Thank you, Mr. Speaker. President Bush has called upon the country for more domestic drilling. This bill says, "Yes, Mr. President, let’s drill. Let’s drill in those areas that are already leased and already ready to go." But what the President has not told the American people is that there are over 68 million acres of federal lands already leased to the big oil and gas companies. They are not moving forward on those leases. They’re sitting tight. They like the status quo. They’re making record profits. Gas is over $4 a gallon. They like it that way.
What the President has said is, "Don’t push forward on those already existing leases. Let’s go to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge." But what he hasn’t said is that the Department of Energy - his own Department of Energy - has found that we won’t see one drop of gas on the market for another 10 years as a result of that drilling. And even then, the price difference will be insignificant.
If we really want to get going now - two things we’ve got to do. One, we need to begin to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That’s 10 days until it hits market, not 10 years. Two, we’ve got to crack down on the speculators. And this Congress is going to move forward on that measure. We hope to have the President’s support because he has said no to releasing oil from the SPR.
We have to do two other things: responsible drilling – and that’s what this bill calls for – and we need to make that investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency. If we are going to truly reduce and crack our addiction to oil, especially foreign oil, we need to move forward on those fronts.
This is a responsible bill that says to the President, "Yeah, let’s start drilling on all those areas where the oil companies already have the ability to do it." They’re sitting on it. They like it this way. Let’s send them a message. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.