Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman. We are beginning the most important debate this country has had on energy in a long time, and I am glad to see we have finally moved forward. My good friend, Bill Young, 25 years ago started the moratorium. Back then, the cost of natural gas was a dollar something a thousand. Oil was less than $10. It didn't matter that we locked up our resources. Last year, the average price of natural gas was $9.50. At times it was 14 and 15, and the rest of the world was a fraction of that. We are putting our industries and businesses out of business in this country. We have witnessed today serious fear from coastline people, and I respect that. This is not ``us against you.'' This is about America. Fear is only in our hearts when we don't have the facts, and I feel convinced in my heart that when we have the facts, and we debate this issue, we will do the right thing and we will figure out how to produce natural gas off our shorelines at the right distance so that we have wonderful tourism, we have affordable energy, our people can stay in their homes in the north and keep warm, and our businesses can stay in this country and prosper and build our economy. Now, this bill, if it passes, only removes the legislative moratorium. The Presidential moratorium still remains. I could not remove that because that is legislating on an appropriations bill. We still have the 5-year plan, which is a 2- or 3-year process that we all react to before any drilling is done anywhere.…”