales that were cancelled or 
postponed by this administration.
  Remember, I mentioned stepping on that air hose. Well, a lot of the 
rules that have come out this administration have stepped on the air 
hose for employers in our Nation, and it has got to stop. We need to 
increase America's energy supply. This would increase thousands of 
American jobs, and it's common sense. All of these commonsense 
solutions that increase American energy production make it cheaper for 
families to fill their car with gas, to heat their homes, and it would 
give relief to American employers.
  I am merely asking, and my colleagues here tonight, we are merely 
asking the Senate to imagine a future in the United States where energy 
is abundant and affordable and where we aren't riding the roller 
coaster of high gas prices that. Basically, those prices are set by 
other nations that don't like us very much.
  So I encourage our Senate colleagues to join us in passing and 
pursuing more solutions like these that the people of this country 
deserve.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. I was out in Washington State with the 
gentlewoman from Washington several years ago, looking at nuclear 
power, looking at the Hanford site, talking about reprocessing of 
nuclear, spent nuclear fuel rods and how reprocessing can deal with 
some of the waste byproduct but can also provide an energy source for 
our nuclear power reactors, and I know you are interested in that as 
well. So thank you for your comments.
  I next want to introduce and yield to the gentleman from Ohio, who 
understands that these are resources that we are talking about here in 
America. All the natural gas resources don't belong to President Obama; 
they belong to the American people. And it's time that the American 
people speak loudly that we want to put Americans back to work, 
providing American solutions for American energy issues.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. I thank my colleague.
  We are sitting here today with unemployment over 9 percent and 
rising, 22 million Americans out of work, and what are we getting? We 
are getting an administration whose bureaucrats have got a stranglehold 
on America's energy future.
  I stood in this Chamber just a couple of months ago when the Prime 
Minister of Australia addressed a joint session of the House. I know my 
colleagues will remember that. And the Prime Minister said something 
that was profound. She related a story. She talked about being a young 
girl sitting in front of her television and watching Neil Armstrong and 
Buzz Aldrin land on the moon and thinking to herself, Wow, those 
Americans can do anything.
  She went on to give her speech, and she talked about the long 
relationship between Australia and America and how we have solved many 
of the world's problems. At the end of her speech, she said, You know 
something? She said, I am not that young girl any more. I am the Prime 
Minister of our country, but today I still believe that Americans can 
do anything.
  That was profound, and I think for many of us it was like you could 
hear a pin drop here in the House Chamber because what she said was 
something that we need to hear from our national leaders, and we are 
not getting that kind of leadership here in America today.
  I believe that Americans can do anything. We saw, when President 
Kennedy decided that we were going to the Moon in 10 years, he 
mobilized our academic institutions. He engaged our industrial base, 
our military, our political will, our economic will. Every fabric of 
our culture was focused on that goal.
  I remember as a young boy watching the space race shots from school 
or being sent home because it was like a national holiday. We had a 
national vision. We saw industries crop up. We saw hundreds of 
thousands of jobs created. We saw young people going into disciplines 
that would prepare them for careers in aerospace and astronautics and 
other disciplines to support our conquest of the space frontier.
  I am so proud to be a part House Energy Action Team because we are 
trying to promote that same type of national vision around energy 
independence and security.
  I believe if we had a national vision that said, look, over the next 
10 years we are drawing a line in the sand starting today, and we are 
going to establish a goal to be energy secure and energy independent 
over the next 10 years. And we are going to drill for our own oil; we 
are going to drill for our own natural gas. We are going to continue to 
mine coal, and we are going to learn how to use it environmentally 
soundly and safely. We are going to expand our nuclear footprint. We 
are going to look at our alternative forms of energy like wind and 
solar and find out where they fit into our overall energy profile. But 
what we are not going to do is sit on the sidelines any longer and 
depend on foreign sources for our

[[Page 10942]]

energy and put future generations at risk. I believe if we had that 
kind of vision, we would again see industries crop up. We would see 
hundreds of thousands of jobs created as a result. And at the end of 
the day, we would learn how to produce and store and use energy in ways 
that we have never, ever imagined, because guess what? Americans can do 
anything. With a national vision around energy independence and 
security, Americans would be put back to work.

