This Bill Will Not Solve the Energy Program

THIS BILL WILL NOT SOLVE THE ENERGY PROBLEM -- (House of Representatives - September 16, 2008)

Mr. WITTMAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, today we have before us an energy bill, an energy bill that was presented to us at 9:45 last night, 260 pages long, and very little time to digest what is probably one of the more important pieces of legislation that we will address in this century. I will tell you this is extraordinarily important.

People in my district ask me all the time, ``Rob, we see this issue, it's an important issue for our Nation, why can't we come together and use some commonsense to solve it? Why can't Congress work together?''

Well, folks, this is not the way to work together. This is not an inclusive process. When we are given the opportunity to make sure that the best and brightest ideas come forward for a policy that's so important to the future of this country, we need to make sure the opportunity is there to bring forth the best solutions to this.

We will not solve this energy problem with this bill. This will not happen. It doesn't provide for nuclear energy, it doesn't unlock the resources that we have here. We're the only nation in the world that refuses to use its own resources to solve its own problems.

Folks, we have got to make sure that everybody's ideas make it into this bill. This bill does not provide for that. It's not acceptable to the American people. We should not have this going forward.

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