American Energy Act
AMERICAN ENERGY ACT -- (House of Representatives - September 09, 2008)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. FOXX. I want to thank my colleague from Ohio who has been leading this Special Order tonight for giving me this opportunity. I hope to have a chart tomorrow that is going to show this better, but I am going to describe very briefly something that I think we need to be talking about.
I am encouraged by the Speaker saying that we are going to have a vote on an energy plan. I am concerned that it is not going to be the vote on the American Energy Act. We need a straight up or down vote I think on increasing American-made energy.
I have said over and over again on the floor, I am pro-American made energy and I think that is what we need to be doing. I was very proud to be here during August when the seats were filled with citizens who were here visiting. There was no mike, there was no C-SPAN, there were no lights on, but we had a great time talking to the American people and I think it showed our Republic at work. People took action, contacted their Members and said we need to do something about it.
But recently we have heard about how the unemployment rate has gone up, and our colleague from Texas, Judge Carter, talked about jobs going overseas. I think we also have seen that as the gas prices have gone up, we have also seen unemployment go up. Again, while I don't have a chart, I am going to make do with the chart that I have here.
When the Democrats took over in 2007, we had an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent, one of the lowest in the history of this county. We had 54 straight months of job increases. What happened? By 11-07, the unemployment rate had gone up, which was about right here, as gas prices started going up. When gas prices got to here, the unemployment rate had gone up to 5 percent. Gas prices in May were up to $3.84 and the unemployment rate went above 5 percent. The unemployment rate is now at 6 percent, and that is where gas prices went, there.
I agree with Judge Carter. We need to look at why jobs are going overseas, and in large part it is because of the gas prices. The American people simply don't understand why the Democrats are so anti-American energy. If we will drill in ANWR, if we will drill off the coast, we can bring down the price of gasoline in this country. We can bring down the price of home heating oil, which is going to be hurting everybody in this country in the very next few days, because it is hurting them.
I yield back to my colleague who began this so he can close the evening.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source