Tim Ryan: “Well, regardless of how we develop it, I think this is what we have done. We put billions of dollars into research and…”

“Well, regardless of how we develop it, I think this is what we have done. We put billions of dollars into research and development, and we will continue to put more into research and development, maybe even over the protests of some of the folks on your side of the aisle. But you could talk about oil shale and you could talk about all of these the other issues. We have 68 million acres right now, there are 8,000 leases, and you folks keep talking, Mr. Speaker, the other side keeps talking about going up to ANWR, when we have 68 million acres already to be tapped, 8,000 leases ready to develop this. They are only using a quarter of them. Go ahead and drill. But why do we have to go up to ANWR, when we already have the ability to do it now? That is all we are saying. So, yeah, we should use technology to figure out other ways to develop oil and the coal-to-liquid. As long as you are sequestering the CO2, speaking on behalf of myself now, I don't have any problem with it. You have nuclear plants that are going on and permits and leases for moving that process forward. So this is going to be a comprehensive bill and a comprehensive approach to all this. But when you have the oil companies getting $14 billion, you have the commodities problem that you have, and you have them buying leases and holding them because they don't have to diligently develop, like they have to do for coal, you get skyrocketing gas costs, and that is what we are trying to fix here.”