Political Quotes

“It would eliminate Iraq's contribution. We would not have to depend on Iraq for 70 years. That is the harsh reality. That is what ANWR is estimated to contain. The range goes from 5.6 billion barrels to 16 billion barrels. As the Senator from Arizona knows, when you look for minerals or anything underground, it is the best scientific evaluation from the geologists. But even if it were in the middle--10 billion barrels--it would equal what we produce from Prudhoe Bay, which is 20 to 25 percent of all of our crude oil. It is a lot of oil. It would send a real signal to the Mideast that we are going to relieve our dependence on you folks over there. We are not going to increase it. The Senator from Arizona is a businessman. He knows. We lose our leverage when we become more dependent. Back to the chart, it shows the crude oil prices and percentages. Here is where we were in 1973: 36 percent dependent. Remember the Yom Kippur war. We had gas lines around the block. We said we would never again be dependent to that point. We created SPR. Yet in the meantime we are up to 56 percent dependence, and we are going to go up to 66 percent dependence in the year 2010. The other chart, of course, shows Iraqi oil exports. He has been doing very well considering he is our enemy.”