James Lankford

This is not about tax dollars; this is about a political process to say we want to try to wipe out traditional energies.

If a State doesn't abide by the guidelines, will they lose primacy in this?

Why redefining now, why BLM putting in the new regulatory environment now before EPA has finished its study?

I am second guessing whether Congress in 2005--I was not in Congress in 2005, none of us on this panel were--was considering crude oil a diesel fuel or as broad as petroleum distillates as a diesel fuel.

My concern is on the expanded definition of diesel. It is very clear that diesel fuel is included in the 2005 but if I drove a diesel truck, which I don't, and then poured kerosene into it, I would not consider that a diesel fuel.

I would like to have unanimous consent to add to the record a letter from the Governor of Wyoming mentioning that he feels the rules are very duplicative to what they already do in Wyoming and this will create two different sets and a…

As Representative Lankford correctly pointed out, it was interesting because the reports of no health impact would always come out on a Friday afternoon at about 4 p.m.

I understand. Right now there has been an incredible shift on it. This has been known for several years, as I mentioned, the 2005 legislation.

Sometimes when you actually establish regulation when there is no problem, the usual result is some kind of overreach in coming up with an abstract that does not fit the reality that happens to be there at the time.

The importance of Uintah County is very simple--50 percent of all the jobs in that particular county are tied up with the extraction industry; 65 percent of all of the natural gas that is produced in Utah comes from this particular county.

I am very skeptical that thousands of wells and many different types of rock and soil conditions across the country can be overseen from Washington better than by State leaders who know the people and the land.

I also do not accept the assumption that local regulators cannot be trusted because they have political pressures that would discourage enforcement but Federal regulators have only pure motives and no political agenda.

The assumption that Federal regulators from other States understand the geologic strata and energy process better than State enforcement is beyond credible.

No one--I repeat, no one cares more about the water resources of Oklahoma than Oklahomans and the people who live there.

Most recently on May 11, 2012, in Dimock, Pennsylvania, EPA quietly released what was initially a panic to say that frac fluids caused all that, they have come back now and said, we were wrong.

Let me reclaim my time. Yes, sir, it is. We started it in 2005 and started rolling it out a few at a time, experimenting with it, and now have increased it. In fact, the administration has asked for 50,000 more a month and has actually…

But I also hear, every time that there is an issue that comes up in any department... the first thing the other side of the aisle rises up and says is, you know what, this wouldn't be an issue if we had a permanent chair in that spot.

I have obvious concerns on USAID, and some of it is because of the strategy, the Forward strategy that they have.

We have employees there that are actually in debt bondage that we are bringing in from third-world countries.

We have an enormous amount of waste that is happening by the millions of dollars in some of our USAID programs.

Let me pick up on what Mr. DeFazio was just talking about, Mr. Nicholson. Just in time delivery, I know very few businesses in my district that don't do just in time delivery.

As we have seen marriages collapse, especially among the poor, we have seen a greater need for government to engage.

That is the issue. We have this structure now, if that is a goal, and I would concur that it is a great option for the goal, to say let's help people transition out of it, and are we accomplishing that?

Here is a hard question for us as a nation to struggle with. We have people in great need...

This would not come to light unless your office would have started it.