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OUR CONSTITUENTS’ NUMBER ONE CONCERN IS THE HIGH PRICE OF OIL

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker’s announced policy of January 18, 2007, the gentlewoman from Colorado (Mrs. Musgrave) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.

Mrs. MUSGRAVE. Mr. Speaker, recently in my district of Colorado, I had an opportunity to talk to my constituents firsthand about the high cost of gasoline. I decided to go right to the gas station and go up and offer to pump my constituents’ gas. Now, this is a very good way to get an honest opinion from someone who, quite frankly, is caught off guard to see a Member of Congress right there willing to pump their gas; and when I introduced myself, some of them recognized me, but others that don’t, I introduce myself and I say, Would you like to talk to me about what is on your mind today? And almost to a person, they said, You mean besides the high cost of gasoline? And I knew, after spending a great deal of time at that gas station, that my constituents’ number one concern is the high cost of gasoline.

They told me in various ways how its affecting their lives. I talked to one woman, Mr. Speaker, and she was telling me that she had to drive about 20 miles into Graley where she worked, and her fuel bill was getting so high that she literally thought about staying with relatives in town instead of driving the 20 miles each way to get home every night. It was putting such a financial burden on this lady. She was literally thinking about not going home every night but staying in town during the week and going home on the weekend.

I talked to another individual, and he at one time had a fleet of trucks that he operated. He had a trucking business. So he had firsthand knowledge about what the high cost of fuel is doing to the trucking industry. And as he and I stood there and talked, Mr. Speaker, we were remarking that when you go into stores in Colorado and around the Nation, there’s an abundance of things on the shelves that we Americans can purchase and enjoy. But what most people don’t think about is every one of those items was hauled in a truck. And truckers are experiencing a great deal of hardship lately with the high cost of fuel, and many of them are going out of business.

Now this gentleman that had the trucking business previously now has a trucking repair business, and he told me that the high cost of fuel had adversely affected this business that he had also.

I talked to another gentleman, and he works in Denver, Colorado, but drives from my district up there, and he was telling me that every week he is seeing the cost of gasoline go up and up and up, and he’s thinking about how expensive his commute is becoming.

It is quite a burden on families. I talked to another individual that was older, and he had an older car, and I would presume that he was on a fixed income, Mr. Speaker. And this gentleman doesn’t have the opportunity to get another job and work and earn more income. He has this fixed income. As he sees the price of gasoline going up, the cost to heat his home going up, and he, like many other senior citizens, are very concerned about their future and what they’re going to do.

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I would like to yield time, as much time as she may consume, to the gentlelady from Virginia.

Mrs. DRAKE. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to start by thanking the gentlelady from Colorado for hosting us this evening and sharing the stories from her own district and the people that she stopped and talked with.

We’ve just come off our district work period for Memorial Day, and I know all of us at home over these last few days have heard over and over again from our constituents about the extremely high price of gas and how they just can’t make that work in their lives and with their incomes. And I was thinking about tonight and coming down here to join you, and I realized this is my fourth year of serving the Congress. That means this has been 4 years that I have been saying the same thing over and over and over again.

In my first 2 years here, I served on the Natural Resource Committee so I had the opportunity to listen. And one thing I learned right away in 2005 that really upset me, because I didn’t know this even though I’ve lived in Virginia now for 41 years; I grew up in northern Ohio and I grew up on Lake Erie, and I found out in 2005 that Canada has been taking natural gas from under Lake Erie since 1913.

I want you to know I never saw a derrick. I never saw any type of a rig. I never had any indication that that was taking place. And I thought, I really felt that I had been misled and that here we are in America blocking getting our own resources and here all along our neighbors are doing it.

And we know today that the one thing that would change the price of gasoline for our citizens, for our constituents, for America, for our businesses is to increase our own domestic supply. The number one issue that would make a difference.

In the 109th Congress, my first 2 years here, we did vote in this House. We voted to open up ANWR. I was surprised in those years when I learned that the National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska—just for a visual for people across America, when I learned that if you visualized that wildlife refuge as RFK stadium, ANWR, where the actual drilling would take place, would be the size of a postage stamp; and that really upset me because that wasn’t the mental picture that I had. And I also learned that we have not built a refinery in this country since 1976. Those were all things that I learned in my first year serving here in Congress.