                              {time}  1910

  I live in a district and represent a district where unemployment 
rates are popping up well over 10 percent. Some of them 12-plus 
percent. Ladies and gentlemen, people from my district have lost hope 
in the American Dream. We need a national vision around energy. That's 
what this House is promoting. That's what my colleagues and I are 
striving for. I, too, urge the Senate, take action on these bills. Get 
America back to work, and let's secure America's energy future.
  Thank you for letting me have some time.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. I, too, believe in America's greatness. 
And I stood here and heard her talk about the world is looking to 
America to be great again. This is an area that we can be great in. 
I've traveled around my district recently and asked folks about rising 
gas prices and the impact that they were having on the family budget, 
how they were having to reach deeper into their wallet and not take out 
the $20 bill, but take out the $100 bill to fill up their tank for 
their family for their normal commute, grocery shopping and other 
things they do. Americans are hurting.
  The gentleman from Ohio is on the Natural Resources Committee. And 
when we passed those bills out to this floor and passed those bills out 
from this floor to the Senate, you saw an immediate reaction by the 
administration, saying that we need to harvest American resources and 
increase domestic energy. The action of this Congress, we saw a 
reduction in fuel prices the next week, I think a 15-cent per gallon 
reduction, in my district. That's the kind of impact, that's the kind 
of signals we can send to the market by doing the right thing for the 
American people and focusing on domestic production and putting 
Americans back to work.
  The gentleman from Louisiana came from the oil and natural gas 
industry. He and I have had numerous conversations about the impact 
that the moratorium and the de facto moratorium has had on the 
economies in the Gulf States. And it's not only the loss of jobs and 
the income taxes that are associated with that, but it's the loss of 
revenue to the States from the royalties that they get from the oil and 
natural gas production.
  But in this country, at a time when we are hurting economically from 
loss of jobs and the lessening of income revenue to this country, keep 
in mind that I believe second only to--well, actually third only--to 
income tax revenue and corporate income tax and other revenue and 
borrowing. The revenue this country receives from oil and natural gas 
royalties is third only to those two things.
  So I would like to yield to the gentleman from Louisiana, because he 
has got a unique story to tell.
  Mr. LANDRY. I thank the gentleman from South Carolina. I thank him 
for speaking today on what I believe is one of the most important areas 
in this country for getting our economy back on track. And I want to 
share with him and the rest of you an email I received today.
  Today I received an email that said, Jeff, my wife has finally 
convinced me to send you an email and update you on where I am in 
Louisiana. It says, I still have not returned to work, but it is 
looking like I may go to work in early August. And I'm going to be 
headed out to a particular block out in the deep waters of the Gulf of 
Mexico to do a P&A job, a plug and abandonment job.
  So this isn't looking for additional oil and gas or producing more 
oil and gas. It's a plug and abandonment job.
  He says, I'm not sure when we will actually get back to drilling or 
completing wells. This moratorium is beginning to impact me. I am 
fortunate that my company has kept me on since I'm a consultant, not an 
employee. But my income is down significantly, and my concerns about 
the future of the Gulf of Mexico has me looking elsewhere. I recently 
turned down an opportunity in Malaysia but may not turn it down again. 
At a time when our country is hurting, it is unbelievable that our 
leaders are putting more of us out of work, yet still giving money to 
other countries. The government spends. Spending and total unconcern 
for the working people of this country is wearing on us. It is also 
annoying to see that one of the first cuts in government spending is in 
education, but numerous other entitlement programs continue to keep 
money going towards them.
  He is fed up. And the sad part, the sad part about this is that this 
is an American worker. And our government is basically saying, to him, 
a guy who has a trade, who is plying his trade, that you can no longer 
ply that trade in this country. If you want to continue to earn a 
living for your family, you need to go to another country. You need to 
go to Brazil or Malaysia or to Egypt and follow the rigs out of the 
Gulf of Mexico, out of this country, in order to keep your job.
  Think about that. We are basically telling Americans right now that 
we don't like the job that you've been doing. Regardless of how 
dangerous it was and regardless of how many weeks away from your family 
offshore you spent, Christmases, Easters, that doesn't count. Your job 
isn't good enough for this country anymore. You need to go somewhere 
else to ply your trade.
  That is just absurd when we have an opportunity in this country to do 
all the things that fix the economy. We can reduce the deficit, just 
like the gentleman from South Carolina said, we could, by increasing 
drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and domestically, we could send an 
additional $1.7 billion, $1.7 billion, to the Treasury to reduce our 
deficit simply by increasing our drilling activity. We could increase 
employment. We all know we need it. The jobs numbers came out last 
week, 9.2 percent unemployment. We are not creating jobs. We can create 
jobs by drilling domestically.
  And I'm not talking minimum wage jobs. There is not a person in the 
Gulf of Mexico on a drilling platform who makes minimum wage. Those 
jobs pay good money. So we can do that. We can reduce our deficit, and 
we can reduce unemployment.
  Do you know what else we can do? We can lower the price of energy for 
Americans out there. Drilling domestically does all three. It creates 
jobs, reduces the deficit, and decreases energy costs to Americans all 
over the country. It lowers the price at the pump. The President has 
already acknowledged that supply affects the market when he went out 
there and released millions of barrels--30 million barrels--out of the 
Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It's the wrong reserve, Mr. President. The 
proper reserve is in the Gulf of Mexico, in Alaska and elsewhere in 
this country.
  I thank the gentleman from South Carolina for giving me this time.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. What would happen if we had a 
hurricane? We're in hurricane season, and we've released 30 billion 
gallons from the reserve. Wasn't that there for that purpose?
  Mr. LANDRY. That is why, the last time prior to this when we did 
release oil from the strategic reserve was exactly that instance, when 
Hurricane Katrina affected the refineries and the production platforms 
in the Gulf of Mexico. And you're right. We should not be using that 
reserve unless it is an emergency.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. I tell you what, you've hit on 
something that I think we need to talk more about in this Congress, and 
that is the administration taking the easy road, trying to lessen fuel 
prices at the pump for Americans. But it was a short-term, short-lived 
impact, if it had any impact at all.
  I appreciate your comments on the administration having a ``drill 
there

