John Shimkus

Reclaiming my time, you all want to do no exploration, no gas, no coal, no nuclear, which brings costs up. We're saying let's bring on more supply. Let's mitigate the cost. Let's plan for the future. We are talking about now. We are not…

Reclaiming my time, we want to talk about the future, but what our constituents are talking about is the present. There has been more than $1.68 increase in gasoline prices. How can we even send our kids to the university if energy costs…

Yes, I will. So we're willing to talk about this, but golly, if we're not talking about energy and the price of gasoline at the pump, then what are we doing?

But all those issues that you addressed, if we had American-made energy, if we weren't relying on imported crude oil, you know, why does the cheap dollar affect our price? Because we're buying crude oil overseas. If we were producing our…

Let me reclaim my time, and just go over, since 1994 and talk about this debate. In ANWR, which Clinton vetoed in 1995, we would have that oil today. House Republicans support ANWR 91 percent of the time on votes. House Democrats 86…

No, it would not be a substantial size. It would be the size of Dulles Airport. It would be like putting on a football field a postage stamp. That's the perspective. That's what gets lost in this debate. We can do it. You know what? If you…

When your party will come to the floor and debate bringing more supply to the market, we can negotiate. But when you say, We're going to solve our 50-percent increase in demand on energy with solar and wind, it just doesn't pass the laugh…

This short-term extension is important. It's just too bad that we couldn't extend the low cost of energy that we had 18 months ago. Eighteen months ago the price of a barrel of crude oil was $58.31. Today it's $128 a barrel, a $70…

Because we want to highlight the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a coastal plain the size of South Carolina, a drilling platform the size of Dulles Airport. We want to address the Outer Continental Shelf, both on the east coast and the…

And I would assume a way in which we would do that would be to bring in more supply?

And that would be in conjunction and probably would meet with the Speaker's promise in 2006 that Democrats have a commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices. She made that quote. That would allow us to bring that plan to…

I thank my colleague. Pro-production, pro-supply, and conservation I think are key items.

What to do about oil? First it went from $60 to $80 a barrel, then from $80 to $100 and now to $120. Perhaps we can persuade OPEC to raise production, as some Senators suggest; but this seems unlikely. The truth is that we are almost…

I know the liberal left and the environmentalists don't like coal. I know that. And they tout Kyoto. I know that. They tout our European friends. The New York Times today: ``Europe Turns to Coal Again.'' Europe turns to coal. When is this…

Funny. No talk about gasoline, no talk about the high energy prices. The number one issue affecting consumers today and the pocketbooks of mom and dad and driving kids to events is the high cost of gasoline. When this majority took over…

But I will tell you that if we don't get a handle on these energy costs, people aren't going to have the money to do the things they want to do with their families on a day-to-day basis. So we have this time tonight to talk about energy…

Friends, healthy beaches are important. We all want to benefit from them. I'd like to take my family to a beach. A lot of my constituents like to go there. But if they can't afford the gasoline in the minivan to get them to appreciate…

I think that is a sign of a great leader when you know who to go to; and, of course, with the great respect we had for the wisdom and the conviction of Chairman Hyde. When Henry spoke, people really did listen. That is a lot to be said…

I know that the public, sometimes they don't understand that carbon dioxide is a commodity that is bought and sold, that people want, and we want it in the soda business to give the fizz in your Coke or your Pepsi, or as my friend from…

I want to ask my friend from Pennsylvania a couple of aspects on the chart. The first one, when we talked about the tax, under this current Congress, how many times have the Democrats gone to that same pot of money for PAYGO issues of…

I thank my friend. We look forward to working with Chairman Visclosky as the appropriations process moves forward to ensure we continue to use coal, which provides half of our Nation's electricity, in an efficient and environmentally…

As Chairman Visclosky is aware, our home State of Illinois has two sites currently being reviewed by the Department of Energy and the FutureGen Alliance as potential locations for the final selection of the FutureGen project. FutureGen is…

And I appreciate it. I know the gentleman is a big supporter of coal. And we did bring to the Rules Committee an amendment that would amend the language in this bill to allow some of this money to go to contract with the Department of…

The very thought of this behavior made me sick. And Mark Foley should be ashamed.

As a delegate of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and very active in its defense subcommittee, and also the chairman of the Baltic Caucus, I am excited and extremely pleased with NATO's recent announcement in a letter of intent after 6…