Date: 2008-06-11
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Yes. they seem to believe that the Presidents drill more and veto policy is the right way to go when it comes to our energy policy. And Ill tell you. as I often call myself. Mr. MURPHY and Mr. RYAN. a minivan mom because I have three young- kids. I spend most of my time. when Im home. driving them from diving practice to baseball games to gymnastics. and it consumes quite a bit of gas. So when Im home and have to go and fill up that gas tank. which I did just last week before I came back to Washington. it cost me $76. Mr. RYAN. And weve done 30something in the last few weeks. and I think the last time I was here it cost me $62 to fill up my gas tank. the last time we talked about this. And weve gone from $62. Im at $76. The week before last I was at $72. The week before that. I was at $68 to fill up the tank. I mean. so now were talking about real money. Seventysix dollars is what a very small amount of groceries cost. And thats money that is the difference between someone being able to buy the groceries in the supermarket or put gasoline in the tank or make sure that they can -take their kids to the doctor and make that copayment for the doctors appointment. I mean. we have record gas prices now that are hurting. cutting people to the quick. And the Republicans. our good friends on the other side of the aisle. what is their solution? First of all. before we became the majority and began to even put this issue on the front burner. it wasnt an issue for them. The last action that they took. when they were in charge. was to give $14 billion in subsidies to the oil industry. which is the most profitable industry in America. Now. what does that mean? Weve heard a lot of us talk about those $14 billion in subsidies. What it means is that the Federal Government gives the oil industry permission. they are allowed to drill for oil on Federal lands and in exchange they are supposed pay royalties to the Federal Government to do that. We forgive those royalties. thats what the $14 billion is. And what we have proposed is. because we want to truly wean ourselves off of our addiction to oiland not just foreign oil. we need to wean ourselves off of our addiction to oil period because oil is a finite resource. We need to really invest in renewable energy sources. in biofuels. And what we would like to do is repeal that $14 billion in subsidies. require the oil industry to pay the royaltiesbecause theyre pulling oil out of the ground on land that they dont own. on land that is owned by the Federal Government. theyre profiting from that and paying nothing for the privilegewe want to take that $14 billion in subsidies and invest it in alternative energy research. Because. you know. growing up. Mr. MURPHY and Mr. RYAN. I remember during the Carter administration. I remember the energy crisis. I remember sitting in the back seat of my parents car on gas lines. And I remember in elementary school seeing all the conservation efforts that they started doing all the way down to. you know. to the public school and elementary school level. We had signs next to the light switches that suddenly were put on there that said. you know. "turn the lights off." There was a big national energy conservation effort that just fizzled once Ronald Reagan became President. And we never invested in alternative research like we should have. The conservation efforts went by the wayside. and we went back to the same old story. oil. oil. oil. And look. right now. the Republicans are talking about needing to drill for more oil in ANWR. pulling oil out of shale. this 68 million acres available now that they are not drilling on. 68 million. I mean. its absolutely ridiculous. They need to be utilizing the turf that theyve got now. and theyre not. So we need to make sure that its clear to the American peopleand thats why we come out here every nightwhos for solving this energy crisis and whos all talk. And I think the Republicans have clearly proven that through their actions and their lack of stewardship when they were in charge. And I yield to the gentleman.