On the recordSeptember 20, 2012
the events of this past week are a very clear and direct reminder to us of the need to choose to end our Nation's dependence on imported oil. I will remind my colleagues this is our choice. It is within our power to free ourselves from reliance on OPEC oil. In these past few months, I have had an opportunity to visit our oil resources in the Gulf of Mexico, in North Dakota with Bakken shale, up in Alaska with the offshore as well as ANWR, and National Petroleum Reserve out in the Marcellus shale. We have learned one thing for sure: There is no scarcity of resources in this country. Technological breakthroughs allow us to access these resources in a safe and reliable manner. This administration may talk a good game on oil production, but words and actions are entirely different. Our problems result from a federal government that has actions and inactions that indefinitely delay, if not prohibit, in many cases, access to our energy resources. We are not running out of energy. What we are running out of are excuses for continued reliance on OPEC. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Wyoming.
