Date: 2008-07-09
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. I thank the gentleman for yielding. and I rise in opposition to this bill for the reasons stated by the gentleman from Virginia. We could have had a bill here with bipartisan support dealing with the problems as they truly exist. but instead. we have this bill on the floor. The gentleman that just spoke on the other side of the aisle talked about the fact that we had unprecedented action by this administration and therefore we need to act. The fact of the matter is that what is unprecedented. what is unprecedented is the tremendous increase that we have had in the cost of gasoline to average Americans back home. I just got back from my district. I had two town hall meetings. I met with people at a local gas station. I talked with many. many other people. They didnt want to know about what we were going to do .about electronic record keeping. and I do disappoint the gentleman. That was not on the tip of their tongues. That was not in the back of their brain. They never even thought about it. Frankly. they think we could do that some time else. As a matter of fact. since this bill doesnt take place until another year. we could do it another time. What we should be doing here is responding to the American people who are saying. When are you people going to get your act together? So I came back hoping that I could find the electronic communications. the secret emails of the Democratic leadership as to what were going to do about energy. And what I found was the statement by one of the aides to one of the top Democrat leaders. and this is their energy plan: Right now. our strategy is drive small cars and wait for the wind. Drive sniall cars and wait for the wind. I hope everybody across this land understands what the Democratic plan for energy appears to be. It basically means. listen. to those of you back home. sit down and shut up. you dont know what youre talking about. Weve got more important things to do. We have to rush back and deal with the electronic record keeping bill because that is what is going to be most important to the American people. Now. I dont know about you. but I havent found a single person in my district who drives with a winddriven. car. And Im all for wind energy. and Im all for solar energy. They want to know when were going to do something about bringing the cost down. Now soon. we might hear from the Democratic side theyre going to bring a bill to suspend the laws of economics. and theyre going to tell us that supply and demand no longer prevail. Maybe thats the new magic were waiting for. But that wont satisfy the people in my district. Im in a small community in the foothills. The people I met in the Delta. in Rio Vista. the folks I met in Citrus Heights. the folks I was talking to in the Sacramento area. they demand that we do something now. And what we ought to be doing is drill here. Thats in America. Drill now. Not 10 years from now. And pay less. Now you can hear all the arguments that its not going to make any difference. If its not going to make any difference. why do we hear from the Speaker of the House that their first step with dealing with this is to empty the Strategic Petroleum Reserve claiming that thats going to make a big impact on the world market? At least theyre saying that supply does matter. If supply really matters. then lets not tell the American people. as we hear now from the Democrats. drive small cars and wait for the wind. or as we hear from the Senator from Illinois who said that hes not so upset about the price of gasoline going up. its that it went up so fast. It would have been better for us if the price of gasoline had gone up more slowly and continued on. Thats not an energy policy. So while I respect the work of the chairman of the subcommittee and the committee on this issue. and as important as electronic message preservation is. it pales. it pales compares to the energy needs of the American people. And certainly we can do better. We ought to demand we do better. We ought to do better or not go home at all.