The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“ENERGY POLICY” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H5399-H5405 on June 12, 2008.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ENERGY POLICY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Westmoreland) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Mr. Speaker, I am glad Mr. Ryan was here, and we will continue this discussion, I am sure.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Will the gentleman yield just for one second?
Mr. WESTMORELAND. I will.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Before you leave, let me say I think what would be very illuminating for the American people is for you and three or four of your colleagues who have some expertise in this area to come down with three or four of our colleagues and sit down and discuss in logical way these issues you are talking about, because we all want the same thing. So I would like to talk to you about that after we are through here, and maybe we can work something out in the next week or two.
Thank you, Mr. Westmoreland.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Thank you.
As we continued listening to my friend and colleague Mr. Ryan talk about the amount of land that is open for drilling, it is only 3 percent of the Outer Continental Shelf. That is only 3 percent of it. There are only 6 percent of the Federal lands on shore that are open to drilling. Now, these oil companies may hold some of these leases, but why would you want to drill on something that did not have oil? I don't think that makes good sense.
He is talking about the $14 billion tax. Well, you know, I am not the smartest guy in the world, but I had an economics teacher, Colonel Walford, in high school, who made it very clear to me that taxing a producer or manufacturer did not lower the price to the consumer. You don't have to be an economist to understand that if you raise taxes on somebody, it is not going to lower the price to the consumer.
Now, the other thing is that the majority has been in control for 17 months. When they took over, the price of a gallon of gas was $2.26. Right now it is up over $4. I believe it was in April of 2006 that then Minority Leader Pelosi, now Speaker Pelosi, made the statement that the Democrats had a commonsense plan to bring down the skyrocketing price of gas. Now, it was probably $2.08 then, right at $2. So I don't know where this plan is.
They passed an energy bill in about January of 2007 that Mr. Ryan referred to, and in that energy bill they had specific language that said our government could not use certain alternative fuels. So they are saying one thing and then doing something else, and it is real confusing to the American people.
But I have something I want to unveil tonight, Mr. Speaker, for the American people. We have got some of it up here. What this is, Mr. Speaker, there have been all kind of petitions on the Internet. I went into a service station in my district and there was a petition there on the counter about the price of gas. There are petitions all over. Our constituents have an opportunity to go on the Internet and sign these petitions or go into their local grocery store or gas station and sign a petition for drilling, against drilling, for any variety of things as far as what the energy costs are that are affecting the average person.
So as I thought about this I said, you know, we need to make this simple. We need to make it so we have a petition for the House of Representatives. We have 435 Members here, and the American people need to know how their Representative would vote.
{time} 1830
What would they be voting on? American energy solutions for lower gas prices, the things that we can control, our resources.
You know, China and Cuba are fixing to start drilling 45 miles off the coast of Florida. That's our natural resource, we could be drilling there, but we are not. So we have got 97 percent of the Outer Continental Shelf that we control we are not drilling on, 94 percent of the Federal lands that we have in this country, we are not drilling on. So we have got a real simple thing, bring onshore oil on line, bring deepwater oil on line and bring new refineries on line.
You might realize or might not realize that we haven't built a refinery since the late 1970s. We import, right now--this is probably going to surprise some people--we import 6.9 billion gallons of refined crude oil that's gasoline into this country every year, because we do not have the refining capabilities.
We had a motion to recommit, I believe, on May 22 that Mr. Conaway offered that said, within the 90 days, that the government would identify three locations on some of our military bases that have environmental problems, maybe, that the BRAC has closed immediately and in 90 days identify three of those to build new refineries. The majority voted against it. They stand and say one thing, but their actions do something else.
We need to build and expand our refineries, and we need to make this to where our oil companies are willing to invest. But when you import 6.9 billion gallons of gasoline and probably about the same amount of diesel fuel, that we come in.
What we have got is a petition here, and this petition starts out with Alaska at large, it goes out through Alabama and goes all the way through every State in this Union, and we have got everybody a district line.
Now, we just kind of, we had it back here in the corner today and some people came by and said hey, what you got, and I told them it's a petition. What the petition says, ``I will vote to increase U.S. oil production to lower gas prices for Americans.''
That's pretty simple. It's not convoluted, it doesn't have anything to do with anything other than Americans providing their own resources for our energy. Now, what's wrong with that? We are a country that is known for our resourcefulness.
Mr. Ryan mentioned the technology. Germany, back in the late 1920s, had technology that converted coal to fuel. That was back in the late 1920s. Surely technology has come to where it's better. We have got over a trillion, that is a trillion with a ``T'', barrels of shale oil out west, a trillion, a trillion, and we are not doing anything with it.
