Sam Gibbons: “everybody here and everybody in America actually knows we are facing an energy shortage; but I ask today, what are we…”

“everybody here and everybody in America actually knows we are facing an energy shortage; but I ask today, what are we doing about it? Our demand for oil and gas continually rises, and we seem to diminish our supply of these natural resources at the same time. In times of crisis we have actually drawn from our fuel reserves, but we always fail to replenish them. Right now the demand for gas is outstripping our demand for oil. By 2020, we will consume 62 percent more natural gas than we do today. But while our demand grows, our production slows. We need to act now; but we cannot, because 40 percent of our natural gas sits under sagebrush protected by Federal regulations. Mr. Speaker, Americans are paying 20 percent more for natural gas than they did a year ago. What do we tell these people? We need to tell them that we can and will correct this energy problem responsibly and quickly by passing the Energy Security Act proposed by the chairman of the Committee on Resources, the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen). Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this important and necessary piece of legislation.”