On the recordMay 23, 2011
I just have to ask myself, listening to my colleagues here, thinking about this issue, since when did America stop becoming and being the land of the free? The land of the free that we sing about all the time? Do we just want to say that we're a free Nation, or do we want to be a free Nation? Our freedom is under attack, guys. Our freedom is under attack across this Nation, through suits like the NLRB suing the States, NLRB suing a private business for making a business decision. But in America? I can't believe we're witnessing this. It's not just NLRB, it's the EPA. When they deny an air quality permit for a drilling platform in the Alaskan Sea, where the closest impacted town is over 70 miles away, with only 250 indigenous people there. I've been out to a deepwater drilling platform. I've been to a production platform. The only air impact that I've seen was the flare gas, where they flare off and burn off the gas that comes through the natural drilling activities. Usually it's natural gas. Some proponents of that side of the debate think that natural gas is and say--and I believe that, too--it's probably cleaner burning. But we've got the EPA denying an air quality permit, not a drilling permit this time, so we're not able to meet America's energy needs by domestic production. We've got NLRB suing the State of South Carolina, the State of Utah, the State of Arizona, and the State of South Dakota. Then we've got them suing a fine American company named Boeing.…