Serving on the Resource Committee, I listened to our neighbors in Canada who came to the Resource Committee to tell us how they were successfully taking oil products from oil shales and oil sand, and they came to volunteer to help us be able to do the same thing. And we still haven’t done anything to increase our own domestic resources using yet a third way to do that.

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I was fascinated when I would listen to the hearings about using the technology of liquefied coal, that that’s old technology, that we can do jet fuel, diesel, gasoline, that would run in all of our engines today by using coal.

America is the Saudi Arabia of coal. Again I question, why are we doing this and why are we making America less competitive? Why are we putting this burden on our citizens?

I met Alaskan citizens who came to talk to me, to beg us to drill in ANWR, and they are the people that live right there.

I think it’s time that we had a strategic energy plan. Now, in 2007 and 2008, the discussions that have taken place on this floor about increasing domestic supply have come not because we’ve brought any sort of strategic plan to the floor. It’s come in other pieces of legislation like you saw tonight, in a bill when Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers stood and did a motion to recommit to try to get at the problem that we’re all facing in America.

I know that we can protect our environment. I know that we can encourage conservation, that we can incentivize alternative energies as well.

In the Second District of Virginia, we’re very proud of one of our universities, Old Dominion University, that is creating biodiesel out of algae. How exciting and interesting is that. They are also doing significant research in what’s called coastal energy: wind, wave, solar. But there again, how do we increase our domestic production in our country?

But I also go back to what about families across America. Just before we went on our Memorial Day break, when I got home, when I was sitting there talking to my husband about what was his week like, what was my week like here in D.C., and he said to me, I know you don’t know this, but do you know our water bill was $88 for last month? $88 just for water.

We both know that in the last 7 years our real estate taxes have tripled, and we’re seeing today what we’re paying for gasoline, what we’re paying for food, and you’ve explained very, very well about the higher cost of transportation and that we have to move these products.

And that’s us sitting there talking. We’ve lived in our house for 20 years. Our children are grown. How do families do it today? How do families do it that have to commute any distance because of the price of housing in our country? And more and more people have had to live further out.

If we want America to be competitive, if we want to grow our economy, if we want our families to be able to feel like that they’re getting ahead and succeeding, we have got to join together in this Congress. We have to have a bipartisan solution, and we have to increase our domestic supply.

I’m sure that you were as distressed as I was when I read the newspaper article that our President had gone to Saudi Arabia and asked them to increase the gas production. My first thought was, why didn’t he come here to Congress and tell us that we must change the law and allow for this domestic production, to allow for the siting of refineries, and to tell the American people that it is the policies right here in Washington that are stopping that from taking place? That’s what I would hope that he would do.

I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity. I know you have other speakers. I think you and I could probably talk half the night to America about this issue, about how important it is, but every single person listening to us tonight knows how critically important it is that we increase our domestic supply and that we’re able to drop this price and for American families to be able to feel that they can do something, that they can enjoy life and not have to worry and worry how they’re going to pay for all the things that are in their lives today. This is something that I feel we, as Members of Congress, could make a difference and could make those changes.

Mrs. MUSGRAVE. I thank the gentlelady. She has spoken very well about the impact on families with the high price of fuel and what we need to address those prices.

It’s interesting, too, as we talk about families, we have schools. In my district, it’s 7 1/2 hours from one side of my district to the other. We have rural school districts, and buses have to travel long distances, and now schools are trying to ascertain how they’re going to pay the high cost of fuel, and there are changes coming up.

When you look at schools, they’re doing things like going to the 4-day week. They’re changing. They think of the money they can save if they don’t have to transport the kids and heat the buildings and do those things during the day. So when they look at the fuel price for transportation, they’re thinking they’re going to go to this 4-day week.

Sadly, it’s impacting sports and schools, and we know that many times sports is what keeps students in schools, and it has such a good role to play in their life, but they’re having to curtail their driving for this because they can’t afford it anymore and they might drop programs.

So schools that even want to do field trips, and this is especially enriching for students who perhaps may be in families where they can’t afford to do many things, but these kids enjoy these school trips. These outings are very good for them, but schools are saying that students will have to pay for a fee for that or they will have to forgo their field trips.

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This is having a huge impact on families and on schools.

I would like to yield now to the gentleman from Tennessee.

Mr. DAVID DAVIS of Tennessee. I would like to thank the gentlelady from Colorado for doing this special hour. I don’t think there’s anything more important facing Americans right now and facing this Congress than to deal with the high cost of energy, and I thank you for your leadership.