[[Page 10943]]

and not here'' policy, encouraging exploration and drilling off the 
coast of Brazil when we've got the resources right here in this 
country. The Outer Continental Shelf off the coast of my State or off 
the coast of Virginia, where they have an energy policy that wants to 
tap those resources. In the Alaskan Sea off the coast, where we know 
there is proven oil and natural gas resources. An expansion in 
deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico. So I appreciate your comments.
  The gentleman from North Dakota knows all too well what energy 
production means for jobs. The Bakken oil formation in North Dakota, 
Montana, and up into Canada even, has tremendous resources that can be 
harvested. There's an estimated 12 billion barrels of oil in North 
Dakota alone in the Bakken formation.

                              {time}  1920

  I hope he will talk about the impact that jobs created in North 
Dakota have on that unemployment rate.
  I yield to the gentleman from North Dakota.
  Mr. BERG. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, we know the tremendous potential of energy production 
here in America. Recent studies show just how much energy we have 
available. In fact, by 2020, in the West we could produce as much oil 
and gas as the U.S. is currently importing from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, 
Kuwait, Venezuela, Colombia, Algeria, Nigeria, and Russia combined. The 
West alone has the potential to produce more than 1.3 million barrels 
of oil every single day. That's more than our current imports from 
Russia, Iraq, and Kuwait combined. If we're serious about creating 
American jobs, serious about lowering energy prices, and breaking our 
dependence on foreign oil, we must invest in energy resources and 
reserves within our borders.
  In North Dakota, we know the potential of oil and natural gas. The 
last U.S. Geological Survey estimated that the Bakken field held nearly 
4 million barrels of recoverable oil; but the new estimates, as the 
gentleman from South Carolina said, suggest that the Bakken formation 
offers at least 12 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
  We produce more than 355,000 barrels of oil each day. We are home to 
the largest deposit of lignite coal in the world. Our State holds 
tremendous wind potential as well, and we've attracted thousands of 
jobs to North Dakota. It is projected by 2020 that jobs in the oil 
industry will increase by over 16,000. That is a direct result of 
developing these energy resources in North Dakota. That's a 35 percent 
increase over 2010 levels.
  North Dakota's unemployment is less than 3.5 percent. It's 3.2 
percent. In western North Dakota, where Bakken development is taking 
place, we can't find enough people to work. In that county, 
unemployment is below 1 percent. Starting wages for people are over 
$80,000. We need people to help increase this supply of oil.
  I just think every day when I'm out here and coming back from North 
Dakota, imagine what we could do if our whole country had the same 
approach as we do in North Dakota, the jobs that we could create across 
this country and the security that we could protect within our country 
by reducing our dependence on foreign oil. We could reduce our 9.2 
percent unemployment rate if we move forward with energy development. 
We have to get rid of the burdensome regulations which are preventing 
businesses from creating American jobs.
  This is not the time to restrict energy production and prevent jobs 
from being created. Yet that is exactly what the President's policies 
have done. In fact, I've kind of joked, if you want to see exactly what 
not to do to increase the supply and lower the price and reduce the 
cost of energy for individuals and businesses, small businesses across 
America, look at what's happening out here in our Nation's Capital.
  The President's official moratorium on drilling cost 12,000 jobs. 
Declining energy production in the Gulf of Mexico is costing the U.S. 
over $4.7 million a day in lost revenue. Overreaching government 
regulations continue to hinder energy production in the United States. 