In fact, not only are we not doing anything with it, but Mr. Udall from Colorado last year passed an amendment that said we couldn't do anything with it, that we couldn't drill, and it passed this House 219 to 215. You might remember, I believe that was the stolen vote. But those are circumstances that we have got, and so we want the American people to know where their Congressman is at.
We have got this petition, we are going to update it, every day we are going to have it back on the floor. I have got two pencils with me today, two markers. If anybody is listening that's still in town, wants to come down, they can certainly come down. I will give them some time to speak and they can tell their constituency why they want us to support us using our natural resources, our resources to provide energy for our people.
I will yield some time to Mr. Burton of Indiana.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. First of all, let me compliment my colleague from Georgia, because I really appreciate you taking the initiative to actually lay before the American people those who support energy independence, true energy independence and those who don't. I think this will do it. I hope this is publicized across the country so every single constituent of yours, mine, everybody in this country who is paying $4-plus a gallon for gasoline will know how their representative feels about this issue.
One of the things we were talking about just a few moments ago before our colleague left, which was very troubling, was that he indicated that oil companies were protecting leases, and he didn't want to drill in those places. It's very--it's almost a ludicrous argument.
Because with the demand for oil growing like it has around the world, the need for more oil or energy is apparent. The more oil companies, the more they drill and the more they refine, the more they are going to be able to sell. What my colleagues have said in the other side of the Senate and over here is they want to raise taxes on the oil producers.
That's okay if they want to tax those people, but oil companies don't pay taxes. This is what people need to understand. Those taxes are passed on to the consumer when they buy the gasoline, because they raise the price of the gasoline.
When you buy a car, if you raise the taxes on the production of a car, it's passed on with the prince increase on the car. So companies, corporations aren't paying these taxes, the consumer is. That's what we really need to explain to the American people.
The thing that troubles me the most--and this is why I appreciate you doing this and taking this initiative, Representative Westmoreland, is because the American people are confused. Right now they read in the paper, see on television, well, the Republicans killed a bill in the other body that would have really put the hammer to the oil companies.
The fact is that it was raising taxes on the oil companies, which would have passed on to consumers in a price increase that would have made gas prices even higher. What we need to do, as you said, and what you are doing tonight, as my colleague from Georgia, your buddy here is going to talk about in a few minutes, is we need to get more energy out of the ground and we have the ability to be energy independent.
My colleagues say, well, it's going to take 10 years it may take 5 years, it may take 2 years. I don't know. But we have been talking about this since the Carter years in the 1970s, and we haven't done anything.
So I want congratulate you one more time, I am happy to be here with you tonight. I will stay with you for the whole hour if you want me to. But I hope that we will get across to the American people this, we don't want this to be political, we want to work together with them, and they are not willing to do it at this point.
We need to work with the Democrats to get a program, to become energy independent, to get our oil and natural gas and coal shale out of the ground so we don't have to depend on Saudi Arabia or OPEC or Venezuela and Mr. Chavez down there who may pull our string any day.
We need to become energy independent and quit talking about it. We need to work together to get that job done because the American people, if you look at the polling results, I think Congress is worth, what, 18 percent in popularity right now, a pox on all of our houses. We better get together, or they will throw us all out.
I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Let me say this, the American people sometimes get confused, just as you spoke about, the bill that was in the Senate. They don't hear all of the things that were in that bill. That's one of the reasons I wanted to make this as simple as I could. It is not confusing. This is not confusing.
If anybody calls their Congressman and asks them if they signed this petition--and, by the way, the one petition I found online, I think, was American Solutions had over 500 now people, I think it has been up for less than 2 weeks, have already sent in and said we want to drill. There is a radio station in Tampa, Florida, that has started sending drill bits to Members of Congress and Members of the Senate to show their support for drilling.
This is a radio station in Florida that's doing this, and I imagine it would probably catch on all over the United States, and we will probably have more drill bits. I hope they will send a whole set that we will have to remind these people that we need to rely on our own resources.
That's the reason that we made it as simple as we could. All it says is, ``I will vote to increase U.S. oil production.'' Ninety-plus percent of the Republicans in this House have consistently voted for more domestic oil production. Eighty-six percent of the now majority party have consistently voted against more domestic production. This is going to put everybody on equal footing.
Everybody has an opportunity to sign it. I hope we get 435 Members to sign it and then, Mr. Burton, we can get on with what you offered to Mr. Ryan that we could come together, because we really don't have an opportunity to come to the floor in front of the American people. We only have a certain time where we can do it.
