Date: 1986-03-05
Speaker: RALPH M. HALL (democrat)
Chamber: H

If the gentleman will yield further. I certainly agree. I think that we are making some strides in that many of the Members from the North and the East are making trips to Texas and to other oilproducing States. energyproducing States. and seeing first hand that it is not as it is depicted sometimes over the television. and also seeing that we need incentives and that it is not the majors that produce the gas. it is the minors who get out and spend their money. bet their future on finding that. and then they sell. I suppose that maybe 95 percent of the gas that is discovered and oil that is discovered is discovered by little people. the independents. the wildcatters. and then they sell it. If you take away the incentives to search. then we are in real trouble. We will get like the family farmer. We will get in a. situation like where a bad bridge or a bad road is not fixed until some teenager gets killed there. And we cannot afford to let the Nations energy thrust sink to that level. to take the chance that we are taking right now. and seeing them forced out. and the docket sheets of all the bankruptcy courts full of oil and gas little people who go first. I think it is communication that we need.* and we are communicating that to these Members as they come to the Kilgore Oil Museum and see the history of the oil patch. the energy aides that have made several trips down there as our guests. They come back and they let the Member know what the facts are. The Member finally comes. he or she sees it for themselves. and they see that it is really a coordinated thrust. We just happen to be the States where the energy might be. but we are United States in that we all need it. We have to keep a strong energy thrust. We have to keep a successful energy thrust. because our national existence depends on it. as did Japans when they were forced out into Malaysia. That war was not caused by Japanese and Americans throwing one another out of the bars in Singapore. or even on a difference of philosophy. It was simply caused by oil and gas. or a lack of it. They had 13 months at the time the embargo was put on. They had to for their national existence go south into Malaysia to seek energy to run the wheels of their giant country. This country will do the same thing. I think it is so important to all of us. Members of a family who have children. who have grandchildren. who want them. rather than saying. "What branch of service will I go into." would say. "What school will I attend? How can I be a geologist or an engineer to help protect. defend. and further search for energy in order that we might have peace. not just in this country. but in all countries throughout the world?" Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman from Houston. Congressman LELAND. I thank the gentleman for his time. and I thank my colleagues who have certainly enlightened. I think. this Congress and those who would hear. I think that it is moments like this. occasions like this. that bring about understanding. that brings all of us closer together that we would understand the heating oil problems of the North and East. the droughts of the Midwest. and that they might understand that we are little people who seek and search and spend our money and bet on finding. and we need to have some continued incentive for such. Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for including me in this special order.