Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of my amendment to H.R. 21. This amendment would ensure that the Federal Government is not forced into leasing public lands with low- or no-potential for oil and gas development to the fossil fuel industry as a result of this bill. The reckless leasing of low- to no-potential lands, also known as speculative leasing, has allowed millions of acres of our Nation's invaluable public lands to be put in harm's way for no real economic benefit in return. The problem is pervasive, affecting all Western States. However, it is particularly severe in my home State of Nevada where there are very few productive oil and gas formations but plenty of Federal land. Speculative leasing is a serious problem that costs taxpayers serious money. These leases are cheap. They are easy to acquire, usually selling at near the minimum bid of $2 per acre. Because they are so cheap, companies with purely speculative interests target these lands with little intent or likelihood of putting them into production. Thus, the government is then forced to use taxpayer dollars to administer and monitor them, but the leases almost never generate royalties or other benefits for the American taxpayer. In fact, according to the GAO, 99 percent of these noncompetitive leases, which are frequently issued with little or no-potential lands, never went into production or generated royalties for taxpayers.…”