Energy in America, Now and in the Future

ENERGY IN AMERICA, NOW AND IN THE FUTURE -- (House of Representatives - July 24, 2008)

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Mrs. BACHMANN. Thank you, Congressman Latta. I appreciate your yielding to me for some comments.

We had a thrill to go on this trip this past weekend. It was the American energy tour. Leader John Boehner led that tour. We were so grateful that we were extended an invitation to join him. Representative Latta was there, and I was there representing the people from the Sixth District. So here we are, knowing we have very little time left before Congress takes a break in August when we are back in our districts, and we will be there for 5 weeks through Labor Day, we are here right now with a chance to talk to the American people. But more importantly, we have a chance to be here on the floor tonight and solve this energy issue.

One thing that we learned on this energy tour is that the problem is not a lack of natural resources that are available here in the United States, it isn't a lack of energy in the United States. The lack of energy is the inertia in the United States Congress, the Democrat-controlled United States Congress. That's where we lack energy.

The one thing that we found on this tour is that the problem is Congress. The problem isn't lack of resources. The problem isn't degradation to our environment. The problem is the fact that Congress has literally locked up and made illegal access to American energy.

Congressman Latta referenced the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge area up in Alaska. I would like to speak about that, but before that, I would like to talk about the areas that are off-limits. I mentioned that Congress is the problem, and Congress can be the answer. Congress has made it virtually illegal to access American energy. Where? Well, the first place is up in Alaska where Congressman Latta and I were, with fellow freshmen, and that is where there are over 10 billion barrels of oil.

I spoke with somebody who just read the recently released geological study which stated that there are over 90 billion barrels of oil in the Arctic region, and over 10 billion of which are in ANWR. This is a big story.

Let me go back now to the ANWR map. As Congressman Latta said, ANWR is all of 19 million acres and is the size of South Carolina. The size of the area that would be drilled upon is 2,000 acres of that 19 million acres. In other words, if you think of a football field, think of putting a little postage stamp on a football field. That is the size of the area that would be drilled upon.

Here is the Brooks Range up in northern Alaska. Here is the Arctic Ocean. You can't get any farther north than this. The area that we were in, the 1002 area where we are looking at drilling, and also President Carter set aside this area specifically for the purpose of drilling, this area is in direct proximity to the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System. This is one of the modern marvels of human engineering. It really should be one of the seven wonders of the world. It is over 800 miles of pipeline. This is America's energy lifeline.

Do you know that the largest energy field in the United States is the Prudhoe Bay oil field that was discovered? We have had a living laboratory over the last 31 years. We have had a demonstration project for 31 years in Prudhoe Bay showing you in an environmentally safe and clean way, you can not only drill for oil but also transport oil and get it down to the lower 48.

One thing that Congressman Latta and I learned when we were there is that 31 years ago when drilling began, the flow was 2.1 million barrels a day that traveled through this pipeline. Today that oil flow is down to 700,000 barrels a day. And the reason for that is because no more oil fields have been opened for exploration.

Well, what happens when we get down to 300,000 barrels a day flowing through this pipeline? The pipeline stops. It doesn't work any more, and we are not able to get it back up online. It hurts that pipeline and we can't use it.

This wonderful gift of a pipeline will be actually gone. You want to talk about use it or lose it, that's the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. We have to use it.

Here is the great story, and here is the great answer, Mr. Speaker. The fact is in the 1002 area, the 2,000 acres in ANWR where we believe there is over 10 billion barrels of oil, this is just 74 miles away from the pipeline. It's the exact same terrain, completely frozen ground. Nine months of the year it is under snow and ice, 3 months of the year complete darkness. All we do is we build 74 miles of pipeline, and we have access to over 10 billion barrels of oil. Overnight we increase American reserves by over 50 percent. That's an answer, Congressman Latta.

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Mrs. BACHMANN. That is what is absolutely amazing that we saw, is that no roads are built to get into ANWR to do the drilling. The roads that do go to put in the oil rig are ice roads. Those roads go in the dark of winter when it is freezing. Bulldozers build ice roads out to where the rig is going to be set. The oil rig is set, and as Congressman Latta said, what formerly used to take 20 acres of a pad site to put a drill down, now because of technological advances has been reduced down to 6 acres of land. But if you look at underneath the earth with the directional drilling that is able to be accomplished now, literally we can go out 8 miles.

It is absolutely phenomenal what we are able to accomplish now, what the oil industry is able to accomplish now, to be able to give us American energy independence. Let's not forget what we are talking about, American energy independence.

We are looking at $4 a gallon gasoline right now.

This is incredible. This Chamber should be filled with Members of Congress. Unfortunately, and I don't know what the camera shows, but the Chamber is completely empty. Except for you and I, Congressman Latta, we are
the only Members of Congress, as well as the Speaker. No offense extended to the Speaker. There is no more important issue right now for the American people.

When we are at $4 a gallon gas, and when we have the capability of being at $2 a gallon gas, it is criminal to not allow the American people to be there.

How do I know it is possible? We know from the seismic studies that have been done that there are over 10.5 billion barrels in the ANWR region in very close proximity to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.

Also, I sit on the Committee on Financial Services. Last week Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman said to us regarding gas prices, he said that a 1 percent increase in supply could lower prices by as much as 10 percent.

Now what was the figure that we were told when drilling first started out in Prudhoe Bay, it was 2.1 million barrels per day. We are down to 700,000 barrels a day. We are able to increase another 1.4 million barrels a day. That's the capacity that we could increase, well over a 1 percent increase.

So instead of seeing prices fall by as much as 10 percent, we could be looking at a price fall by as much as 20 percent. Perhaps, Congressman Latta, what we should do is talk about the timeline. There have been a lot of fallacies stated, false information stating that there are 68 million acres of land that is being leased that is idle that the oil companies are currently not using under use-it-or-lose-it policies. That is a fact that we found out on this fact-finding mission, the fact that that is a completely false statement. It is an urban legend.

There is not one acre of land, Mr. Speaker, that has been leased that is currently not in the production or exploration stage because Congress again is at fault here. It is not companies, it is not consumers that are consuming too much oil, it is Congress. Congress created 10 years of an artificial delay period in the permitting, and they created in that 10-year period 11 different points of entries when nuisance lawsuits can be filed to stop the production of oil.

Do you remember the length of time that one lawsuit languished in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals?

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Mrs. BACHMANN. The polar bear. We were told polar bears like to be around the buildings. For one thing they like to eat people. They are very aggressive creatures. We were told they had spotted a polar bear that had gone underneath the buildings, because the buildings don't have a regular foundation the way that houses do in the lower 48, because, again, it's all permafrost. It is consistently frozen land up there.

As a matter of fact, I am a hardy Minnesotan girl. Even as a hardy Minnesotan, this is the warmest time of the year. I took my down parka with me with Gore-Tex, and I was grateful that I had forgotten my mittens that I stuffed in my parka last winter.

I put my mittens on, I had my woolly parka on. I had my socks on, and I was happy to have it. This was the warmest time of the year.

You couldn't find a more perfect piece of territory to drill upon. To think that we have this gift in a very compact area next to the pipeline that's already built, and we can so quickly, if we would fast track all the permitting process, we could literally, within 3 years, have the oil pumping and in the pipeline down here in the lower 48, and we would increase American energy reserves by 50 percent. That's a deal that I don't know why we would turn it down.

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