On the recordMay 5, 2011
This isn't about oil company profits. This is about supply and demand. We don't have the supply necessary to meet the energy needs in this country. But the American people know that we've got the resources here in this country, whether it's offshore, on the Outer Continental Shelf, or on Federal lands that have currently under this administration been taken off the table for energy production. Supply and demand drives the price. We are reliant on foreign sources of oil, and a foreign group known as OPEC determines the price of that oil they sell to us. We've got the resource in this country. This legislation will put the gulf back to work, meeting the energy needs for the American people. I'm a small business owner. I doubt many people that serve in this body have ever run a business, met a payroll, and tried to meet their overhead. I can tell you what $4.85 a gallon in August of 2008 meant to my small business only running two trucks on the road. I can only imagine what the loggers, what the truckers, what the farmers, and the other industries in the Third Congressional District of South Carolina are feeling today with the experience of rising oil prices. The gentlelady from Florida said that in the summer, prices go up. We're not in summer yet. Prices are going up because of supply and demand. We have the opportunity to meet our demand right here by harvesting American resources for our American energy needs.
