Increase Domestic Oil Production

Floor Speech

Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, last Tuesday the top front-page story in USA Today said gas will soon hit $5 a gallon. If it does, it will really slow our recovery, and some think it could lead to another recession. It will really hurt the already hurting small towns and rural areas because their people on average have to drive farther distances to go to work.

Environmentalists want gas to go much higher so people will drive less; but if gas goes to $5 a gallon or even higher, it will hurt a lot of poor and lower-income and working people. I know most environmentalists come from very wealthy or upper-income families, and I know they will say we don't have enough oil to drill our way out of this problem; but if we would at least start producing a little more oil, it would be harder for other countries to keep raising their prices.

President Clinton vetoed drilling in ANWR in the mid-nineties, stopping a million more barrels a day from being produced here. When environmental radicals stop more domestic oil production, it helps foreign energy producers, but it really hurts middle- and lower-income Americans.

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