Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to address the Offshore Production and Safety Act. It is legislation that attempts to address the regulation and the critical need to drill for oil in this country. Let me tell you, I understand the…

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient second. The question is on agreeing to the motion. The clerk will call the roll. The bill clerk called the…

We need to find more American energy and use less.

Conservative groups across the county have said national security demands that we do this.

The only solution is to find more and use less and this is the way to use less.

It's a billion dollars cheaper. It is an authorization bill.

Madam President, to me, this argument is, in fact, all about fairness. It has nothing to do with class warfare. It has nothing to do with gotcha but has to do with abrogation of social responsibility on the basis of levels. Every once in a…

I'm worried that NASA's inaction and indecision in making this transition could hurt America's space leadership.

I don't think any private concern is going to be able to do that without kind of a quasi public-private.

Until we have an energy policy that uses the energy that we can produce, that has more certainty and more dependability within this Nation or this continent, we are going to continue to go down this for the next 30 to 40 years.

The President announced that we would be holding 3 lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico by June 30th of next year.

We are moving forward with holding annual lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.

The frustration is, is that the bureaucracy is it is not getting acted on.

Again, the frustration that Senator Landrieu had is that, basically, we are just concerned about our dependency on foreign oil.

In order to do that, we have to be more certain of what we can do in this country and less dependent on the foreign oil that I think they are holding us hostage with.

We learned nothing. We have no energy policy. We are still more dependent than ever.

The President voiced his support for a lease extension with respect to Gulf of Mexico wells that were directly impacted by the events of the Deepwater Horizon last year.

We believe that with flexibility... we could reduce lease terms and, therefore, incentivize a more rapid development of oil and gas.