Phil Gingrey: “If my colleague from Michigan will yield, the whole issue here is when the Democrats passed this Energy Independence and…”

“If my colleague from Michigan will yield, the whole issue here is when the Democrats passed this Energy Independence and Security Act some 17 months ago, the price of regular gasoline, as all my colleagues know, was about $2.60 a gallon. Now, if Speaker Pelosi, at that particular time, or Leader Hoyer felt that the price of gasoline at the pump was going to drop $1.50, then maybe I could understand their emphasis on protecting the environment from any iota increase in carbon dioxide footprint or greenhouse gases. But what has happened with their ``no energy plan,'' unfortunately the price of gasoline has gone up about $1.55 a gallon, and here we are looking at $4, $4 and a nickel now, and so we have to ask ourselves, what is the crisis? Is the crisis global warming? Or is the crisis bankruptcy of our country because of the price of energy? And people can't afford to buy gasoline. They can't afford to buy food. We are losing jobs to other countries. I think it is time to say to our majority party, for goodness' sakes, at least make in order the Gingrey amendment which would allow the administrator of NASA to have a waiver of section 526 and utilize some of these sources that Mr. Upton and Mr. Broun and others are talking about, getting that shale oil product from Canada. It just flows right down the pipeline. It is an easy flow, easy obtaining it. There is not a lot of hard work. It is the same thing with tar sands. And let NASA continue to do their research.”