American-Made Energy and Good Jobs Act

AMERICAN-MADE ENERGY AND GOOD JOBS ACT -- (House of Representatives - May 25, 2006)

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Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding.

I rise in strong opposition to this so-called energy and jobs bill. There are simply some places that should be off limits to drilling. The arctic refuge is one of them.

I was privileged to visit this wildlife refuge and to camp on the shores. It is not a barren slope. The harm to polar bears, to caribou, millions of migratory birds and to the subsistence way of life to the natives there would be irreversible.

We have a moral responsibility to save wild places like the arctic refuge for future generations, and that is why our country has remained committed to its protection for nearly 50 years.

Drilling in the refuge will not solve America's energy problem. The Energy Department's own figures show that drilling would not change gas prices by more than a penny a gallon, and this would be 20 years from now. With 3 percent of the world's resources and 25 percent of the world's demand, it is pretty obvious this country cannot drill its way to energy security.

What we need to do is really improve energy efficiency standards, develop in full scale renewable and alternative energy and use the one resource we have in abundance, our creativity.

This bill is just a continuation of the backward thinking energy policies that have gotten us here in the first place.

Americans deserve cheaper, quicker, safer, cleaner energy policies that also safeguard the wild places we care so deeply about. This desperate obsession with drilling off our coastlines and in the arctic refuge has distracted us long enough.

It is time for Congress to stop wasting energy and start working on real and clean energy solutions.

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