Pete Domenici: “Just for a few minutes, without losing your right to the floor. I want to say to the Senator, thank you for your…”

“Just for a few minutes, without losing your right to the floor. I want to say to the Senator, thank you for your discussion, as you zero in on what States do and do not do. I will not repeat that. People heard it and they ought to heed it. Some of the States you have alluded to ought to heed it, too. Some of them are the very ones who do not want to produce anything and have production somewhere else, not there. But in passing, the Senator discussed offshore production in her State, which she described in terms of new technology that is very safe. There is nothing happening that hurts anybody. There is no degradation of the water, no degradation of the air. I have seen one of the new facilities. I wish everybody who is worried about offshore drilling would take a helicopter and go out there. They are not next door to your house, they are miles and miles out in the ocean, and they are very large. They look like a big battleship out there all lighted up, full of technology, with 10 or 12 oil wells you cannot even see, producing natural gas for America, and you don't know where it goes, no pipes, nothing. Nothing spills, and it is our resource. The Senator knows in this bill one big thing is missing and that is we are not going to do anything significant about letting the United States of America or States make a decision that off their shores they could produce more natural gas or crude oil for this great country.…”