Use it or Lose it Hoax

Floor Speech

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. FOXX. I am here on the floor tonight to set the record straight about false claims that Democrats are peddling as a ``use it or lose it'' hoax. With American families and small businesses continuing to feel the pain at the pump, House Democrats have begun offering a series of hollow bills that will do nothing to reduce gas prices.

Today's bill, purportedly meant to address price gouging, serves no purpose other than to provide political cover to Democrats who continue to divide the will of the American people who are calling on Congress to increase the supply of American energy. In fact, today's bill is a rehashed version of a similar price gouging bill passed by the House last year.

Still to come in this week's series of no energy bills, the Democrats' ``use it or lose it'' hoax, with no facts to back up their desperate rhetoric, Democratic leaders continue to make misleading and inaccurate claims with the hope of confusing the American people.

Following are some of the most prevalent examples. Myth. If the American people want increased production of American energy, Congress must force energy companies to use their leased Federal lands to produce oil or lose those leases.

Here's the fact. Use it or lose it is already the law of the land. As a matter of fact, in a bipartisan vote, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rahall each voted for it in 1992. Under the law, Federal energy leaseholders already must produce oil or natural gas within 5 to 10 years after drilling on the land begins, and the Secretary of the Interior has the power to cancel the lease if the energy company fails to comply.

If Representatives Pelosi, Hoyer, and Rahall all had voted for ``use it or lose it'' 16 years ago, then why are they so insistent on forcing another vote on the exact same concept this year? Could it be because they have no meaningful plan of their own to bring down gas prices?

Another myth. Oil companies are sitting on 68 million acres of Federal lands without drilling for oil or gas on any of it. This is another false claim, which has become one of the Democrats' top talking points, but they can't back it up with any facts.

Energy companies already are actively exploring their currently leased lands to find oil or gas. Once they determine that oil or gas is present, only then can they actually begin drilling. The entire process can take years.

As the Independent American Association of Petroleum Geologists noted in a letter to House leaders yesterday, oil and natural gas exploration is not simple and it is not easy. It requires geological ingenuity, advanced technologies, and the time to do the job right.

It also requires access to areas where exploration ideas can be tested. The greater the number of areas available for exploration, the higher the chance of finding oil and natural gas traps. In other words, energy companies cannot be expected to drill on every acre of land every single day, and the Democrats know it.

Another myth: 4.8 million barrels of oil per day and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day may be ``extrapolated'' from the oil companies' unused federally-leased lands. In fact, no Democrat, not Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel, and not Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall can explain where they got those figures. In fact, Democrats have refused to respond to a written request from Natural Resources Committee Republicans for this information. Did they just make it up?

Mr. Speaker, we know that what will help this problem and our country, the ``Pelosi premium,'' which has driven up gas prices to over $4 a gallon, is to increase the supply. We must increase the supply in order to meet the demand. The Democrats act as though they have repealed the law of supply and demand, the most basic law of economics. They can do a lot of things, Mr. Speaker, but they can't repeal the law of supply and demand. What they have to face up to is the fact that we need additional supply.

Republicans have offered commonsense solutions to this issue. We have many plans and many bills out there that would increase the supply and relieve the burden on working Americans. Democrats need to understand that. They need to stop trying to fool the American people with their hoaxes on use-it-or-lose-it, and help us put together a plan to bring greater supply to the American people and give them some relief.

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