With thousands of Americans still out of work and prices at the pump 
remaining high, now is not the time to slow down our energy growth. Now 
is the time to invest in our own energy resources. We need a long-term, 
commonsense energy plan like EmPower in North Dakota. We need a plan 
that will lower energy costs, that will create jobs and break our 
dependence on foreign oil. We did it in North Dakota. We can do it 
across America.
  We can create good-paying American jobs, we can lower energy prices, 
and we can break our dependence on foreign oil. It's time to work 
together to end the overregulation, to encourage energy development, 
and to work to strengthen America's energy potential.
  Thank you.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. I thank the gentleman.
  The time is now. The time is now to stop the policies of this 
administration of taking Federal land off the table when it comes to 
wind, solar, and hydrogen.
  The wind farms. There's a bill in our committee that deals with 
NOAA's obstacles to wind farms off the coast. To the Federal land in 
the West that's off the table for solar, land that's owned by you, the 
taxpayer, that is not available for new solar panels and solar 
technology and wind farms and expansion of the power grid and power 
cables and transmission lines.
  The folks in Oklahoma have known energy production for a long time. I 
was talking with a gentleman from Oklahoma earlier about a new 
technology to lessen our dependence on Middle Eastern oil by using the 
gray matter that God gave us to create new technologies.
  I now yield to the gentleman from Oklahoma to share some exciting 
news with us coming out of his great State.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Thank you.
  I am honored to get a chance to talk about a great American resource, 
and that is our energy. Let me take you back a little bit. I'm 43 years 
old. I can remember in elementary school I was allowed to be able to 
work with the debate team in high school. It was my honor to be the 
littlest guy in the middle of this high school debate team. In the 
1970s, the debate topic that year was ``Resolved, America Should Pursue 
Alternative Energy Options.''
  Since the 1970s, we've been talking about hydroelectric and solar and 
wind. We've been trying to advance this technology, and I hope we will 
continue to crack the code on that to make those energy solutions work 
well for us. Since the 1970s, we've been talking about trying to get 
off fossil fuels and--guess what--it is still the dominant resource 
that we are using in our country, and it is still the most effective 
resource to be able to move our vehicles, to be able to heat our homes 
and to be able to produce these petrochemicals that are used in almost 
everything that we lay our hands on nowadays.
  I hope one day I can run my car off a pinwheel that's on the top of 
it, but currently I run my car on gasoline. I hope I can heat my home 
one day with a solar panel on the roof, but currently the technology is 
not there to be able to do that. My home is heated with natural gas. 
There's electricity in all the different dynamics that come in. I look 
at it and I say, at 43 years old, I've been hearing my whole life that 
we need a national energy policy--drilling, pipelines, production, 
retailing--to be able to work out a plan that we can run as a country 
that is all of the above that is every bit of our energy, but that is 
not ignoring the energy that we have here.
  I can tell you I am sick to death of hearing how we need to shut down 
fossil fuel production in the United States because of environmental 
reasons, knowing full well that we will just import more of those 
fossil fuels from all around the world. The United States produces the 
cleanest energy on the planet. If we want to have clean energy, whether 
that be fossil fuels or alternative fuels, we should be doing whatever 
it takes to make sure we drill here, that we produce here, and that we 
are the ones that are using the energy in the cleanest method possible. 
No one does it cleaner than us. I can assure

