Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for his leadership today and his leadership on this important legislation coming out of the Natural Resources Committee. I would like to speak specifically to some more economic opportunity as illustrated from my home State of North Dakota just to get a sense of it. North Dakota's gross domestic product increased from $34 billion in 2011 to $38.7 billion in 2012. That's a 13.4 percent increase, representing the most significant growth of any State in the country last year. Texas is second with a growth rate of 4.8 percent, where the national average during the same time was 2.5 percent. So it can happen. It happened in my State because the vast majority of the oil and gas in North Dakota is not under Federal land. The vast majority--like over 90 percent--is under private land, where the only landowner is the guy that farms and ranches the land, the person whose sustainability demands good stewardship. We can show the way in how to do it around the country as well as offshore if you just unleash American ingenuity. I suspect that my good friend from Kentucky (Mr. Barr) might have a thing or two to say about this week's declaration of war on coal, and so I yield to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Barr).”