[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2947-2948]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             GAS PRICES AND PRESIDENT OBAMA'S ENERGY AGENDA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, today, right now in 
America, around the dining room tables at home, there are two topics of 
discussion that I have to think are most pressing during that dinner 
conversation, and that is unemployment and price at the pumps; and, 
frankly, they're both related, very closely.
  Madam Speaker, before being appointed to office, President Obama's 
Energy Secretary Steven Chu stated: ``Somehow we have to figure out how 
to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.''
  Well, Madam Speaker, at the time of that statement, gasoline prices 
in Europe were $8 to $10 a gallon. Last week, the Energy Secretary made 
headlines when he seemed to say the administration's goal was not to 
lower gas prices. Considering the goal is not to lower gas prices, this 
may be the first time that the administration's energy policies match 
its rhetoric.
  Now, despite the President's rhetoric about the need for increased 
domestic production of fossil fuels, to date, this administration has 
seemingly done everything it can to block production. But the purpose 
of these remarks is to highlight not the administration's statements 
but, instead, their policies.
  Let's look at the record, starting with some positive things that 
happened just before President Obama took office and continuing through 
2012 to present day, as shown on this graph.
  First of all, July of 2008, at the peak of the 2008 gas price spike, 
President George Bush removed 18 years of Presidential Executive Orders 
restricting offshore oil and gas energy development. Prices began to 
fall immediately, almost overnight. Given the fact that not one 
additional barrel of oil was drilled, it was a message to the

[[Page 2948]]

market, a strong message to the market that America finally recognized 
that the American taxpayers owned assets in oil and were willing to use 
them. What a message to the market it would be today, a similar 
message. But back in 2008, that's where we saw this drop begin to 
start.
  Now, in September of 2008, just a couple of months later, Congress 
finally followed, after its 26-year ban on offshore drilling, to allow 
that to expire. Prices at the pump, as you can see, Madam Speaker, 
dropped dramatically, even more.
  Then President Obama took office. February 2009, soon after, not long 
after inauguration, the administration rescinded oil shale lease plans 
put in place during the Bush administration to aid the production of 
oil in U.S. Government lands. These are lands that are owned by Federal 
taxpayers. President Obama's actions reduced production of oil in the 
United States Government lands, and we see what continues to happen 
with prices.
  In June of 2010, the House Democrats passed a cap-and-trade national 
energy tax, which would have dramatically increased gasoline prices.
  In November of 2009, the administration unilaterally shortened lease 
terms on some Outer Continental Shelf leases. Well, this policy not 
only discouraged oil and natural gas production, but also decreased 
much needed government revenues.

                              {time}  1020

  In March of 2010, the administration canceled the remaining lease 
sales in seas off the Alaska coast, eliminating development of reserves 
that the government estimates could be as large as 65 billion barrels 
of oil.
  In May of 2010, the administration canceled the Virginia offshore 
lease sale, which had bipartisan support from the Virginia Governor and 
the Virginia congressional delegation. The administration also canceled 
the remaining 2010 Gulf of Mexico lease sales.
  In December of 2010, the administration extended the moratorium on 
leasing off the Atlantic and eastern Gulf of Mexico through 2017.
  In January 2012, President Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline. 
Estimates show that the Keystone XL pipeline would add 1.1 million 
barrels a day of friendly Canadian oil to our Gulf of Mexico 
refineries.
  Madam Speaker, moving forward with a credible energy policy can only 
be achieved if we all have a shared understanding of the facts. Global 
demand for oil is increasingly driven by developing economies such as 
China and India. In the U.S., our demand is down 6 percent year after 
year, and prices are still skyrocketing. And it's going to stay that 
way.
  Eighty-five percent of the world's energy consumption comes from 
hydrocarbons--oil, coal, and natural gas. While renewable energy is 
needed and new consumption efficiencies should be encouraged to meet 
future energy demands, hydrocarbons will be the dominant source of fuel 
for the world's economy for many decades to come. No one can deny that 
before we can create an energy supply that is substantially more 
diversified, we are going to need more fossil fuels to get us there.
  We're not running out of Natural Gas. In 2000, shale gas represented 
just 1 percent of American natural gas supplies. Today, it is 30 
percent and rising.
  We are not running out of oil. Former CEO of Shell, John Hoffmeister, 
stated last week on State of the Union, ``We use 20 million barrels a 
day every day in a full economy in this country. We only produce 7. We 
used to produce 10. Let's go back to 10. We know how to produce 10. We 
have the oil to produce 10 for decades to come.''
  Unfortunately, this Administration is preventing the U.S. from 
developing additional energy supplies to meet our demand. As a result, 
families are struggling with rising energy costs and higher gas prices 
at the pump.
  Madam Speaker, these are the facts and the solutions are within our 
reach.

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