ENERGY -- (House of Representatives - September 18, 2008)
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Mr. GOHMERT. I thank my dear friend from Georgia for yielding.
This has been a really difficult week. Having spent the weekend with my constituents that were hit by a hurricane in east Texas, and then coming here to Congress and figuring, surely we can put party issues aside because, frankly, when I was in the district, it was around, I don't know, the wee hours, and one sheriff that was helping said, now, you know I'm a Democrat. I said, you know I don't care. It doesn't matter. And then I get back to Washington and that's all it's about. You know, the Democrats have the majority and they were determined to shut out any ideas from the Republicans.
There was a wonderful bipartisan bill, as you pointed out, the Abercrombie/Peterson bill had 38 Democratic cosponsors that understand the importance of energy. Twenty-four of them voted against their own bill when that was made as a substitute.
And it's just incredible how something is being rammed down on the Nation when we can't afford it. People need gasoline. They need diesel. Some of those guys pointed out, they've lost power. There are no hybrid generators, and that's what's keeping about a third of my district going.
Mr. GINGREY. I'll reclaim my time, Representative Gohmert, just for a second and yield right back to you, because what the gentleman from Texas is talking about, of course, is this, the bill that was passed by the Democratic majority. And I have a little poster up here comparing the Republican bill, the American Energy Act, to the bill that was actually passed. And I just want to quickly run through this before I yield back to my two colleagues.
In the American Energy Act, real offshore exploration, yes. Democratic energy plan, no. Renewables, without tax hikes, our bill, yes. Their bill, no. Real oil shale exploration. I won't get into details of that, but our bill, yes. Their bill, no. Arctic coastal plain, the ANWR. Our bill, go after that petroleum. Their bill, nada. Emission-free nuclear, our bill, yes, their bill, no, no, no, can't have nuclear. Clean coal technology, coal-to-liquid or coal-to-gas. Yes in our bill. No in their bill. New refinery capacity, Dr. BOUSTANY and I talked about that. Our bill, yes. Their bill, no. No energy tax hikes, yes for Republicans, no for Democrats. No electricity price spikes. Yes for Republicans, no for Democrats. Lawsuit reform, yes in the Republican bill. No in the Democratic bill.
So what Representative Gohmert and Representative Boustany are probably going to talk about now is when we had one, we had no amendments. We had a motion to recommit with instructions with a bill. And they've just referred to it, the Abercrombie, Democrat from Hawaii, Peterson, Republican from Pennsylvania that had 39 Democrats cosponsoring the bill. And when we offered that as a substitute, which we felt that each one of them, they had already signed on to the bill, surely they were going to vote for it. And I'd like for my colleagues to tell the rest of us what happened.
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Mr. GOHMERT. Thank you. I know we're running out of time. But one of the comments that was made about Ike, making it so scary, it was a hurricane that was coming in the middle of the night. And when it comes in the middle of the night, it is scarier. And that's exactly what happened with this Democratic energy bill. It was filed at nearly 10:00, and it was a hurricane disaster for this country.
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