Real Energy Solutions

REAL ENERGY SOLUTIONS -- (House of Representatives - June 20, 2008)

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Ms. FOXX. I want to thank my colleague from Georgia (Mr. Westmoreland) for the great leadership he's providing on this issue today and other days here in the Congress. I think it's extremely important to explain to the American people what is not happening in the Congress, even though they are asking us to do things.

Now, I am very much a person of action. I believe in getting as much done as we possibly can. The old saying is, as long as the Congress is not in session, the American people are safe. And we often accomplish a lot of negative things here, but on this issue, that is what we have done is accomplish a lot of negative things. We need to be accomplishing positive things.

I think my colleague well-characterized what's been going on as a charade. When I was in the General Assembly in North Carolina, I often gave an award called the Emperor's New Clothes Award because I gave it to bills that didn't do anything but that nobody was willing to say wasn't doing anything. And I think what the Democratically-controlled Congress--and that's what we have to keep saying because many Americans blame both Democrats and Republicans for not doing something--but they have to understand that it is the Democratically-controlled Congress that's creating the problem here. What they've done has been a charade. It deserves the Emperor's New Clothes Award, and I hope most people have read that little book and understand the issue that I'm talking about.

Let me say that these are very recent polls that have been done. Sixty-seven percent of the American people believe drilling should be allowed in offshore wells off the coast of California, Florida and other States. Sixty-two percent believe that the price of gas has gotten so high that we need to begin drilling for oil in an environmentally safe way. And 57 percent support allowing drilling in U.S. coastal and wilderness areas now off limits.

And let me contrast the opinion of the American public with what the Democrats have done over the years.

In the last 12 or 14 years, there have been many bills put in, one on drilling in ANWR, and 91 percent of Republicans supported that; 86 percent of Democrats opposed it.

Turning coal-to-liquid, which is a good way to be using coal, 97 percent of Republicans supported it; 78 percent of House Democrats opposed it.

Oil shale exploration, 90 percent of House Republicans supported it; 86 percent of Democrats opposed it.

The Outer Continental Shelf, 125 miles off the coast of the country, you're not going to see the wells. You're not going to see the effect, and we can do it without polluting the ocean or polluting our environment in any way. Eighty-one percent of House Republicans supported; 83 percent of House Democrats opposed it.

Increasing refinery capacity, my colleague has done a very fine job of explaining why that's important to increasing supply. Ninety-seven percent of House Republicans supported it; 96 percent of House Democrats opposed it.

So over the last 12 or 14 years, on the bills that have come up on these issues, on average 91 percent of House Republicans have voted to increase the production of American-made oil and gas, while 86 percent of House Democrats have historically voted against it.

We need to increase the supply. I believe that part

of the problem is because the Democrats are so out of touch with what's happening in America. Many of them have been in Washington 50 years or more. They don't go home on weekends. They don't associate with average Americans. They've never worked in a business. They have no idea how all the businesses in America are being affected.

My family runs a nursery and landscaping business. To put a vehicle out on the road, especially one that uses diesel fuel, is costing two-and-a-half times what it cost a year ago, 18 months ago, when the Democrats took over.

All we've gotten from the Democrats are empty promises, and as I said, they deserve the Emperor's New Clothes Award because it doesn't work.

Their latest Emperor's New Clothes Award claim has to do with use-it-or-lose-it, which is already the law of the land. They're blaming the oil companies. They are so good at blaming everybody else and deflecting attention from themselves when they're the ones to blame. They want to blame the oil companies. They want to say the oil companies are making a huge profit. It's not popular to defend oil companies, but right now, the oil companies' profit is about 7.5 cents on the dollar. The average profit of most businesses in this country, the Standard and Poor's businesses, those listed on the stock exchange, is about 8.5 percent. I heard the other day Microsoft is about 21 percent. But I don't see the Democrats going after them.

Generally, they hate business and industry because they think they're the evil people in this country, but thank goodness we have had the oil companies providing the oil and gasoline that we've needed over the years.

So they want to do something called use-it-or-lose-it. Well, you know, folks, the oil companies already have a clause in their contracts. They either drill for oil within 10 years or they lose the lease. Guess who changed the lease time from 5 years to 10 years. The Democrats, back in 1992. Do you ever hear them admit that? No, they don't admit it, but that's what happened.

We already are regulating the oil business tremendously. They are not the problem. It's the Democrats who are the problem. And we can't say that often enough on this floor because not enough Americans are listening. Half the people in the country think Republicans are still in charge. We're not in charge. We're the good guys. We're the ones wanting to produce more American-made products for you to use. We didn't say we had a plan to bring down the price of gasoline, but we do, and our plan will work.

We're still waiting for Democrats to bring their plan. They haven't brought it. We'd love to see it. But as my colleagues said, it's a charade. I like that term, and I want to say it deserves the Emperor's New Clothes Award because, folks, it ain't there.

So I thank my colleague for sharing some time with me today and for
bringing this Special Order to the floor today and helping people understand before the weekend, as you go out there and you are filling up your tanks, you can hold responsible the Democratically-controlled Congress, the do-nothing-to-produce-more-energy Congress for the problems that you're having.

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