Maybe we ought to get a 2-hour thing where we could all come down here and talk and see if we can't straighten some of these facts out, because the facts are totally different from what I am getting from land management and evidently what somebody else has gotten from land management.
Right now I am proud to yield as much time as he might take to my good friend from Georgia, Dr. Price.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I thank you, Congressman Westmoreland, for your leadership on this issue and that is really a great idea, and that is a petition that has a spot for every Member of the United States House of Representatives to sign that will say, ``I will vote to increase U.S. oil production to lower gas prices for Americans.''
As you said, it doesn't get any more simple than that. It's just as straightforward as it could be.
I am sorry I couldn't join you at the beginning. I was listening in my office to our friend from Ohio who had some comments, that I thought it was important to set the record straight a little bit. I know my good friend from Indiana has done so, but I thought I would mention a couple of things.
It's true, we do need to work together. We do need to work together, Democrats and Republicans on behalf of the American people. But as my mama used to say, it takes two to tango, and it's tough to dance by yourselves when the folks who are setting the agenda and setting the bills that come to the floor of the House, that will allow the bills that come to the floor of the House, when they won't tango, when they aren't interested, apparently, in solving this problem when the American people are crying out for a solution.
My good friend, Mr. Ryan from Ohio, talked about the issue of the oil companies, domestic oil companies, American oil companies who are trying to bring as much product out of the ground as possible. At these prices, one would think that they would. He talks about the fact that only a quarter of the lands are being used that are currently being leased to the oil companies.
He says, well, why don't they use the other 75 percent?
Well, that reminds me of the question that Willy Loman got, you know, Willy Loman was a bank robber. And they asked him, Willy, why do you rob banks? He thought a little bit and said, because that's where the money is, the money is there.
These oil companies don't drill on the other 75 percent of that land, not because they don't want to, it's because there are tests, remarkably efficient tests, that allow the domestic oil producers to tell whether or not there is oil down there. If they do those tests and they find that there is not any oil down there, then should we expect them to waste money and drill in those areas?
Mr. WESTMORELAND. I just wanted to say that in relation to that, between 2002 and 2007, 52 percent of all the exploration wells were dry, 52 percent of them, of all of them that they drill. So it's not all there.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Will my friend yield?
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Yes.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. That's an important figure. Over half of the time that the oil companies put a drill down to find oil, they didn't find anything, and this is on that leased land. That's on that leased land.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Would the gentleman yield, I would just like to interject something here.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Sure.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Our colleague from Ohio was talking about these leases. And the reason they want to drill in ANWR is because geologists found there is a huge supply of oil there. That makes your point. That's where the oil is.
As Willy said, that's where the money is. So why would you drill, as you said, in leases where there aren't any, when you know, you know that there's oil in the ANWR.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I appreciate my friend's comment. I could let them drill in my backyard, but they are not going to find any oil there, so it's a waste of time to drill in my backyard. It's a waste of time for them to drill where there is no oil.
To underscore the point that my friend from Indiana made about Alaska, the proven reserves, the proven reserves that are there are more than twice as much as the oil reserves in all of Texas, more than twice as much as the oil reserves in all of Texas. That's where the oil is, that's why it's important to allow them to go there.
This would represent, the Alaska exploration, would represent a 50-
percent increase in the total U.S. proven reserves. I would say that's a remarkable amount, incredible amount. You talk about something that would drive down the cost of gasoline, just the announcement that we would allow it to occur would drive down the price of oil across the world.
But I think it's extremely important.
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We have a group called the Truth Squad that gets together to try to shed light on things because facts are stubborn things. Facts are stubborn things. Our motto is everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but they are not entitled to their own facts.
When the American people look at the facts on this issue, they understand that we need to conserve more. Without a doubt. And they understand that we need to have a transition to alternative fuel, that we need to find that non-fossil fuel that will drive our economy and our Nation for centuries to come, hopefully.
But they also understand that it is foolish for a Nation that has incredible resources, like the United States, to let them just sit fallow and not take advantage of them and make it so that we are more reliant on foreign oil than ever before, and that we are buying oil from folks that frankly don't like us very much. They understand what this is about.
I believe that over the coming months as we see gas prices continue to increase, that they will pay more attention to what is going on in this room and in this building. And as they pay more attention, they will appreciate that there are a group of individuals who are interested in increasing supply. And then there are a group that have proven over and over and over that they are not interested in increasing supply. I hope as we work together, we will be able to increase those numbers of people who want to increase supply to more than 218 so we can move forward.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Absolutely.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I just want to say one thing about what you are doing here tonight. I know that we can't talk to the American people, we have to talk to each other. But if I were talking to the American people tonight, I would say, like you are saying, you ought to call your congressman and tell him to sign this thing. I can't say that to the American people because I'm only allowed to talk to you. But if I were talking to the American people, I would say Mr. Westmoreland has the right idea, let every Congressman know how you feel, and if you do, then they will change their mind and they will support exploration that will give us energy independence.
