Photo-Op in the Arctic

PHOTO-OP IN THE ARCTIC -- (House of Representatives - July 17, 2008)

(Mr. BLUMENAUER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, we are soon going to be greeted by a photo-op in the Arctic with some of our Republican friends doing a little flyover. It is an example of their ``drillusion.''

We have been fighting the Republican energy policy that is trapped in the 1950s. For the first 12 years I was in Congress they made it impossible, indeed, sometimes even illegal to even study improving fuel efficiency standards for cars.

For the last 7 1/2 years, we have had two Texas oilmen in the White House, their secret energy task force, their disastrous 2005 Energy Act and, by the way, their Dept. of Energy which missed all 34 deadlines to improve appliance efficiency.

And what do we get from years of Republican control and their energy policy? $4.35 cent a gallon gasoline.

Democrats, from the beginning, have provided new energy incentives. We have improved auto fuel efficiency standards for the first time in 30 years. And today we are going to have the Drill Responsibly on Leased Lands Act, the DRILL Act, to use the millions of acres they already have to be able to provide oil for this country. Together we can solve this gas price crisis which is the result of the President's failed energy policy and our addiction to foreign oil.

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