With the national average cost of gasoline at the pump today at $3.98 a gallon, moms and dads across the country are struggling to balance the family budget. It breaks my heart, and I know of a young family back in northeast Tennessee just trying to make enough money to make it to work or take their child to school. It breaks my heart when we have senior adults that are on a fixed income that don’t have the opportunity to have more money, to be able to afford the gasoline to go to the doctor or go to the hospital or go to the grocery store. It breaks my heart when you have a small business that’s trying to create those jobs and make life better for their fellow man. It breaks my heart.

This Congress must pass meaningful legislation to reduce the price of gasoline and fuel at the pump, and we need to do it soon.

Just recently, Shell Oil Company Chairman John Hofmeister testified before the Senate on why gas prices are so high. He said, “As repetitive and uninteresting as it may sound, the fundamental laws of supply and demand are at work.”

Over the past few weeks, I along with most of my colleagues on this side of the aisle have produced an energy policy, not just a piece of an energy policy, but a true energy policy that addresses our supply of American energy. This energy policy explores all facets of our energy needs, from drilling for American oil and natural gases to using alternative fuels like switchgrass and ethanol. The policy increases American supply, which will effectively lower prices.

This energy policy will help people like Earl Humphreys, who owns and manages Lawn Boyz Lawn Care in Bristol, Tennessee. Earl told me that he may not be able to continue his business much longer because of high fuel prices. He is not making enough money to support his family, purchase his fuel, pay his staff, and keep the doors open on his family-run business. How sad.

People like Earl are relying on Congress to do something. Colleagues on this side of the aisle and I have offered nothing but solutions. On the other side of the aisle, they’ve offered nothing but excuses.

Congress’ Democratic leadership is out of touch with the American people like Earl. Instead of increasing American energy supply so that prices can go down and Earl can continue to support his family, the Democrat leadership wants to tax energy producers, stifle American production, and abandon cars, SUVs and pick-up trucks that we all rely on.

Recently, one Congressman proposed a 50-cent tax increase on gasoline. Now, that makes absolutely no sense to me. We can’t tax and regulate our way out of an energy crisis, and we can’t tax your pick-up truck from empty to full.

Leadership’s energy policies have been to conduct seven investigations into price gouging, conduct four investigations on speculators, and create $20 billion in new taxes on oil producers. Unfortunately, the leadership of Congress’ policies don’t save Americans any money at the pump.

In fact, gasoline prices have increased from $2.33 a gallon to $3.98 per gallon since Speaker Pelosi and her Democrat colleagues took control of this Congress last year. That’s not a solution.

When China and other growing industrialized nations are moving from bicycles to cars, Americans are being made to go from cars to bicycles. That’s not a solution.

Currently, China is drilling for oil and natural gas almost in sight off the coast of Key West, Florida. The irony here is that while China is out there drilling, America can’t, under the leadership of this Congress.

What is it going to take to make this Congress realize that we need to increase American energy supply and decrease our dependence on foreign energy, our dependence on people that hate us and hate our freedoms?

The majority of the American people understand, East Tennesseans understand and I understand, Earl understands and people from Bristol, Tennessee, understand, we must take immediate action to allow for drilling in an environmentally safe way on American soil and off our coasts. In the Outer Continental Shelf alone, it’s estimated that we have over 17 billion barrels of oil, oil that someone else is drilling for. On the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve alone, we have the potential to provide consumers with over 1 million barrels of oil per day. We need solutions.

We must take immediate action to allow for the construction of new refineries, and we can do that on old military bases.

We must take immediate action on production of natural gas where our supply is abundant. Eastman Chemical Company, which is located in my district in northeast Tennessee, has been using clean coal gasification to meet their ever increasing energy needs on a daily basis.

We must take immediate action to allow for the construction of safe nuclear power plants. For instance, France currently powers 80 percent of their energy needs from safe nuclear power plants.

We must take immediate action using alternative fuel sources, like switchgrass and ethanol from nonfood sources. New technologies like switchgrass and ethanol are exciting and will be part of our solution to lower high energy costs.

We must take immediate action by using clean coal technology, something that the Germans used in World War II. This is not futuristic. They were doing it in World War II. Coal is not some smutty leftover from the Industrial Revolution. We have approximately 250 years worth of coal right here in the United States, and you can take a lump of coal and actually turn it into gasoline and drive your car and fly jet planes. They did it in World War II.