[[Page 10944]]

you we don't go to Saudi Arabia and find out they produce energy 
cleaner there.
  So if you're truly concerned about planetary issues with the 
environment, you would make sure all the production that's needed in 
the United States is produced in the United States to make sure that we 
continue to protect that.
  Let me take you to my beautiful State. Come walk into Oklahoma 
sometime. Since 1949 in Oklahoma, we've been fracking for oil. What 
many people are calling some new technology of fracking, and everyone 
seems to be afraid of it, and say, Is it going to hurt the groundwater 
and is it going to hurt all these things, I smile and I say, Come to my 
beautiful State. Since 1949, we've been fracking. Over 100,000 times we 
have fracked in Oklahoma; 100,000 times plus. Come drink our water, 
come breathe our air, and come see our absolutely beautiful God-given 
State. We can do this in an environmentally friendly way.
  We have in my district 5.7 percent unemployment because we have a lot 
of great energy companies that are doing a terrific job of both 
protecting our environment and providing jobs for the people in our 
area. We can do this. And to flippantly say, these are dirty oil 
companies and they're big oil companies, and we've got to do whatever 
it takes to punish Big Oil is flippant.
  I was in a hearing not long ago with Timothy Geithner. He was 
discussing punishing Big Oil and getting more taxes on that. I was able 
to say to him, Mr. Secretary, are you aware that the majority of energy 
companies in the United States are independent producers and they're 
small companies? Ninety-five percent of the drilling and the oil and 
gas production that happens in the United States is done by independent 
producers, these 18,000 small companies that are out there.

                              {time}  1930

  These 18,000 small companies that are out there, they account for 67 
percent of the total energy production in the United States. These 
small companies, on average, have 12 people on staff, 12 employees. 
These are not big, giant companies. And throwing around terms like 
``Big Oil'' and attacking them makes me smile when I think about what 
is happening in Oklahoma with lots and lots of service companies and 
producers and drillers that are really doing great jobs.
  I was talking to one of those companies recently. Guess who they are 
targeting to be able to hire? Their favorite people to be able to hire 
are returning vets because of their work ethic and because of the 
skills they are bringing back. They are companies specifically going 
after returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to be able to hire them.
  It was interesting. We were talking about drilling. You go into a 
drilling platform, and they say their favorite people to be able to 
hire are actually tank drivers returning from the war zone because they 
are used to driving equipment and looking at a screen and dealing with 
multiple things all at once. These are folks who are employing our 
veterans and providing great jobs.
  Recently, I was on a fracking site, being given a chance to watch it. 
When you go into a frack site, I don't know what your image is of what 
it looks like to actually see a well being fracked, but it is high-tech 
jobs, people on computers, as well as people and pumping. It is trucks 
and people providing food and people providing all the equipment. It is 
both people with big wrenches and people with small computers. And you 
see this multitude of jobs that are provided by oil and gas and by 
fossil fuels that we are producing right here in America.
  We are at a moment that we can either say: We want all green jobs. We 
want to destroy the jobs that are in producing fossil fuels and try to 
create new jobs in green jobs; or we can say: Let's do both. Let's 
encourage the growth of green jobs, but let's not, in the process, also 
discourage one of the most productive industries that we have in the 
United States, and that is providing our own energy.
  I would love for folks to come to Oklahoma and to be able to see the 
great companies that are doing some very innovative things.
  If I may mention one more thing, just today, one of our companies, 
Chesapeake, announced a new initiative that is taking natural gas and 
injecting it into a heat-up service and using biomass and injecting air 
at a high temperature, and out comes gasoline that runs in our cars. 
They are not asking for any kind of Federal grant. They are doing it on 
their own and producing brand new clean energy that will run the 
current vehicles we have now. At the same time, they are, in the next 
10 years, dropping $1 billion to upgrade an infrastructure for natural 
gas on the highway system so big trucks can run on natural gas and will 
have a place to be able to fill up.
  Industries are doing this. They want to see this. This is a way that 
great American companies can produce great American energy. They are 
patriots, and I hope we will continue to encourage these folks.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. The same American greatness that the 
gentleman from Ohio was talking about, where innovation meets a need.
  We have a need for energy independence, and innovation is meeting 
that need by creating a brand new company and technology to put 
gasoline in America's cars and trucks and tractors. And what an amazing 
story coming out of Oklahoma. Hydraulic fracturing is something that I 
think is next on the table for this Congress to address because we are 
seeing a lot of misinformation out there about hydraulic fracturing 
contaminating drinking water. Folks, that is just wrong. There hasn't 
been a single instance where a hydraulic fracturing operation has 
contaminated drinking water.
  From my understanding, most of the natural gas shales, such as 
Marcellus or the ones out in Oklahoma and Texas, are 10,000 feet to 
6,000 feet deep in the earth. And most wells where we get our drinking 
water are 300 feet to 1,000 feet. A thousand feet would be a deep well, 
a very expensive well for Americans. That's why they don't go that far. 
They look somewhere else for water.
  The fracking takes place much deeper, so there hasn't been a single 
instance. The misinformation out there has been refuted by you many 
times in Oklahoma when you say, I repeat, Come drink our water in 
Oklahoma. I appreciate that.
  A key Republican energy proposal is the National Petroleum Reserve 
Alaska Access Act that will cut through bureaucratic red tape and 
unlock the full potential of energy resources in the Alaskan Natural 
Petroleum Reserve by ensuring that oil and natural gas are developed 
and transported in a timely and efficient manner. But there are delays 
in accessing that from this administration. And whether these delays 
are the result of government incompetence or ideological vendettas, the 
fact of the matter is that these regulations are costing American jobs 
and raising energy prices.
  The House has offered a clear path on job creation and economic 
recovery. That path is less taxation, less regulation, less government 
intervention, and more economic certainty in the marketplace.
  The folks from Kansas have talked to me numerous times about energy, 
and so I would like to take an opportunity to yield to Mr. Huelskamp 
from Kansas to talk about what is going on out there and that great 
American State's focus on American energy independence.
  Mr. HUELSKAMP. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to speak 
today. I am very interested in learning what continues to happen every 
day in our other States, particularly our State to the south.
  Being from the State of Kansas, I would like to talk a little bit 
about the coal industry. You might say, Kansas and the coal industry, 
what does that have to do with Kansas?
  I am a farmer by trade, and we produce a lot of corn and wheat and 
soybeans and many other things. But in order to produce those, we need 
a lot of electricity. A number of decades ago we built a coal-fired 
electrical power plant in western Kansas. It generates