So I congratulate you on doing this. This is a great idea.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Thank you, and it is real simple, too. It can't be confused with anything else. American energy solutions for lower gas prices simply reads, ``I will vote to increase U.S. oil production to lower gas prices for Americans.'' It is real simple.
And what you were talking about, Dr. Price, is we are not going to drill in these leases that don't have oil. And when you've got I think it is 1.76 billion acres in the Outer Continental Shelf, and we have only opened up 3 percent of that. We have got 700 million on shore of Federal land that we have only opened up 6 percent to.
And let's look at this. Let's remember back because Mr. Ryan made a statement that it would be 10 or 15 years before we get any oil, and then it would be only 40,000 barrels a day. Let me remind the American people of this. In 1995, this Congress passed drilling in ANWR. Then President Clinton vetoed that bill in 1995, 13 years ago. Today, by conservative estimates, we would be getting 1 million barrels a day out of ANWR. Today.
Now Senator Schumer on the other side of the hall made a statement last week that if we could get Saudi Arabia or OPEC to increase production of a million barrels a day, it would reduce the price of gas 50 cents a gallon. Well, isn't that swell. That we are going to go to some people that haven't always been our friends, and we are going to say to the OPEC nations that we want them to drill. We want to use their natural resources, but we don't want to use ours. That doesn't make good sense. So just remember if President Clinton had not vetoed that bill in 1995, we would be getting a million barrels a day.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I think it is important that we discuss a little bit about Saudi Arabia and the issue that Senator Schumer brought up in the context of our President going to the Middle East. And the way my constituents saw it, why is our President going to the Middle East and begging for the production or for them to sell us more oil. That is just not befitting of what we ought to do for our Nation which has incredible reserves, incredible reserves.
And the facts will bear out what you said, and that is that the increase of oil that could come from Alaska is remarkable and would significantly lower the price. I am reminded of the Jay Leno line. Jay Leno said to his audience a couple of weeks ago, ``The Democrats say if we allow for drilling in Alaska, it will take 10 years before we see any gas.''
He said, ``That's just what they said 10 years ago.'' So it hasn't changed. It's the same old excuse.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I think one of the things that ought to be put into the equation that we don't discuss a lot, and that is that we are depending on the Middle East for what, 40, 50 percent of our energy. Right now we know there is a lot of conflict in that part of the world. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, he burned a lot of the oil wells. And had he taken over, we would all have been buying or trying to buy oil from Saddam Hussein.
The reason I bring this up is we don't know what is going to happen 5 or 10 years from now. There could be a terrible conflagration over there and we might not be able to get oil out of that area for our country. They might sink a couple of ships in the Persian Gulf and block the tankers from even getting out of there, and we won't be able to get energy. So what do we do then? Do we let the lights go out and let the cars stop on the streets because we don't have energy? That is another reason, for national security purposes, that we have an energy supply here and become independent of the other countries in the world.
As you said, both men from Georgia, we have the ability to do it. Even if it took 10 years, and I don't think it would, but even if it did, we ought to be looking down the road and asking, Do we want to keep depending our security on the Middle East where something could go wrong tomorrow when we could be independent, as far as energy is concerned, right here in America and protect ourselves, as well as getting the energy that we need, from a conflagration that might take place halfway around the world.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. This might be a long-term plan, but you have to start some time. There has been a proposal by Senator McCain to give some temporary relief with a gas tax holiday during the summer to allow some people some extra spending money. It is not a great amount, but it is something.
We could also take off-road diesel and let people burn it on road. If you remember after Hurricane Katrina, there was a shortage of diesel. They didn't have any diesel and the EPA and the IRS got together and said all right, let's start burning this off road and let them use it for 30 days, and then I believe we extended it for another 30 days until we got the supply of diesel back.
So there are some commonsense things that we can do immediately. And Dr. Price hit on this. The day I believe that we pass some type of bill in this body that said we are going to look after our own solutions for energy from within our own natural resources, this oil speculation would come down. You wouldn't even have to put the first drill bit in the ground. Right now they understand that the majority that is in control of this Congress are being held hostage by the radical environmentalists and that we are not going to do anything such as this with long-term planning about our energy future. And while we all want to conserve, we cannot conserve ourselves out of the dilemma that we are in right now. And so we have got to do something. We have to have some initiative to go forward. And right now, we are laying around in the fetal position talking about a commonsense plan that we had 2 years ago that we have not done anything about. So it is time for action.
