On the recordOctober 25, 2011
I thank the gentlelady from West Virginia. I might add, as she was speaking about the Marcellus shale--this vast natural gas deposit which is underground in the States of New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and others--I know Pennsylvania has realized revenues from that in the billions of dollars and direct jobs of around 50,000. We're already talking about a couple hundred thousand jobs that can come from this and that we will have the benefits of that Marcellus shale natural gas over the next 30 years. I bring that up because, although that is being drilled now and being brought to market now, it is a tiny, tiny fraction of what we're talking about in the coastal areas that we will drill in a responsible way and use to create American jobs. With the many millions of Americans out of work who want to work and who want good-paying jobs, we know one of the greatest threats to our country right now is poverty. The government can't provide all of those. We can let the private sector grow, and we can let these jobs come through, so we begin to work on these many areas of rebuilding America. I would like to turn to one of my colleagues, one of the prime sponsors of this bill now, to talk more about the issues here, Mr. Tim Walz of Minnesota.