[[Page 10945]]

electricity that covers six to seven States. About 5 or 6 or 7 years 
ago, we said we need more electricity. Our economy continues to grow, 
and we need more electricity. We began the process in western Kansas to 
expand our electrical production. We need more electricity.
  If the economy is going to grow--and I'm sorry to say, now the 
economy is not growing very quickly under this administration, and let 
me tell you why. It is called overregulation. It is called litigation. 
It is called the attempt by this administration and others outside that 
are working together with this administration to stop the generation of 
more electricity, more energy of various types. We need more energy. We 
need more American energy, and we can produce that. We are trying to do 
that right now in western Kansas. We are trying to produce more jobs.
  This administration and folks close to this administration--and this 
is hard to believe--they have said that you want 1,900 construction 
jobs. You want to create 1,900 jobs in western Kansas to grow your 
ability to produce American electricity. You know what the answer is 
from this administration? You know what the answer is from 
environmental groups? You know what the answer is? They said: No, we 
don't want your jobs. We don't want 1,900 jobs in western Kansas.
  We have rural communities all across western Kansas, and they depend 
on this power. Actually, if they don't have more electricity, we will 
begin to see brownouts in less than a decade in a rural area.
  We are trying to grow our production of energy, of coal-fired 
electrical power, and this administration says: No, we're going to sue 
you. And the EPA says: No, we're going to stop you with new 
regulations. Various outside groups are throwing lawsuits. It is death 
by litigation. And that is not only stopping our power plants. They are 
stopping power plants all across the country.
  Now, it is hard to understand. I talk to my constituents and they 
say: Why can't we have more electricity? Who is opposed to this? Who is 
opposed to jobs? Somebody in Washington is opposed to jobs. There are 
regulators all over this country, particularly in our Nation's capital, 
who say: No, I would rather you pay for $5 gasoline. No, I would rather 
you have higher electricity rates.
  If we don't generate more electricity in my State, in western Kansas, 
they anticipate a 40 to 50 percent increase in electricity rates. But 
by the time that would happen, 4 or 5 years from now, they'll say: Why 
didn't you do something about it? That is why I am here tonight. We 
have to do something about it now.
  Our competitors across the way in China, I believe they have figured 
it out. They recognize that you need more energy in whatever form. We 
need more energy. We need to produce more electricity. We need to 
produce more diesel fuel and more gasoline. We need an all-of-the-above 
strategy. But when you have an administration and a culture in 
Washington that is dedicated to eliminating access to energy, when you 
have an Energy Secretary that suggests that Americans need to pay $5 a 
gallon on gasoline, our Energy Secretary suggests that we need to pay 
$5 a gallon on our gasoline, what is going on?
  We need to pay more? No, we need to pay less. And the way we do that 
is not having a brand-new policy, a new program in Washington. No, we 
need to let American entrepreneurs continue to do what they have been 
doing for years, and that is producing a needed product called energy. 
And we can produce it in many ways in Kansas and all throughout the 
Midwest and all throughout the Nation. But when you have this narrow 
agenda of those in Washington that have dedicated their lives to make 
certain that our electrical prices go up, our energy prices in all 
forms go up, that is going to cost us more unless we can turn on the 
entrepreneurs.