You know, I have seen a knee-jerk reaction to everything up here. You let the least little thing happen, and we will have a knee-jerk reaction to it. And that is something. We have had tragedies that we have had. We put $140 billion down after Katrina, $62 billion in 2 weeks that we addressed down there, and it wasn't that we responded fast enough. So we have a habit of throwing money at things but not providing the boots on the ground or the substance to back it up.
Well, this is something that we just can't throw money at. This is something that calls for action. We, as the duly elected people by our constituents, we are the representatives of this country, and they sent us here to do something, not just lay here in a fetal position. And I yield to Dr. Price.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I thank my friend from Indiana for bringing up the issue of national security because energy security is national security. There is no doubt about it. People at home understand this better than the folks in this room, apparently, as a whole. Energy security is national security.
I would suggest that it is irresponsible of us, it is an abrogation of our duty and our oath not to fulfill the requirements that would allow for us to be self-sufficient in energy. And we can with the resources that we have. There is no doubt about it.
The dirty little secret is 30 years ago when we had the challenge, the oil crisis where we all waited in lines to fill our gas tanks, all of us at the time said, all of us said we will never be this reliant on foreign oil again. The dirty little secret is at that time we were about 25 percent relying on foreign oil. And now we buy over 60 percent of our oil, not from ourselves, not from domestic producers. So the dirty little secret is that we have gone a long way in the wrong direction. We can turn it around. We can move it in the right direction in an environmentally sensitive and sound way, in a technologically sound way that will not have the kind of catastrophes that many on the other side say are a certainty.
I am pleased that you brought up Hurricane Katrina in a little different light. During Katrina, the thousands of rigs in the gulf, not one of them had a leak from Hurricane Katrina. In fact, there is more seepage naturally of oil out of the ground every day into the Gulf of Mexico than occurred during Hurricane Katrina because of a problem with the technology, the equipment.
We have come so far in this Nation over the last 30 years in terms of technology and being able to do energy production, oil production, getting it out of the ground, in an environmentally sensitive and sound way. There is no reason, no reason not to move forward.
In fact, the issue of Alaska and whether or not we ought to explore there, President Carter knew that we ought to. As my friends know, he signed a bill that provided for the 1002 area. That was in 1980. It is not a wildlife or a refuge at all, it is an area that was specifically designated for future exploration for oil. And our friends on the other side of the aisle won't allow that to happen.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Yes, closed it down.
Going back to Hurricane Katrina and the fact that a large number of our refineries are on that gulf coast which is subject to hurricanes, it seems like we would take some proactive decisions and look at other places where we could put some of these refineries where they would not be as subject to hurricanes.
Once again, the people in New Orleans could not spend as much money as we sent down there as fast as they could. They needed action. They needed boots on the ground. They needed physical people down there helping them.
So we have an opportunity now to do something physical. We can put 435 pairs of boots on the ground right now and let the American people know that we are here to help. And what we are going to do, we are going to be at the forefront for making sure that we give the ability to extract oil and natural gas and clean-burning coal and any type of energy that we can from our own natural resources.
Now the Republican plan that Leader Boehner and others have put out talks about the on shore, online and that is estimated, and that is the shale and ANWR, that would save anywhere from 70 to $1.60 a gallon.
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And if you look at the deepwater drilling, the OCS, that would be between 90 and $2.50 a gallon. And then the new refineries. And Dr. Price, before you got here, I made a statement that we import 6.9 billion gallons of gas every year, plus probably just as much diesel. But if we built a new refinery, it would save us 15 to 45 cents. So taking just a conservative estimate, that's about $2 a gallon that that would save us.
Now, if you look at the Democratic plan that they had, sue OPEC. Well, I don't think that's going to bring us in anything to reduce the price of gas.
They want to launch their seventh investigation into price gouging, their seventh. They've already had six investigations of price gouging.
They want to launch their fourth investigation into speculators, the fourth one. And they want $20 billion in new taxes on oil producers.
Now, here again, I've looked at all those things and I've kind of weighed both sides, and their savings is zero. Nada. Ours would be about $2 a gallon.
Is it going to happen immediately? No. Is it going to start happening immediately? Yes.
And so, what I wanted the American people to do with this, Mr. Speaker, is to allow them to see who's on their team for bringing down the price of gas, and who's on their team for using our own resources, rather than sending our President into foreign lands begging for other people to increase their oil production.
