Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act

Floor Speech

COMPREHENSIVE AMERICAN ENERGY SECURITY AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT -- (House of Representatives - September 16, 2008)

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Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, this bill is all about the future. It's about protecting the Democrat incumbents to make sure they get reelected. This should be called ``The Protect Congressmen and Congresswomen Bill.'' We're bringing this bill to the floor at the 11th hour just before we adjourn for this year, unless we have a special session. They know full well this bill is not going to get through the Senate. So we're not doing anything. This is window dressing.

We have a severe problem in this country, and they're doing nothing but creating a facade so the American people will think they're doing something when they're not. This bill will not do anything to help people with the price they are paying for food, gasoline, clothes or anything else that is transported by diesel or gasoline. It's not going to do anything because it's not going to go anywhere.

In addition to that, this bill has no nuclear, no clean coal, no refineries and no revenue sharing with the States. So if a State says they want to drill off the coast 50 or 100 miles, which is a long way and it's going to be really deep, they are not going to do it unless they're going to get something back, some revenue back. Why else would they do it? So this bill is really a facade because it's not going to encourage the States to allow drilling off their coast because they don't get anything for it. This bill increases taxes on the oil companies. It's going to discourage further exploration and further drilling.

This bill is something that the American people ought to know is a fraud. It is not going anywhere. It's not going to solve the gasoline crisis problem. It's not going to solve the energy problem. But it's going to help reelect some of the Democrats because they have heard from their constituents when they went home, you have to do something about the energy problem. You have to drill here in America. You have to pass a bill. So they're going to pass a bill. But this bill is not going to do anything. It's going to accomplish nothing. It's not going to get through the Senate. And we're going to be in the same situation 6 months from now because they will not move a real energy bill.

There was a bipartisan bill that Mr. Abercrombie of Hawaii and Mr. Peterson of Pennsylvania sponsored. I was a cosponsor of that bill. It had all kinds of compromises in it. But it dealt with the energy crisis. They don't want that bill. The Speaker doesn't want that bill. And they're not going to do a darn thing, and the American people ought to know.

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