William Tauzin: “the Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana is a national asset, too, but there are 100 producing wells on it.…”

“the Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana is a national asset, too, but there are 100 producing wells on it. And the people of California and the people of Massachusetts benefit from the fact that we produce a hundred wells in the Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge, a refuge that is much more abundantly full of resources than ANWR. What people forget is that inside ANWR, inside the area, 1002, that was designated for drilling, that is what 1002 is; out of this 19-million-acre ANWR, 1002 is the area we set aside for production. And inside it is 92,000 acres of private property. It belongs to the people who live there, and they cannot even produce their resources. Now, I understand if California does not want to produce or Massachusetts does not want to produce. If they want to depend upon the Mandalay Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana for oil and gas, I can understand that. We make that deal. We produce in Louisiana. We do it in an environmentally sensitive way, and we produce oil and gas for the rest of the country. If we shut down tomorrow, the country is out 25 percent of its oil and 25 percent of its gas. What do you think Massachusetts and California will do then? But the people of ANWR, 1002, the people who live on the 92,000 acres, want to produce their own private lands and you will not let them. Not government lands, their own private lands, and you will not let them; that is what this amendment does.”