We need solutions. Republican energy policies like the ones I’ve just listed will save every American at least $1.82 per gallon of gasoline. That’s $36.40 for each 20-gallon tank full of gasoline. Tennesseans like Earl sure can use a $1.82 discount at the gas pump.

We need solutions. Americans like Earl are looking for solutions, not excuses. The time for solutions is now. That’s why I’ve cosponsored the No More Excuses Energy Act. It combines all these different types of energy to bring down the price at the pump and make sure we have energy to heat our homes in the winter. We need solutions, not excuses.

Mrs. MUSGRAVE. I would like to yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania now.

Mr. PETERSON of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentlelady from Colorado and gentlelady from Virginia and the gentleman from Tennessee for the right to join them this evening for an issue that I think is very much on the mind of every American.

I can’t talk to a neighbor, a friend, anywhere but what they’re talking about energy prices. And it’s interesting that it’s not being talked about in this House in a productive way.

In fact, 2 weeks ago we passed a bill that attempts to give us the right to get OPEC into our courts to force them to produce more energy, accusing them of not producing enough energy. Now, I don’t know how a government who has locked up so much of its own supply—and I’ll show you here on this chart—both coasts are off-limits to oil and gas production and a portion of the gulf. And out in the middle part of the country, millions and millions of acres are locked up.

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And of course up here in ANWR, that part of Alaska that was set aside by President Carter for energy production, has been locked up. And we passed a bill in the Clinton administration, and he vetoed it. That was 10 years ago. They said it would take 10 years to get production here, but today we would have that energy if it had happened.

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Folks, while we lock this up, we pass a bill trying to get us the ability to bring OPEC countries into a court somewhere to force them to produce. Now, people back home kind of laughed at me and they said, well, how do we force a country to produce when we won’t produce our own? How do you rationalize that? But it sounds good if you don’t look at the facts, I guess. But here we are, and now the Senate, this week, is working on carbon taxes, which will increase energy prices another 20 to 30 percent.

Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, and Americans, listen to the carbon tax debate. It will tax energy further and raise the cost of fossil fuels, hoping, I guess, we won’t use them so that we will be forced—and we will get into the renewables in a little bit. But it seems interesting to me that, at a time when every American that I talk to has one thing on their mind, affordable energy, and Congress is the reason. I’m here to say tonight, this body and three Presidents are the reason.

This moratorium on our Outer Continental Shelf, that’s from three miles offshore owned by the States to 200 miles that’s owned by the Federal Government and us, the taxpayers, we own that. We’re the only country in the world that’s locked it up. It was locked up 28 years ago by President Bush I for 5 years to study and see where the best was and see if we had some sensitive areas we needed to protect. President Clinton came in, just extended it to 2012 and said they wouldn’t explore out there. And then the current President has not supported raising this moratorium. In fact, I wrote him a letter 2 weeks ago, a man I love dearly, but disagree with very much on lack of energy leadership because he understands the energy issue—at least he should, he’s from an energy family. But he has spoken three times recently in public about opening up onshore and offshore. So we sent him a letter saying, Mr. President, it seems like if you’re serious about opening up offshore, that you would lift the presidential moratorium—because we actually have two moratoriums. We have a presidential decree that’s been through three Presidents that says you can’t produce out there. We have legislation that Congress passes every year in the Interior bill that says the Federal Government cannot spend one dollar to lease offshore leasing on either coast in the Gulf. Eighty-five percent.

This is where most of the world produces a lot of their energy, these great resources. It’s the most environmentally sensitive place. Fishing in the Gulf is better where we produce oil than where we don’t produce oil. And when we had the terrible storms in Katrina a few years ago, the fishermen were saying—some of the rigs were really damaged, and the platforms, so they said, you’re not going to take them away, are you? They said, no, we’re going to repair them and use them. Because that’s where the best fishing is.

Now, with those terrible storms, the Minerals and Mines Management said we had no measurable spillage. Actually, we have more spillage on our ocean shores from ships and sporting boats than we have from drilling anywhere. We have not had an offshore incident since 1969 in Santa Barbara. Our technology today is tremendously improved. There is no viable reason that we’re not producing energy offshore.

Now, I’ll be offering an amendment next Wednesday, the 11th of June, in the Interior Appropriations bill that will open up and remove these moratoriums from 50 miles out for both gas and oil. That will allow us to produce. Now, it’s not something that’s just going to happen overnight, it still would have to be, once it’s opened up and signed by the President, it would have to be part of the 5-year plan.

