Motion to go to Conference on S. 294, Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008
MOTION TO GO TO CONFERENCE ON S. 294, PASSENGER RAIL INVESTMENT AND IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - July 22, 2008)
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Mrs. BACHMANN. I thank my colleague from Nevada (Mr. Heller) for his leadership on buying American, especially as it relates to American energy sources.
I also thank the Speaker, as well, for this 5 minutes. It is important, Madam Speaker, that we do buy American, especially American energy.
Part of the problem that we have had for the last 31 years is that the United States, specifically the United States Congress, has almost made it a decided decision not to purchase American energy.
How do I say this?
I have a voting record in front of me, Madam Speaker, and it says this: When the votes have come on this floor to purchase American energy, this is how the votes have gone over purchasing oil and exploring for oil up in the ANWR region, where Mr. Heller and myself were this weekend. Republicans voted over 90 percent of the time to buy American, yes, American energy in the ANWR region. Democrats, unfortunately, Madam Speaker, voted ``no'' to buy American 85 percent of the time.
When you look at purchasing American energy, Madam Speaker, through the coal-to-liquid program, Americans voted almost 100 percent of the time to buy American. Democrats voted ``no'' almost 80 percent of the time to buy American on coal-to-liquid fuels.
On oil shale exploration, purchasing American energy through this tremendous resource of oil shale exploration of which America is the Saudi Arabia of the world in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, Republicans voted ``yes'' 90 percent of the time, while Democrats voted ``no'' to buying American 85 percent of the time.
[Time: 18:00]
Sounds like we're on a roll. Sounds like we're on a trend.
Well, unfortunately, Madam Speaker, the Outer Continental Shelf exploration, Republicans also voted ``yes'' to buy American oil and American natural gas over 80 percent of the time while our Democratic colleagues across the aisle voted ``no'' 80 percent of the time to buy American energy.
To purchase American energy, Madam Speaker, to increase refinery capacity--this is a crucial issue in our energy capacity--Republicans voted ``yes'' to buy American energy from refineries almost 100 percent of the time while Democrats voted ``no'' on increasing energy capacity with refineries 95 percent of the time.
I know it's hard to believe and hard to understand, but there has really been a very clear divide over energy policy in our country over the last 30 years. And unfortunately, our colleagues on the Democrat side of the aisle have made a very clear and distinct decision, and it has been this: No new energy exploration in the United States. They have been very clear about this. They don't want to increase energy exploration in the United States. We need to.
And we aren't choosing just oil, just natural gas, just coal; we want to say ``yes'' to wind, to solar, to biofuels, to nuclear power, to all of the above. We have to say ``yes'' to all of the above or America will find itself at an energy deficit.
I know the people that I serve, Madam Speaker, in the Sixth Congressional District in Minnesota are feeling that squeeze right now. I checked today in Minnesota, the average price of regular unleaded gas is $3.86 a gallon. It's something more than that nationally. But I will tell you the people in Minnesota, especially the people who are living on the margins, are feeling the pain right now of these price increases.
But a wonderful story that Congressman Heller and I learned when we were on the all-of-the-above exploratory tool is that we have great answers here in the United States. The good news, Madam Speaker, is that we do not have an energy deficit in the United States. We do not suffer from a lack of resources. We have 27 percent of all of the world's coal in the United States. We have 2 trillion barrels of oil just in the United States. We have 88 billion barrels, conservatively speaking, in the Outer Continental Shelf, over 10 billion barrels in ANWR, and also 10 billion barrels near my home State in the Bakken Oil Reserve. We have energy in abundance in the United States. The problem is that Congress has said ``no.''
So what is standing between $2 gasoline and the American people, Madam Speaker, especially American-made energy? It's the United States Congress. It isn't the companies that have been bad guys or that the American people have been bad guys for using too much energy; it's the United States Congress, and unfortunately, the Democrat-controlled United States Congress that it's made a clear decision that they don't want to increase American energy. This is nonsense.
Both Congressman Heller and I learned together this weekend that we have the resources, we have them available, which is why we need to buy American energy now.
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Mrs. BACHMANN. I thank my colleague, Mr. Heller.
