Pete Sessions: “I would just like to share a few remarks at this time concerning the energy bill. We need to improve our production of…”

“I would just like to share a few remarks at this time concerning the energy bill. We need to improve our production of energy within the United States, and I would like to share a few thoughts about why I think it is a critical part of stimulating the economy. At this time of economic slowdown, we need to create circumstances that will allow the economy to grow and flower. It has struck me for some time--and I have mentioned this on the floor previously--that our economic slowdown began over a year ago, and it began not long after we saw a tremendous surge in the price of energy. The price of a barrel of oil in the United States was as low as $13 a barrel. It soon leaped to $30 a barrel. And 60 percent of all the oil we utilize in the United States is purchased abroad. So there was a tremendous transfer of American wealth. We got no more oil--not a single barrel of oil--but we were paying more than twice as much for that oil as we were paying just months before it surged upward. That drained a great deal of money from this economy. It demonstrated, with great clarity, the dependence we have on foreign oil. And most of the reserves of foreign oil are in the Middle East. It has pointed out the dangers we face if we do not make some changes. Now we are engaged in hostilities in the Middle East, and we see, once again, just how fragile that supply of oil is to our Nation, and how quickly it can be interrupted. Our economy needs to improve.…”