What’s interesting is we know there’s huge reserves out here, but has never been measured by modern seismographic and modern techniques that we use today. And it’s like taking an old black and white picture tube, television, and comparing it to one of our beautiful flat screen TVs today of what you can see. Today they can know what’s there, what type of energy is there, how deep it is, and how difficult it will be to produce it. But we, by law, this Congress has prohibited anybody from exploring out there, even to look at what’s out there. Does that make sense? Of course it makes no sense.

Let’s look for a moment at our energy use. This is the interesting part. We are 40 percent petroleum, 23 percent natural gas, 23 percent coal, 8 percent nuclear. Now, that’s 94 percent of America’s energy. That’s fossil fuel, except nuclear.

Then you have the renewables. And, you know, I’m for wind and I’m for solar and I’m for geothermal and I’m for cellulosic ethanol and all of those good things, but we have to look at how small they are. I said to a gentleman on the plane this morning flying in, I said, if we double wind and solar in the next 5 years, how much of our energy do you think—oh, 10 percent? I said, less than three-quarters of 1 percent. Because when you get down here, the only one that’s really grown a lot recently is woody biomass.

Now, we have almost a million Americans now, just under a million Americans heats their homes with pellet stoves; that’s saw dust pressed into a pellet, and they use it to heat their home. We’re heating factories today with saw dust and wood chips. I have a hospital in my district that just put in a new wood boiler that has saved 70 percent on their energy bill by burning sawdust and wood chips and their own cardboard and their own paper. So that’s been the one that’s been growing. Geothermal has been just constant at a very small fraction.

Wind and solar are fractions; these are fractions. Now, if we double them, they’re still fractions. And I’m for them. But I guess the false hope has been—and I want to share with you who I think is really at fault. Now, Congress is at fault, but who has influenced Congress? Well, there is a group called the Sierra Club. And here is what is on their web page. They’re against the oil shale development that’s been talked about out west, where we think there’s huge reserves. They’re against coal liquefaction because we’re the Saudi Arabia of coal and we think liquefied coal or coal-to-gas could get us away from the—66 percent of our petroleum now comes from foreign unstable governments. And that’s where all our money is going, folks. We’re enriching that part of the world who helped furnish us with 9/11.

They’re against offshore energy production. Back to the map I had up here. The Sierra Club will lead the fight. I debated a Sierra Club member on NPR last week on a California radio station, and they said we’ll be leading the fight to stop Congressman Peterson’s bill from being passed.

Green Peace; you know what they want to do? They want to phase these out. And that’s what a lot of Congress wants to do. They say, we can’t use fossil fuels anymore. Well, okay, I’ll buy that. I would like to be fueling our country down here. I will do anything and everything to fund these. And those who say we haven’t spent billions on research in wind and solar are not being honest with you, we’re spending billions annually to subsidize those.

So Green Peace wants to phase these out; can’t do this anymore. But that’s really what we’re doing, that’s why we have high energy prices; we’re phasing out fossil fuels before we have a replacement. We’ve decided we’re not going to produce fossil fuels. Because if we don’t produce them—I’ve talked to Members here on the floor. Well, John, if we continue to produce fossil fuels and they’re affordable, Americans will not use renewables. I said, but if you phase out fossil fuels before we have the renewables, we’re going to have awfully high energy prices.

Now, we were arguing that when oil was $30 and $40 a barrel. I don’t think any of us dreamed we would see $135 oil this year. I thought we might hit $100 oil this fall. That was my prediction. I did not dream . . .

Now, what’s interesting that’s happening now, oil I think was $122 when it closed today; that’s not cheap, but it’s better than $135. But natural gas prices, creeping, creeping, creeping. And natural gas is the fuel that I think is the bridge fuel.

Here’s what natural gas prices have been doing. Natural gas prices are spiking again. This chart was made on the retail price. Today, natural gas was $12.40 out of the ground. And now what’s ironic about that, this is a time of year when you don’t use a lot of natural gas because you’re minimizing heating and you’re minimizing cooling. You’re kind of at the period where we depend on natural temperatures. So we use much less natural gas at this time of year. So this is when natural gas prices dive. And we put that cheap gas in the ground and we use it next winter because in the winter time, when we’re heating the country, we can’t produce enough gas for that period of time, so we store it. And my district has many caverns, salt caverns where we store gas for the northeast.