Dr. Price.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I appreciate that. And this idea, the idea you came up with is so wonderful because what it's going to allow every Member of this House to see is who signs on the petition. You're going to come down here with some frequency, I suspect, and we'll review the individuals that are----
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Well, we got about 20 signatures today just by showing it to people walking out the door.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Absolutely. Within 5 or 6 minutes they walked by and said well, I'll sign up on that. But our colleagues here are going to be able to look on that petition and see who's interested in voting to increase U.S. oil production to lower gas prices for Americans. And so that's why your leadership on this is wonderful.
I'm reminded of the individual who said that every other nation on the face of this earth looks at their natural resources and views them as an economic asset. They view them as an economic asset, something that can help their nation.
The problem that we seem to have is that the majority leadership, at least, in this body, looks at our natural resources and views them as an environmental hazard, which doesn't make any sense. It certainly doesn't make any sense to the folks in my district, and I suspect it doesn't make any sense to the folks in your districts.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Would the gentleman yield?
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Sure.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. One of the things that we haven't really discussed a great deal tonight is if they didn't want to drill for oil, for instance, we have a several hundred-year supply of natural gas, and there could be an entire new industry creating conversion units for automobiles that would be much less than a brand new car, that could convert gas-powered cars to natural gas power, which is a clean burning fuel.
But once again, the opposition will not allow us to drill for natural gas, which is a clean burning fuel which would help the environment. So it's not just the oil issue; it's the entire energy issue that you're talking about.
And that's why I think that the American people, I hope that they're paying attention to this. I know that they're getting their attention because the price of gasoline is so high. But we have the ability to use natural gas. We have the ability to use oil. We have the ability to get it out of the ground, to use shale and we're being blocked again and again and again.
And I appreciate you and the other gentleman from Georgia saying tonight that we'd like to work with the Democrats on the other side of the aisle to solve this problem. But, as you said before, it takes two to dance. Well, I guess I could dance by myself, but that wouldn't be very becoming. But it takes two to tango, and I would just say that if my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are listening to my colleagues from Georgia, let's get together and see if we can come up with a way to get this problem solved.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Absolutely. Let's get together. And I appreciate you bringing up some of the other ways to increase our domestic resources or utilization of our resources. Offshore drilling, offshore oil, deep sea exploration, 85 percent of the lower 48 States, Outer Continental Shelf, energy resources remain under lock and key by the Federal Government. You can't go there. 85 percent.
In fact, as I mentioned, the United States is the only nation that has shoreline in the world that doesn't allow for exploration offshore to the degree that would allow for utilizing those resources that are available.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. And keep in mind, we only use 3 percent of those offshore resources. Only 3 percent. Out of 101.76 billion acres, we only use 3 percent of it.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. That lets you know how much of the shoreline of the United States is in Alaska, because that's what bumps that number way up.
I want to make just one brief comment about the oil shale that we've got available to us in the United States because I was astounded when I learned these figures. And again, these are facts. This isn't my opinion. This is a fact.
The Department of Energy estimates that the United States is endowed with more than 2 trillion, 2 trillion, that's T-R, 2 trillion barrels of oil from oil shale if we were allowed to move forward with that clean technology, environmentally sound way, 2 trillion barrels.
To put this figure in perspective, the world has used 1 trillion barrels of oil since the first oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania in 1859. So twice as much oil as the world has used in the past 150 years is available through environmentally sound technology, through the use of oil shale. To not take advantage of those resources is astounding to me.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Well, those resources, that shale that you're talking about, Mr. Udall from Colorado, if you'll remember, had an amendment on the bill that we passed in this House that said that was off, can't use it. Can't get it.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. That's exactly right. It wasn't well maybe we ought to give it a try in a little area and see how it works.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. 219-215.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Yeah. We ought to, you know, at least try a little bit. Maybe we ought to see if it works, see if we can't make certain that the technologically sound and environmentally sensitive way to gain these resources is true. Shouldn't we just try a little bit? At $4 a gallon, doesn't that make sense? Or does it have to get to
$5 a gallon, or is it $6?
Mr. WESTMORELAND. And Senator Allard, from Colorado I believe, had an amendment in the Senate Appropriations Committee to overturn the Udall amendment, and it was defeated 15-14, along party lines.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Isn't that amazing. And it really begs the question, how high does the price of gas have to get before we use American resources? How high does it have to get?
Maybe that's the question we ought to be asking our friends on the other side. We'd love to work with you. At what price will you begin to work? Is it $10 a gallon that you'll begin to work with us?
Mr. WESTMORELAND. But Dr. Price, that's the problem that the majority has because a lot of their base is the radical environmentalists don't care if gas goes to $10 a gallon. They don't want us driving SUVs. They really don't want us driving cars. They want us riding bicycles or motor scooters like you would see in China or somewhere in an Asian country. They don't want us driving. And they don't care how high gas gets. That doesn't matter to them.
