Time to End America's Oil Addiction

Floor Speech

Mr. GARAMENDI. It's time for America to end its addiction to oil. Our national security is at stake. We spend $1 billion a day sending our money overseas to the oil companies, many of them owned by foreign nations, some of whom are not at all friendly to America.

I hear a lot of whining from the Republican side of the aisle about, well, we can't do that. Well, we cannot continue doing what we're doing today. We see the risks--$20 billion worth of economy destroyed along the gulf coast. Big Oil has had its day, $12 billion. You want to save some money on that side, let's retrieve the $12 billion subsidy that we send to the oil industry every day.

It's time for us to move to renewables. It's time for us to protect our coasts. On the west coast, we do not want new Federal oil leases, and therefore the West Coast Oil Protection Act must be passed. No more Federal leases off the west coast. Move to renewables. Let's retrieve our $12 billion annual subsidy that we give to Big Oil. Let's not send $1 billion a day of our money to the foreign countries.

Source