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So we’re now putting $12.40 gas in the ground for next winter. Last year at this time we were putting $6.50 and $7 gas in the ground. So the American public yet do not realize that we’ve had—they’re paying very high prices for home heating oil, they’re paying very high prices for gasoline and diesel, and they’re paying very high prices for home heating oil and propane. But natural gas didn’t increase much last year; it was kind of a soft year on natural gas prices. But this year, only the good Lord knows how expensive it’s going to be because it appears, for some reason, it’s going up like a quarter a day; so that’s every four days you’re up a dollar. I don’t know what’s causing it, it’s increased use.

We have said no to about 50 coal plants that were designed to be built to replace old coal plants in the last 6 months in this country. States have rejected them because of the carbon issue now, or the fear of the carbon issue. So those will all be natural gas plants.

Now, up until about 12 years ago we didn’t use natural gas to make electricity, and so we made about 8 percent of our electricity with natural gas. And that was peak power in the morning and the evening because you can turn a gas generator off and on, the rest you can’t. Now that we use it unlimitedly, we’re at 23 percent of our electric is being produced with natural gas. And it’s a huge strain on the natural gas system.

Now, natural gas should never be a problem in America. We can’t probably produce all the oil we need; we can do a lot better than we’re doing. But there’s no reason America can’t have lots of natural gas. We have reserves onshore, offshore, but unfortunately most of them are owned by government entities and they’re locked up. Congress has locked them up. Congress has said we’re not going to produce. And these environmental groups—let me go back through them. Green Peace; phase out fossil fuels. Environmental Defense; they’re against power plant smokestacks are public health enemy number one, so you can’t have a power plant. League of Conservation Voters; coal to liquids, the wrong direction. They’re going to fight it. Defenders of Wilderness; every coastal State is put in harm’s way when oil rigs go up on our coastal waters.

Folks, I showed you the chart earlier about every country in the world, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, they all produce offshore, cleanly. The new technology, they turn the wells off when there are storms at the base. There has not been a major spill. And there has never been a gas spill that spoiled a beach. Gas is a clean fuel.

And in my view, if we had abundant reasonable natural gas, we could fuel a third of our cars with natural gas. In the cities, our buses, all our short-haul vehicles, our construction vehicles, could all be on clean, green natural gas. But the price is so high today, there is no incentive to do that.

To conclude here, here is the Energy Department’s charts. The middle is now. This is history. This is what they project for our usage in the future.

Now, not long ago there were commercials on television by oil companies that led me to believe that renewables were ready to take over, they were ready to fuel this country, all we had to do was release them. Well, this is what the Energy Department thinks. Not much changed. Now, I don’t quite agree with some of these. I think natural gas will increase measurably out here because the carbon issue is going to restrict coal. It may prevent us from doing coal-to-liquid. And it shouldn’t happen, but it’s actually happening. Coal plants are being turned down—clean coal technology plants are being turned down by environmental agencies to replace all dirty coal plants that we would like to replace because of the carbon issue.

So I look for gas to be—if we do a carbon tax, every country that has done a carbon tax, everybody has to go to natural gas because it’s a third of the carbon when you burn it of any other fossil fuel. It’s the cleanest fuel, it’s almost the perfect fuel. But folks, we need oil, we need gas, we need coal, we need nuclear. We need all the renewables and hydros. And we need to grow them all as fast as we can. But our environmental groups want to eliminate all of the below and run the country on above. And it actually goes clear up to here, because they’re not for nuclear. The environmental groups are not for nuclear, they’re not for coal, they’re not for gas, they’re not for oil. But folks, that’s how we run the world.

And with today’s clean technology, there is no argument why we can’t have affordable energy in America.

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But it is the will of this Congress to open up. I hope next Wednesday on the Interior Subcommittee that we can be successful with our amendment that would open up the Outer Continental Shelf, from 50 miles out, to oil and gas production. Now, that won’t change anything, but I just asked some oil company executives, who I don’t talk to often but who were at a hearing, if we opened up the Outer Continental Shelf in its entirety, both coasts, and we opened up ANWR, what would that do to energy prices? He said, well, it would take the fear factor out because here is the problem we have in America.

Historically, there was capacity in the world of about 10 million gallons a day of oil that could be pumped if we needed it, from eight to ten. That has been historic. Recently, as China and India have increased their usage and as many of the countries—Mexico, Chavez, Nigeria, Russia, and all of them—have nationalized their oil companies and are now run by the government, they are not being run as efficiently, and they’re not producing as much, so production has actually slipped in many of those countries.