And so that's a problem that the majority is facing. And I think one of the reasons they have not been quick to act is the fact that that has been a large part of their base.
But hopefully, the American people are going to realize that they can have a voice in this. They can have a voice, and that they can see, on a chart, how their person stands; are they for U.S. energy independence or not?
And so that's what we have given, a plain visual of them to be able to see.
I yield to you.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. And I thank you. And I know that you mentioned about the certain folks in the environmental community who do not want any exploration and do not want any greater production. But I can't believe that a significant number of folks on the other side don't believe in their heart, and their constituents certainly, that we ought to be able to solve this problem with our own resources and with our own ingenuity and our own spirit and genius and American entrepreneurship and American energy for Americans. I just have to believe that a significant number on the other side of the aisle believe that.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. And I think you're right. And Mr. Burton's been here a lot longer than you and I have. But we have seen what complete authority is in this body, and really one person controls any legislation that comes on to this floor. So it wouldn't matter.
And we saw an example of that when we had the votes to pass the FISA bill, the national security bill. We had the votes to pass that in a letter that the Blue Dogs had sent to the Speaker. And our side we had enough to pass a good FISA bill that would have protected America, but we couldn't get it to the floor.
And so I think you're right, Dr. Price. I think there are many Members on the other side of the aisle that realize that we need to be looking at our own natural resources that would vote with us for a good plan, for a good energy program. But they'll never have the opportunity to do it.
And so that's the reason I felt the need to have this chart, so at least they can tell their constituents, hey, look, if leadership would bring this up, I'd be with you. But they won't bring it up.
Mr. Burton.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I appreciate the gentleman yielding.
You know, the truckers across this country that drive these big diesel rigs that bring food to the market and all these other commodities, they were so upset when diesel fuel got to over $4 a gallon, now it's over $4.50 a gallon, that they came, hundreds of them, maybe even thousands of them, drove here into Washington, DC to protest. And they're very concerned about that. And the people who buy those products are concerned.
You even see now where people are stealing cooking oil from McDonald restaurants in the back so they can augment their fuel so they can get more mileage with their diesel trucks.
And I would say, if I were talking to those truckers across the country, and I know we can't because we're just talking among ourselves, that the truckers, I'm sure, would want their Congressman and the people they serve to contact their Congressman to say sign this petition because we can't afford to bring across the country the food and the commodities necessary to keep your standard of living where it is today. So it's not just the guy driving his car to and from work.
I had a young man, I won't tell you who it is because he might get fired. But he's a young man who works here in the Capitol. And he was talking to one of his friends, and I walked out, and I said, what about this drilling in the ANWR and in the United States to get oil? He says, I don't care where you drill. He says, I live 45 minutes from the Capitol. I can't afford to drive to and from work anymore, and I'm going to buy an air mattress and pump it up someplace so I can spend half of my time here because I can't afford to go home.
So they're upset, the people driving these cars, because they can't afford to live like they did in the past. It's hurting people with home mortgages, their food and everything else, those on limited incomes.
But as I was saying before, the truckers have already demonstrated. And I'll bet you if they knew tonight that these petitions that you've come up with were here on the floor, I'll bet you every one of them would call everybody they know and tell them, call your Congressman. Tell him to sign that petition so we can get the fuel down so we can transport the goods and services you need across this country so you can live again.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. And we can get out of the fetal position and start some action. And that's what we need to be doing.
And you brought up a great point. Cooking oil, the fat, the grease pots that are there that people are actually going and robbing these things and making a biodiesel fuel out of it.
We've got some companies up in northeast Georgia that are making biodiesel out of chicken parts. The ingenuity is out there. We have just got to feed that and make these people have some ideas to come up with it. And we're not doing that. And that is an immediate thing that we could do.
The other thing we could do is propane. You talk about natural gas. You know, propane conversion was going very well in this country. And it's clean burning. It was going great. And then the EPA said no, you've got to do these specific tests on every different type of engine, on every different make of car.
And rather than going to the people that are making these propane conversion engines, these natural gas conversion engines, the hydrogen cell, we need to be putting every dime we've got towards technology and the hydrogen cell, because this is something that is very real that would really solve a whole bunch of our energy problems. But, rather than the government going to them and saying, how can we best help you develop a conversion energy from gasoline to natural gas, or from gasoline to propane, gasoline to a hydrogen cell, what can we do to help you? We don't do that. We put regulations on them and taxes that burden them from doing anything.
