At this time, Madam Chair, I yield 5 minutes to the author of this bill, the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Gardner).

I yield myself 5 minutes. I would like to say that the American people expect the Congress to provide opportunities for us to fully explore our natural resources. This is a very modest bill that only changes one very small part of the…

I yield myself 3 minutes. The gentleman, in his statement, noted that we consume 25 percent of the world's oil, but we possess only 2 percent of the world's reserves. And that's precisely why we're trying to pass this bill, because oil…

We certainly want to thank the gentlelady from New York for introducing this amendment. To answer the question about how is this bill going to help oil prices and provide more oil for the marketplace, obviously it can't do it overnight…

I would like to make one additional comment. I think you have a very good point on the balkanization. We have these Federal waters, the Outer Continental Shelf. We have a lot of oil reserves, and we're trying to explore, trying to produce…

I yield myself 2 minutes. To close this debate, I would simply say that we think 6 months is totally adequate to make some decisions about air quality permits for exploratory purposes only, and I would remind everyone here that EPA had a…

I might remind our friend from Massachusetts that EPA actually approved the drilling permit, the exploratory drilling permit for Shell, in this case, on three separate occasions; but the delay has been the appeals by the opposing party to…

How much time do I have remaining? The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from Kentucky has 2 minutes remaining.

Our friend from California's amendment sort of makes a lot of sense. There are a couple of issues that I would like to point out about it. First of all, under her proposal, you would appeal the decision of the EPA at the local district…

I've had the opportunity to serve many years with the gentleman from Illinois, who's the ranking member of this subcommittee, and have a great deal of respect and admiration for him. But I would point out to him that this legislation does…

I would like to quote from Lisa Jackson, who was talking explicitly about the permitting issue here. She said: I believe that the analysis clearly shows that there is no public health concern here. And that's why EPA, on three separate…

I would also like to clarify that this bill does not change the Clean Air Act in any way as it relates to monitoring stationary sources or mobile sources. I wanted to point that out. Second of all, the gentlelady from California mentioned…