Lynn A. Westmoreland: “I guess about 2 weeks ago probably I started getting some phone calls about different petitions on the Internet and…”

“I guess about 2 weeks ago probably I started getting some phone calls about different petitions on the Internet and other places about the prospects of America becoming more energy independent, that we would not be dependent on foreign oil sources, and that we would be able to use our own natural resources to meet our energy needs. And people began to ask if I had gone and signed them or had seen them. One was on americansolutions.com, which offered to increase domestic oil drilling. There was one about a gas holiday. There were several about developing alternative energy sources. But there were some interesting petitions against drilling by Democratic Senator Ms. Boxer, the Sierra Club and Greenpeace. As I walked into a service station in my district, there was a petition on the counter, Madam Speaker, that said: Sign here if you want to let your representatives know that you're for lowering gas prices.”