John Hall: “What this will do, it's called, the slang version is the ``Use It or Lose It Act,'' which would compel oil and gas…”

“What this will do, it's called, the slang version is the ``Use It or Lose It Act,'' which would compel oil and gas companies to either produce on those 9,700 leases that they have and those 68 million acres of land that they have already leased, either produce or give up those leases that they are stockpiling, and it would do this by barring the companies from obtaining any more leases unless they can demonstrate that they are producing oil and gas or diligently developing the leases they already hold during the initial term of those leases. The bill directs the Secretary of the Interior to define what constitutes diligent development. By the way, the backdrop for this, the sort of origin for it, is that back a while in history, coal went through the same kind of speculation, where Federal coal resources were being abused, potential coal exploration areas were being leased by the coal companies, and speculation was driving the price up before that coal was actually developed. Some people think that, and this is people in the financial markets as well as the energy markets believe that a significant portion, maybe as much as 25 percent in the increase in the cost of gasoline is actually speculation, people saying, well, that's a good place to put my money.”