You can't blame the Senate or the President for that. All appropriations originate in the House.

Only in America will you have the government that pays, that actually gives grant money to environmental groups, and these same environmental groups sue the government.

But the point I want to emphasize is this is not some great step forward. It is not even an incremental step forward compared with the catastrophic decline in timber sales that has occurred over the past 20 years.

But once we get through the bureaucratic process, then the litigation starts, and the litigation has no chance of success but it is able to delay the process enough so that we can't salvage any of that timber, which is simply insane.

If we had confined our development to areas of known reserves back in those days, we would have run out of oil.

Because that is about the only area that you are allowing American enterprise to develop. And that is an outrage.

This Administration has sharply reduced the acreage available for offshore leasing. It has increased the length of the regulatory process.

But pardon me, but the oil companies make money by producing lots of oil. They produce lots of oil because they go out and look for it and they find it.

I mean, can people honestly say that our Nation is more energy-independent today than it was four years ago? I think not.

When this Administration took office, this industry was poised to produce more American energy than we had at any time in our past.

I find the vision of this Administration dreary and depressing.