Political Quotes

“many of us have come to the floor, certainly this past week--all this year--talking about increasing energy prices. There has been a lot of commentary about whom to blame. What do we do, how do we reduce the price of oil, how do we address the predicament we are in as a nation that is so very heavily dependent on energy for our economic strength? I have certainly done my share of talking about the need to increase domestic production of oil and gas, particularly in the State of Alaska. We believe we have great opportunities up there and can be doing more to address it. What we haven't had an opportunity to bring up in the debate is the potential for a vast reservoir of energy that is available to the United States in the Arctic, in the far north, and the fact that we could lose out to other nations if we are not more proactive in asserting our claims to these resources. I have been on the floor many times talking about the Arctic Coastal Plain and the potential in ANWR. We believe there is anywhere between 10 to 16 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil, the largest remaining onshore petroleum field in North America. But even further to the north, beyond ANWR, off the coast of Alaska and beyond, this is where we believe an unquantifiable amount of resource may lie. It is estimated that the Arctic may hold 25 percent of the entire world's undiscovered oil and gas resources. It is enormous. That number is based on a 2000 assessment by the U.S.…”