Lynn A. Westmoreland: “I want to take just a moment, before I start with any of my energy remarks, to welcome President Chen, Joy and Sean Chen…”

“I want to take just a moment, before I start with any of my energy remarks, to welcome President Chen, Joy and Sean Chen here with General Protecht that is opening up a business in my district in Barnesville, Georgia. It's great to have them visiting Washington, D.C. What I really want to talk to the people about today, Mr. Speaker, is the fact that it is time that the American people understand where Congress is on providing them with our own resources to bring about lower gas prices and lower energy prices. I have had several constituents and people e-mailing me and calling me, asking me about a number of petitions that were on the Web or that were in service stations or in Wal-Marts or in Home Depots, and they were wanting to know how I felt about drilling onshore, about drilling in deep water and about bringing more refineries on line. So, as I looked at some of these petitions--and some of them I saw-- one was on American solutions, and there were others, but the one on American solutions had about 600,000 signatories. Six hundred thousand Americans had taken the time to go to that Web site to sign the petition that said, ``Drill now. Drill here. Less price.'' Less gasoline price.”