Ted Poe: “I thank the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Duncan) for sponsoring this leadership hour and bringing the issue of…”

“I thank the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Duncan) for sponsoring this leadership hour and bringing the issue of energy to the attention of the House and the American public. Yes, Mr. Speaker, we consider where I live, Houston, Texas, the energy capital of the world because it is the energy capital of the world. And it is because of our location. Fifty percent of the Houston ship channel exports exports are energy-related, not just energy itself, but everything that is used in the development of energy throughout the world. Fifty percent of the economy of Houston is based upon the Houston ship channel. We are experiencing a phenomenon in this country that nobody thought would happen 5 or 6 years ago, and that is the abundance and surplus of natural gas and what we call Texas sweet crude, or light crude, an abundance of it in this Nation. There is so much natural gas being produced in this country that in south Texas, in the Dakotas, they are flaring gas wells. They are capping wells in west Texas. What does that mean? That means that when they flare wells, there are over 1,500 wells that are being flared. That is enough energy to take care of a million homes. We are talking about a lot of energy. We are talking about a lot of natural gas. So what do we do with that? Well, we should sell it. There is an ice cream company down in Texas. It is a little creamery in Brenham, Texas, a German community, called Blue Bell Ice Cream. It is the best ice cream in the world, Mr.…”