And before I yield back my time, since I've covered that subject, I just want to say to my colleagues on the other side, for whom I have the greatest respect, tomorrow morning, when you get up and you get out of bed and you go to the office here on Capitol Hill, stop by one of the gas stations on the way in and watch some people pumping gas at $4 plus per gallon. And just walk up to them--and you don't need to tell them you're a Congressman or a Senator or anything else, just walk up to them and say, what do you think about the gas prices? And they're going to say, they're horrible; Congress has to do something about it. And then say, would you object if we drilled in the ANWR to get oil to reduce your gasoline prices? Would you object if we drilled off the Continental Shelf to get another couple million barrels of oil a day to reduce your gas prices and your energy costs? Would you object if we drilled in some of the forests that we have, national forests where we could
I want to point out one more thing, because I respect all my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. When you first took over the Congress 2 years ago, one of the things that was said by you and Speaker Pelosi was that we were going to do something about the energy crisis and we were going to stem the tide to the growth in the cost of fuel, gasoline, and other energy products. Now it's gone up over 50 percent. It's now $4 plus. And it was $2.50 lower than that just 2 years ago.
It's time that we as Republicans and Democrats work together. The American people want that. It's time that we work together to lower the price of gasoline and other energy products. And we can do that by drilling in the ANWR, drilling off the Continental Shelf, drilling in our national forests where we can get natural gas, which is a clean burning fuel. And if we just start doing that, and at the same time look at other energy sources, new sources that are nonpollutants, we would be in great shape. Incidentally, we also have about two trillion barrels of oil in oil shale.
Let me just say to my colleagues that I hope that you will take heed to what I've said today. The American people want lower gas prices. We have it within our power to start drilling where we can get gas out of this country, natural gas, oil, and other things. Just tell the American people what you think and ask them what they think. And they're going to say "Drill in America." You can do it in an environmentally safe way.
Comments