Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlewoman from Washington for offering this much-needed bill. This amendment, Mr. Chairman, is about trust. It is about trust because we have been told--the American people have been told--that the President is doing all he can to make sure that gas prices are low, that your diesel prices are low. That is indeed absolutely not the case. Of course, using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve reserved for issues of national security or natural disaster, instead using it for political purposes to drive down the price of gas just prior to the election, is not the reason for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, yet that is how it was used. So this bill seeks to remedy that. We need some teeth in it, Mr. Chairman. We need some evidence from the Secretary of Energy that the Secretary will actually support increased and Federal lands leased when they draw down on the strategic reserve. So this amendment requires the plan to include the list of actual parcels planned to be offered for lease and, for each parcel, its size, location, and any permits and approval necessary for the access and production, because we simply can't take their word for it. They will tell you, oh, well, we have got 9,000 leases. What are y'all complaining about? Meanwhile, you can't get a permit for the lease to go on to the leased land and actually do the exploration and the operation. You can't get a permit, so the lease is meaningless. They never mentioned that.…”