On the recordOctober 25, 2011
To the gentleman from Pennsylvania, thank you for your energy, your passion, your vision. Thank you also to all the folks who've gathered here. Mr. Speaker, you're witnessing an all too rare event in this House--a group of bipartisan legislators coming together and working for the common good and rejecting the politics of division, rejecting the politics of the false choices--the either/ors--and coming together with the respect and understanding that this Nation can innovate, can become energy independent and, at the same time, can protect those vital natural resources. You have a spectrum of folks who come from coal-producing West Virginia, from Pennsylvania, from Indiana, from California, from the plains of Minnesota. You have Members here who have a wide spectrum of political beliefs, but you also have folks here who have been in the business of producing energy, and you've got folks speaking who are endorsed by groups like the Sierra Club. Mr. Speaker, this is what the American public is asking for. They're asking for us to get together, to use our knowledge, to collect information, to use that data, and to come up with a plan that will do the things that you've heard talked about here. The very premise of this is just so simple, which is that this land is your land.…