{time} 1915
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. And all of those activities that burden our own American oil producers, all of them provide greater incentives for foreign oil producers and increase our reliance on foreign oil.
And I appreciate my friend from Indiana talking about the truckers, and if we were able to contact them and say, You ought to contact your Member of Congress because this petition is so simple, American energy solutions for lower gas. What could be more simple? And so you're talking about onshore oil, bringing more onshore oil on line, bringing deepwater oil on line, bringing new refineries on line.
One thing that I learned just recently is that on the north shore of Lake Erie, the north shore of Lake Erie is not the United States. It's Canada. Good friend, neighbor to the north. They've got--they are drilling on land and then under Lake Erie to get oil. Our good friends, the Canadians to the north. And what are they doing with that oil? They're selling it to us.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. The slant drilling.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. My folks at home, when I tell them these sorts of things, they shake their head. They say, You gotta be kidding me. And we won't allow our oil companies, American oil producers, to do the same sorts of things in environmentally sensitive and technologically sound ways.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. These are top exporters of gasoline into the United States in millions of barrels. Now these are exporters to us in gas, not crude oil, in gas.
United Kingdom, 147 million barrels a year. That's about a billion gallons; the U.S. Virgin Islands import 990 millions of gasoline to us; France, 470 million gallons; Canada, 445 million gallons; the Netherlands, 441 million gallons; Norway, 353 million gallons.
And let me say this, 20 years ago, Norway--it may have been a little bit longer ago than that--Norway was kind of dependent on foreign oil. And Norway, they're basically a tourist, fishing, snow skiing country. They are now the second largest exporter of crude oil in the world because they said we're going to drill and use our own natural resources.
Germany. We import 250 million gallons of gas every year from Germany; 310 from Russia; 410 million from Italy, and 231 million gallons of gasoline we import from OPEC countries.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. You know, a number of us--I'm on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and I do some traveling to meet with leaders in other countries around the world. And one of the things that I have found is the Pound Sterling and the Euro, their currency has gone from where it was about 70 cents to the dollar to where the Euro is almost one and a half times what the dollar is as far as value's concerned.
And one of the reasons why you have seen the currency of the United States go down is because we're buying more and exporting less, and one of the main reasons for that is what you just mentioned a moment ago: we're importing all of this energy when we could be producing it ourselves keeping more of our money here, which would not only help us energy-wise, but which would strengthen the dollar and help the entire economy of the United States.
There are so many ancillary reasons, so many ancillary reasons why we should be drilling for our own energy that it doesn't make--that it isn't funny. And yet I can't understand why many of our colleagues don't understand that. It's not just energy, it's economic security, it's national security, it's a whole host of things; and we ought to get on with it. We really ought to get on with it.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Think about this. Think about the number of jobs that would come here, that we would have ourselves bringing new refineries, expanding them, drilling, taking this shale out of the ground. These would create good-paying American jobs. We have a lot of people from this country that are in OPEC countries and in other nations that are working on these rigs, they're making big money. They could be doing the same thing right here in this country.
And we've got about 5 minutes left and so I want to just--I will end my part, and I will let everybody have a little bit of time.
I want to end my part in saying that I have tried to come up with as simple a way of getting information to the people of this country, Mr. Speaker, as I knew how on drilling. Because like I said, I have heard and gotten e-mails from this petition on this site, this petition on that site, and the one most people are doing is the American Solutions site, which I think has over 500,000 signatures now about drilling. You have got radio stations in Florida sending drill bits. And then I listen to all of the talk down here, and it is so confusing for people to understand exactly what we have voted on, what got enacted, what didn't get enacted.
So I wanted to come up with the simplest thing I could, and I came up with this petition: American energy solutions for lower gas prices. Brings onshore oil on line, bring deepwater oil on line, bring new refineries on line. And then it's simply asking 435 Members--we're giving 435 Members an opportunity to sign a petition, this is our energy petition, that says, I will vote to increase U.S. oil production to lower gas prices for Americans. And that's about as simple as we can get.
Dr. Price, would you like to close?
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Let me thank my friend and colleague from Georgia for his leadership on this.
As you say, it's as simple as it gets. American energy solutions for lower gas prices. Either you believe and will vote for allowing an increase in U.S. oil production to lower gas prices or you won't. It's as simple as that.
So I want to commend you for focusing this issue and making it very crystal clear for all of our colleagues who sign, who support increasing U.S. oil production to lower gas prices.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. And I would just like to say thank you very much, Representative Westmoreland, for taking the leadership. Once again, Georgia, my two colleagues from Georgia are leading the way, and I really appreciate it very much.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. I yield back the balance of the time.
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