Political Quotes

“I rise on a small point, but it is representative of some of the difficulties we are having in trying to keep some focus on reality associated with the administration's anticipated energy package. I am sure many Members saw the Washington Post today, Tuesday, May 15. On the front page there was a color picture of the Phillips Petroleum Company facility at Alpine which depicts very vividly the realization that technology indeed can make a very small footprint in the Arctic areas of Alaska, my State. The picture represents a fair evaluation of this development. It was taken in the summertime, that brief 2 months or so when the area is not covered with ice and snow. The viewer can see the river, the lakes. But to grasp the significance of it, one has to recognize that this is a major oil field in itself. Yet it takes less acreage than the District of Columbia. That footprint is concentrated in the area that is known as Alpine. For the most part, one derrick has drilled the wells there. These are directional drills that go out for many miles recovering the oil. This particular facility is producing about 88,000 barrels a day.”