We are down now to where there is about a 1.2-million-extra-barrel-a-day capacity in the world to meet the world demand. So, if you have a storm and when Exxon was arguing with Chavez over producing, the price went up. When we had the oil refinery a short time ago that was only a 78,000-barrel refinery, the price went up. Why? Because that is going to take some supply off the market. There is no slush. So, if you have any one of these countries—these dictatorships—topple and instead of producing 7 million barrels a day they would produce 5, there wouldn’t be enough oil. So the fear factor allows Wall Street to play on those fears and run those prices up. If you took the fear factor out, the oil companies told me, it would probably reduce prices at least 20 to 25 percent. That’s just theory. That’s their thought. Take the fear factor because there is not enough oil in the marketplace.

What has happened and no matter what we do is China’s growth in energy use and India’s growth in energy use is 15 to 20 percent a year because, as they build a home and buy their first vehicles, they are now in the energy business. Where they used to have a donkey and a hut, they now have a house. Millions of people all over the world are joining our way of life, and to join our way of life, they need heat in their homes; they need a vehicle that needs fuel, and they’re part of the energy business. Those are the developing countries in South America, in India, in China, in Malaysia. It’s happening everywhere. We are soon going to be the second biggest user of energy because China is about ready to go by us.

I believe, if America continues to refuse to deal with energy and bring available energy to America, we will not compete in the new global economy. We are in an economy today where we have never had competitors like China and India before. We have never had this kind of pressure on us. We have to compete.

I want to make one final point on natural gas. Natural gas is not a world price. We have had one of the highest prices of any country in the world of natural gas now for 8 years. That is why half the fertilizer industry has left this country; they use huge amounts of natural gas. I’ll just share with you some data here that’s scary.

Dow Chemical announced a 20 percent price increase, but it’s what you look at behind that that’s scary. In 2002, their natural gas bill was $8 billion. In 2008, it was $32 billion. That’s four times. In 2002, 60 percent of their revenues came from American plants. Just a few years later, it was only 34 percent of their revenues. Why? They had to move offshore to compete in the global economy. Over half the fertilizer companies have left America in the last 3 years because of natural gas prices. The increase in the cost of natural gas has caused plastic resin prices to rise to record levels. It has put American-based plastic facilities—and my district is full of plastic plants—at a severe competitive disadvantage, says Josh Young of the American Plastics Council. As a result, the factories are closing or are moving offshore. They are leaving Americans jobless. Over the past 5 years, the plastic industry has lost nearly 4,000 jobs in Florida, which refused to allow us to drill, and more than 300,000 jobs nationwide just in the plastics industry. Petrochemicals have lost hundreds of thousands of jobs, fertilizer thousands of jobs and steel makers, aluminum makers and glass that use huge amounts.

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My prediction is that bulk commodities like glass and bricks, that should always be made close to home, will soon be made in Trinidad where gas is $1.50 instead of $12 coming out of the ground. We will make our bricks and glass in Trinidad, South America. It will come here in about a day and a half on a ship.

That’s not the America I dream for. Available, affordable energy is available to us if this Congress will do what is right: Open up offshore, do coal to liquids, expand the use of nuclear, continue to subsidize the renewables and to incentivize the renewables. I think we also need to incentivize Americans. I mean Americans are conserving. They have to conserve, but we need to incentivize Americans with tax breaks that would help them write off any measurable improvement they made in their homes and in their lifestyles, whether it’s heating their homes with more modern appliances or whether it’s better insulation or better windows or better doors, so we can conserve the use of energy.

As was talked about here on the floor earlier, there is education. My school districts are getting hammered with energy costs. The hospitals are getting hammered with energy costs as are your agencies that give free aid to the people. I mean every social agency is getting hammered with energy costs.

I talked to a church person tonight who said they weren’t sure they were going to be able to keep their church open next winter. The energy bills last year have made it almost prohibitive to keep their church open in the colder months in the winter. They are going to have to find a place to meet somewhere else.

Folks, this is a self-induced problem by this Congress and by three Presidents. In our Presidential debate, the number one issue ought to be who has the best plan for available, affordable energy for America.

Mrs. MUSGRAVE. I thank the gentleman.

I would like to yield to the gentlelady from Virginia.

