Oil Spill Not an Excuse to Kill Jobs

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, the horrific environmental and economic damage in the gulf continues, but it seems like the administration wants to move on to other things before the leak is stopped and the oil cleaned up. The President spent a significant part of his speech Tuesday night talking about imposing new costs on energy and cap-and-trade climate legislation.

We all know how important it is to have less dependence on fossil fuels, especially from foreign sources, and encourage clean energy production. The question is whether we do that by imposing new costs on the American people because of global warming. We should not impose new taxes on energy just based on the hope that clean energy will become more cost feasible.

I don't have to remind anyone that we have unemployment near 10 percent. Making it more expensive to run factories and small businesses will not bring back jobs.

We certainly need clean energy, and I've been proud to see sensible solar, geothermal, and hydroelectric projects move forward in my district. What we don't need are job-killing taxes on what BP chairman calls the ``small people'' that will make it even more difficult to recover jobs not only along the gulf coast but across our Nation.

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