Mitch Landrieu: “I appreciate the introduction to this important measure by the chairman of the Energy Committee, Senator Domenici. No…”

“I appreciate the introduction to this important measure by the chairman of the Energy Committee, Senator Domenici. No one has worked harder, in my view, in this entire Chamber, and perhaps in the entire Congress, to help us reach a reasonable, balanced energy policy. The Chairman knows, and I agree with him, we can't drill our way out of this situation. But neither can we conserve our way. We have to stay on parallel tracks to drill more where we can of oil and gas, and conserve more where we can. The last Energy bill reached a pretty good balance of that. This is another step forward in that reasonable, rational, progressive road the chairman is trying to provide. He is providing excellent leadership and I am proud to support his efforts. This bill, as the Senator from New Mexico said, will open up significant tracts of land off of the gulf coast for drilling of oil and gas that we need as a nation. I have spoken about this bill many times in terms of its benefits to Louisiana and the gulf coast, and I will again this morning. But before I do that, I would like to speak to the national issue. Senator Domenici is correct when he said this country needs these reserves--and we need them now. This area of the gulf, 8.3 million acres that we have been able to negotiate based on the good work of Senator Martinez and others in the Gulf Coast States, will provide more than six times the amount of natural gas that this country imports in the form of LNG each year.…”