[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 35 (Monday, September 8, 2008)]
[Page 1171]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Prior to a Cabinet Meeting

September 2, 2008

    Members of my Cabinet have assembled here, and I thank you all for 
coming. We recognize that the pre-storm efforts were important and so is 
the follow-up efforts; in other words, what happens after the storm 
passes is as important as what happens prior to the storm arriving.
    And so our discussion today is about energy. The gulf coast region 
produces a lot of energy for the United States. And we're now in the 
process of assessing any damage done to the infrastructure and right--a 
little early right now to come up with a solid assessment. There are 
some encouraging signs. For example, during Katrina, rigs would be--rigs 
moved because of the force of the storm, and their anchors drug across 
pipelines, which caused there to be infrastructure damage. We didn't see 
much of that this time, although I will tell you that it's a little 
early to be making any forecasts.
    It's not too early, however, for the Federal Government to continue 
to coordinate with the State and local people. That's why Secretary 
Bodman was in touch with Governor Jindal. We want to make sure that 
we're in touch with these energy-producing States, to help assess what 
took place and what needs to happen.
    One thing is for certain: When Congress comes back, they've got to 
understand that we need more domestic energy, not less; that--and one 
place to find it is offshore America, lands that have been taken off the 
books, so to speak, by congressional law. And now they need to give us a 
chance to find more oil and gas here at home. I'd much rather American 
consumers be buying gasoline produced from American oil than from 
foreign oil. I'd rather our dollar stay at home than go overseas.
    And I know the Congress has been on recess for a while, but this 
issue hasn't gone away. And this storm should not cause the Members of 
Congress to say, ``Well, we don't need to address our energy 
independence.'' It ought to cause the Congress to step up their need to 
address our dependence on foreign oil. And one place to do so is to give 
us a chance to explore in environmentally friendly ways on the Outer 
Continental Shelf.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 9:33 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Bobby Jindal of 
Louisiana. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish 
language transcript of these remarks.