Protecting Investment in Oil Shale the Next Generation of Environmental, Energy, and Resource Security Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3408.

I'm really here to talk about ANWR. You know, I just wrote a little poem. It's not too good:

Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to fetch a barrel of oil.

Lo and behold, none was there.

Lack of action by this Congress, beware.

ANWR still lays bare.

Time to drill for the people of America.

We have argued this battle over and over again. The gentleman from Massachusetts says no use for atomic power, no use for ANWR, we're in good shape. But look at the prices of gas, Mr. and Mrs. America. It will go to $5. You say this won't solve the problem. I've heard this before.

If you want to have money for transportation, think for a moment. I passed this bill out, got it to the Senate side, this is the 12th time. One time it got to the President, and President Clinton vetoed it. We would have saved $4 trillion if we had had ANWR open at that time. Think of the highway bill we would have had then. That's something I think the American people should recognize.

We do have the fossil fuels in America. We do have the oil, we do have the gas. But we haven't had the will to develop them because we brought them from overseas. We got them in here, and now we're dependent upon the Mideast, and, yes, Venezuela, our good neighbor Venezuela, Chavez.

It's time for America to wake up. We need this supply of fossil fuels, and it's going to stay here. Not wind, not solar, because fossil fuels are still the cheapest way to move an object. It is the commerce of this Nation. It moves our trains, our planes, our automobiles, our trucks, and our ships, and it will continue to do that. That's what keeps us moving in this country. It keeps our economy strong. As long as we will have that fossil fuel within the United States, it is criminal to continue to rely upon the foreign countries.

We talk about Big Oil. Pick on Big Oil. Big Oil this, Big Oil that, Big Oil this. The truth of the matter is Big Oil does help the United States of America. Little oil helps the United of America. It keeps our trucks and our planes flying. It keeps our economy strong.

So I'm urging you to vote on this aspect of ANWR. Open ANWR. Let's vote on it. Let's provide for this Nation. Let's do what's right for the people in this Nation. It only covers an area as big as Dulles airport. Out of 19 million acres, less than 3,000 acres will be developed. Less than 3,000 acres will be developed to divide us from probably 39 billion barrels of oil, 74 miles away from the pipeline, a pipeline that can deliver 2 million barrels of oil a day to the United States of America, as we have done in the past.

We've had one shipment of oil go overseas, heavy oil. All of the rest has gone to the United States of America. It's gone to the refineries. It's time for us as a Congress to act responsibly.

With all due respect to my friend from Massachusetts, he's against nuclear power. He's against oil. In fact, I question the wind power because one time he was against that. I'm saying, wait a minute. What are we doing to run this country for power? How do we get our economy going again? That is the key to our economy: energy, good cheap energy.

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