Joe Crowley: “I did not hear any mention when my colleague from New York spoke as to how much the fuel needs of New York would be met…”

“I did not hear any mention when my colleague from New York spoke as to how much the fuel needs of New York would be met if ANWR were allowed to go through. I suggest that it probably would be somewhere in the range of 10 years, maybe. What about after that? What do we do after that? This is a red herring. This is a distraction. This is not about any one particular State's needs. This is about the needs of our country. Why are we not addressing the needs of our country? This is like dressing a pimple on the cheek of an elephant when the problem is the entire elephant. We need to be looking out for the interests of the entire country, not just one particular State and its needs. We should be talking about alternative fuel sources and developing them in this country. This whole discussion is a political misdirection and a ploy to take the focus off the issues this country is facing today. I ask my colleagues to reject this political ploy. Vote against this bill. Do not allow the pristine country that we are talking about, ANWR, to be disrupted. Let us leave it for future generations, as it is meant to be.”