I am so grateful that the majority brought this issue up of use-it-or-lose-it because this is something that the American people have been subjected to now for the last couple of weeks, this canard, that there are 68 million acres, and they somehow want the American people to believe that companies are risking their capital on leases that they're not using.
And what I challenge the majority to do is produce even one lease, even one lease in the U.S. where there is an acre of land that has been leased that is not in some stage of production or exploration. Not one. We haven't seen proof of even one lease where a company has bid for that lease and that lease is not in some stage of either production or exploration.
Again, let's look at Congress and Congress' complicity in this area because Congress has set artificial timelines, delayed timelines, for permitting. The leases are 10 years' long, and there are no less than 11 different stop points in that 10-year lease period where private parties can file lawsuits to stop the drilling. So, if a lawsuit is filed, for instance, by Friends of the Earth, by Sierra Club, by Earth Justice, the oil company, or whatever business it is, has to respond to the lawsuit. The lawsuit will end up in Federal district court. Then it may get kicked up to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. There's one case where a decision wasn't rendered for 2 years. Well, who made that scenario? The United States Congress.
The companies have bid on these leases. They've put money down on the barrel head to actually lease the land. They've got a 10-year timeline that Congress has given them, and there are artificial delays built in for the permitting and also 11 different points for private lawsuits to be filed. So those delays, again, are ones that Congress has allowed to occur.
There aren't companies that are sitting or dallying on a lease. I challenge this majority to produce even one, even one lease on even just 1 acre, where a company has a lease and they're not in some stage that Congress created of either producing or exploring on the land. Let alone defying any common sense of any businessman or -woman who puts their money on the line, their capital, they're not going to dissipate capital.
But you will hear the Democrat majority, Madam Speaker, rant and rail that there're somehow dilatory companies out there that are sitting on leases. They haven't produced one, they haven't shown one example that they can parade around this Chamber where a company is not producing on the land. It's just a patently false statement and, in fact, one that shouldn't be used.
I tell you, the real use-it-or-lose-it, Madam Speaker, it's this. When Congressman Heller and I were recently up in ANWR this weekend, we learned a very sobering fact, and the sobering fact is this. Thirty-one years ago, the largest oil field in the United States was up in the North Slope of Alaska, Prudhoe Bay. Today, the largest oil field in the United States remains up in Prudhoe Bay.
This Congress has made a decision not to increase its oil fields. When the Trans-Alaska Pipeline was built in Alaska in the mid seventies, when oil production first began, 2.1 million barrels a day was flowing through that 800 miles of pipeline, 2.1 million barrels a day. Do you know what that is today, Madam Speaker? We are now down to 700,000 barrels a day flowing through that pipeline, 700,000 barrels a day. We have diminished by more than half the amount of oil that we are sending down to the lower 48 from that wonderful energy lifeline in Alaska.
Here's the sobering news, Madam Speaker. We learned this weekend that once we get down to 300,000 barrels a day flowing through that pipeline, the pipeline won't work anymore. This pipeline is a marvel of modern human engineering, a marvel. It's an incredibly valuable asset. I was told this weekend, Madam Speaker, that if we had to rebuild that pipeline today, we could be looking at a $15 billion investment.
What's the window of opportunity that we have? If we don't open up new oil fields, potentially within 10 years' time, that pipeline will be of no use to us because what we were told is, if you don't use it, you lose it.
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Mrs. BACHMANN. I thank my colleague for that additional minute.
I just want to conclude by saying this. If you want to talk about a real use-it-or-lose-it, Madam Speaker, you're talking about one of the most valuable resources we have. It is the American energy lifeline that runs through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline that brings the valuable oil down to the lower 48. If we lose this pipeline, and if we lose it on this Democrat-controlled Congress' watch, we will lose our lifeline for any future oil development, which is all the more reason why we need to begin drilling here in the United States so we can buy American energy and buy it now.
If we fast track the permitting, if we pull out all of the unnecessary lawsuits, we could literally within just a few years' time build a 74-mile spur into ANWR, get that oil down to the United States, and increase American energy reserves by 50 percent.
I thank the gentleman for yielding that time.
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