                              {time}  1940

  Actually, there was a report from our U.S. Chamber of Commerce--and 
there are folks in this town who get upset when you talk about people 
who create jobs because it is actually the private sector that creates 
jobs. It estimates there are 351 stalled energy projects across 
America, and the one in western Kansas, Sunflower Electric Cooperative, 
is just one of those, but there are 350 others. They estimate that if 
those stalled energy projects would move forward that they would create 
2 million jobs in the short term just in construction, but in the long 
term, they would create affordable energy to allow us to compete across 
the world. Frankly, as our energy prices increase, our ability to 
compete and export and to compete with China and many other countries 
is incredibly diminished.
  So we need--we must--and are responsible here in this Chamber for 
freeing up entrepreneurs. We are responsible for forcing the U.S. 
Senate to come to the table and actually do what they talked about 
doing.
  I don't think there is a Member of Congress in the House or Senate 
who went home and said, Do you know what I like? I like high energy 
prices.
  Nobody said that. No.
  They went home, and said, We're doing everything we can.
  They're not doing everything they can. The U.S. Senate is not doing a 
single thing to help this along, and the administration is doing 
everything it can to make sure our energy prices go up.
  That's so frustrating to me because we do have an easy answer. Let's 
let American entrepreneurs, American energy companies--basically small 
businesses--move forward. In my district, we are heavily dependent on 
agriculture, but the second largest industry is the oil and gas 
industry, and we must continue to encourage them to move forward.
  I appreciate the opportunity to visit about this tonight. It's 
something I am very passionate about because the people in this House 
who are working for it cannot be blamed for high energy prices in the 
future, because we are doing what we can do today. Thank you for the 
opportunity.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. Thank you, the gentleman from Kansas.
  You hit on something. Obama's Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, before he 
was nominated to be the Secretary of Energy, wanted to figure out how 
to boost the price of a gallon of gasoline in this country to the 
levels in Europe. At the time he made that statement, gasoline in 
Europe cost around $7 to $8 a gallon. That's what the administration's 
Secretary of Energy really expects and wants the American people to pay 
for a gallon of gasoline. When fuel prices got to be $4 a gallon--
$4.35, $4.50 a gallon--in August of 2008, I know what that meant for my 
small business, and we only had two trucks on the road. Americans can't 
afford that when we've got the resources here in this country to meet 
our energy needs.
  I know that the gentlewoman from North Carolina fully understands 
that we've got the resources to meet our needs and that we've got to 
expand that and put Americans back to work through harvesting American 
resources. So I yield to the gentlewoman from North Carolina.
  Ms. FOXX. I want to thank the gentleman from South Carolina for 
taking on this Special Order tonight and for bringing with him a group 
of his colleagues who are called ``freshmen'' around here, but I will 
tell you the people watching this tonight don't know you guys are 
freshmen. You're doing a wonderful job, and I want to compliment you on 
the fantastic job you've taken on here to explain to the American 
people some of the issues related to energy independence.
  I was home, like you were, during the Fourth of July and Independence 
Day, the little break that we had. I was home, talking to people about 
the fact that we need to declare a new war for independence, and that 
is a war for energy independence. So I agree with all of the comments 
that you all have made, and I want to piggyback on what our colleague 
from South Carolina was talking about.
  In April 2011, families spent an average of $369 each month on 
gasoline, which represented 8.9 percent of monthly household income, 
which was