Mrs. DRAKE. Well, first, I’d like to thank the gentleman for that very thorough explanation to America as to what is really going on. I was very proud to stand beside you several months ago when you did your press conference on your bill. There were several of our colleagues there—original cosponsors on your bill—standing with you.

I’ll never forget standing with you as well were representatives from Dow Chemical because they made an announcement, too. They told us that they were doing a $30 billion expansion in China, Saudi Arabia and Libya, 10,000 jobs that they wished were right here in America. The reason they did it was because you couldn’t pay $10 to $12 for a unit of gas here that you could pay 85 cents for in Saudi Arabia. I’ve never forgotten that. I thought it was very, very painful.

Your bill as well does something that is very important. It has a 37 1/2 percent royalty back to the State. Now, the Commonwealth of Virginia desperately needs that kind of funding for our number one issue of transportation. Your bill also fully funds the Chesapeake Bay Commission’s request for the bay cleanup. So there are ways that we can be environmentally protective and that we can be environmentally sound.

You brought up various environmental groups, and I wanted to say to you that I was going to speak to the Natural Resources Committee one day about why I support deep sea drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf. I represent the entire Atlantic coast in Virginia. Well, there was someone there from one of our environmental groups whom I knew. I went up to him, and I said, “I know if you’re speaking you’re going to say the exact opposite of me, but what I really want to ask you is: Do you understand the impact that you have on our economy or is that your point?” He actually acted like I’d hit him. I said, “No, no, no. Wait. I’m really serious. I’m trying to understand what the issue is, but I truly believe you either don’t know or you intend to do it.” Do you know what? He turned and he walked away and he wouldn’t answer me, but we cannot as leaders in our country stand back and allow this to take place.

I just wanted to finish up with a couple of facts that I found very interesting. One is, if we were to increase that nuclear that you have on there, we could keep 200 billion tons of carbon out of our atmosphere annually if we simply had the nuclear capability of France.

Mr. PETERSON of Pennsylvania. That’s right.

Mrs. DRAKE. The second thing is that we’re 13 times more likely to have a spill if we transport oil product by tanker. I think that’s important for America to know.

There is another that you’ve said, that it has been over 30 years, almost 40, since there has been any significant spill from any sort of deep sea drilling. We all saw what happened with Katrina and Rita. There were no problems there. We know Canada has an oil rig in the north Atlantic, off the coast of Newfoundland, called Hibernia. There have been no problems there. As you have said, the technology is so much better.

The other important thing is the horizon is only 12 miles out. You’re talking 50 miles from Virginia Beach. That’s half the way to Richmond. So there is no way you would ever see a rig.

I want to thank you because you have done just a tremendous job of bringing this issue to the forefront and of explaining it to America, and I truly believe that when Americans have the facts and Americans understand this issue that Americans will be demanding of us as Members of the House and as Members of the Senate that we deal with this issue. I really hope that they call their Representatives all across America, that they phone and tell their Representatives and demand that we deal with this issue and not make America less competitive.

I keep talking about families. What about single parents? How do you deal with this incredible cost? You have brought it up. It is something that we have been extremely concerned about, the price of natural gas for home heating, and we have been very fortunate in our area to have milder than normal winters. That has not been the case across the country. So thank you.

I would like to thank the gentlewoman and yield back to her as well.

Mrs. MUSGRAVE. I thank you both for your expertise in this area and also Mr. Davis as he spoke this evening.

Mr. Peterson, your charts and the case that you presented tonight are very clear before the American people. We all have a desire to go to alternatives. We all want to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. You talked about that 40 percent. 60 percent of that comes from very unstable areas of the world, and we know that, and we want to lessen that dependence that we have on them and become energy-independent, but this is a long road. We have to start right now, right here today, for the American people who are suffering with the high cost of energy.

I would just challenge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. We talk about long-range planning. We always have to do long-range planning. We need to look at the big picture. Today are the solutions that the Republicans have come forth with—more domestic exploration. You have spoken so well, Mr. Peterson, to our Nation’s being locked up, but nations around the world do energy exploration off their coasts in an environmentally sound way. There is no reason that America should not be doing that.

Look at the States like I am from, Colorado. There are abundant natural resources that we have, and there are the technologies that are available now with oil shale, and there is the future we have on that. We need to get to work on that right away.

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You and I have talked and all of us have talked this evening about the lack of refinery capacity and how we can look clear back to the 1970s. We have not had any refineries built since then. We need to get away from this failed policy and get real in this country about what we need to do.