Political Quotes

“Madam President, today the Senate is going to consider a bill to increase offshore drilling. This is the Republican response to the Nation's need for a national energy policy and to rising gasoline prices. I believe the Republican approach to this will be unsuccessful. I believe it overlooks some very fundamental and basic facts, and the facts are these: We cannot drill our way out of our problem. If we take a look at all the known oil reserves in the United States offshore and onshore--all of them--they comprise 2 percent of the known oil reserves in the world--2 percent. Now take a look at how much oil the United States consumes each year: 25 percent of the world oil production. The Republican answer is drill, baby, drill. Honestly, that is not going to solve the problem, and it is going to invite some dangerous activities that we should know better than to engage in. It has not been that long ago that 170 million gallons of oil poured out of a well that was improperly drilled by BP in the Gulf of Mexico. The devastation that followed to the local economy and to the environment is virtually incalculable. Have we learned a lesson--a lesson that safety should be the hallmark when it comes to drilling; that we ought to make certain that before we go into an environment which is precious, where an accident could create some unknown hazard or danger, that we thoroughly investigate that in advance. That is not too much to ask.…”