Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I certainly sympathize with many of the comments that the sponsor of this amendment has brought up. Certainly, none of us have any intention of trashing the environment, of causing environmental degradation in any of our coastal areas in the United States. But the thing is that this amendment doesn't cut production. It would not result in any reduction in oil and gas exploration and production activities. And if it were to do that, then all that would happen is it would increase our dependence upon foreign imports of oil. The reality and statistics are very clear. You are less safe transporting energy than you are producing it. The statistics are very clear. Putting it into a ship is less safe. Putting it into a pipeline is less safe than actually producing it. So you are not doing anything to benefit the environment. The next thing is that, within approximately 1 month of the Obama administration's being sworn into office in 2009--as I recall, I believe it was on February 10--Secretary Salazar stood up and said: We are rewriting the 5-year offshore leasing plan of the previous administration. They walked right in and said: We are throwing this out. Which the amendment's sponsor said was billions of dollars in implications and much planning. It is exactly what the Obama administration did.…”