Political Quotes

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. The majority, the sponsors of this bill, say that we need it because supply is dwindling and gasoline prices are climbing and employment is terrible. Well, I'll grant they have got a point on a couple of items here. But it has nothing to do with this legislation. They bring forward a bill to help the oil supply when it is a fact, I say to my colleague, that 79 percent of all of the potential oil reserves as calculated by the nonpartisan prospectors on the whole Continental Shelf are already under the current leasing program. Sixty million acres. This is indisputable. Sixty million acres offshore are under existing lease and contain 11.5 billion barrels. So this ``hurry up and drill'' legislation is certainly not necessary for that. As for employment, I said it before and I'll say it again. It is a fact. During the 5 years previously when the four oil companies took home $485 billion in profits, their combined American workforce dropped by 10,200 employees. They made money. They laid people off. So we can check that one off, too. It's not about employment. How about prices? This year's leases have nothing to do with this year's price at the gas pump--or next year's. In fact, not for 20 years. Might it have an effect? Oh, yes, there's a supply problem. The supply problem is that U.S. oil reserves amount to about 2 percent of the world's oil reserves. About 2 percent. My colleagues say, Oh, no, those calculations are wrong.…”