[[Page 10946]]

an increase from the average of 5.7 percent. Now, that is hurting the 
people in my district, and it is hurting the people in your district.
  We need to continue to point out that this administration has created 
these problems. These weren't created by Republicans. Democrats were in 
control of the Congress from January of 2007 to January of 2011. We 
were in the minority during those 4 years. In the last 2 years, the 
President and the Democrats were in charge of the entire Congress. They 
have the responsibility for what has happened in terms of energy 
prices.
  What Republicans have done in the last 4 years, as well as this year, 
is we have put forth and passed legislation that would eliminate 
needless permitting delays that have stalled energy production. We have 
put forward commonsense solutions to these high energy prices. Again, 
we believe in an all-of-the-above principle. We want to see us have all 
of the things that we need in this country to make us energy 
independent.
  Our government should be promoting our energy resources, not blocking 
their development. If we don't do that, we are going to continue to 
have a 9 percent unemployment rate. As for all of the comments that 
have been made about what producing energy in this country can do to 
unemployment, we must do that, and until we get an administration that 
understands that and a larger number of people in Congress who 
understand that, American families are going to be hurting.
  So I want to compliment all of you tonight who have come here and 
spoken out about these issues.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. I yield to the gentleman from Kansas. 
He comes from an energy background--supplying parts to the energy 
production field.
  Mr. POMPEO. I thank the gentleman from South Carolina. I just want to 
say a couple of things quickly.
  I had a chance to hear, speaking before me, the gentleman from 
Oklahoma, who was talking about drilling and service companies. Until 
just over 6 months ago, I ran one of those small companies. It created 
energy jobs in Kansas and in Oklahoma and in Midland, Texas, and in 
Kilgore, Texas, and in all the places where American energy can be 
produced for American consumers. It's not that hard. This President 
just makes it so. We know we can have safe, clean, affordable energy 
produced here in America by American innovators, American businesses 
and American jobs if we will just do the simple things and get the 
Federal Government out of the way.
  Just a few minutes ago, my colleague from Kansas spoke about a power 
plant in his district in Kansas that we've been trying to build with 
clean coal technology. We've been trying to build it for years. It's 
cleaner than the plant that exists today. It will reduce overall 
emissions in the State of Kansas; yet this administration and our 
previous Governor, who is now the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services, just says, No. Don't produce that energy. Don't produce that 
affordable energy so we can build things here in America.
  I was just talking to my colleague from Colorado about that very same 
power plant and what it does to his State, the State of Colorado. I 
yield to the gentleman from Colorado.
  Mr. GARDNER. I thank both the gentlemen from Kansas, my neighbors to 
the east of Colorado.
  When you talk about the Holcomb plant, you're talking about something 
that affected Colorado, my constituents, directly. My district borders 
western Kansas, and many of the farmers/ranchers who rely on rural 
electric supplies for their energy were going to rely on that plant. 
Their ability to get cheap, abundant, affordable energy from that plant 
was critical to the future of their operations. I know they continue to 
work on it and will continue to work with their neighbors in Kansas on 
that. So it doesn't just affect one State. This is a national issue: 
the ability to generate abundant, affordable energy.
  I'll also point out that those same communities in southeastern 
Colorado were hoping to build wind farms. Do you know what? They also 
rely on transmission lines, and with that power plant came transmission 
lines--the ability to get power from point A to point B, from where the 
resource is to where the people live. So, once again, we have a need 
for a source of abundant, affordable energy.
  Mr. POMPEO. I know we're wrapping up here tonight, but I want to talk 
about one more thing and how the President's policies and his 
Environmental Protection Agency are destroying jobs in Kansas.
  In Kansas' Fourth Congressional District, we build an awful lot of 
airplanes. They need an awful lot of electricity to build those planes 
and to run those plants. Our agriculture community also depends on 
having the EPA out of the way. Today, I sat in a hearing where the 
Democrats continued to say we need tighter utility regulations, that we 
need a set of utility rules that will make it almost impossible to 
build a new utility plant in America. We need that energy. When we 
don't have that energy, prices and costs for our farmers go up, and 
that translates very directly. It translates into the cost of food at 
the table.
  When I talk to seniors, they say, Mike, we know what we spend money 
on. We spend it on the simple things. We spend it on food and energy to 
heat our homes.
  If we keep these policies up, we will be pricing our seniors into a 
place no one wants them.

                              {time}  1950

  It doesn't have to be. We have American energy; we can get it.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. We're about out of time. I just wanted 
to thank my colleagues for understanding and expressing very clearly 
that we have the resources in this country to meet our energy needs. We 
need to put America back to work, harvesting those as a segue to job 
creation. The House Energy Action Team, the committees charged with 
this, have passed the bills to the Senate. The Senate needs to act. 
Let's put America back to work solving our energy needs.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________