Political Quotes

“While you're there, if the gentleman wouldn't mind for just a minute, let me talk about another concept of taxes which I don't think many people are aware. These are things that will automatically happen. But there are bills that will be coming to the floor sometime soon that deal with tax increases on our form of energy production. Now one of those things listed in there in the cost of doing business is also the cost of energy that takes place. There is a bill that passed the Natural Resources Committee, it's called the CLEAR Act, which purportedly dealt with what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico which is a terrible crisis and needs to be changed in some way. {time} 1840 But deep within the bowels of this bill is a $2 per gallon tax increase on all oil produced in the Gulf of Mexico, and a 40 cents I think it's per trillion cubic feet of natural gas that will be produced in the Gulf of Mexico. And one would assume, if we are dealing with the Gulf of Mexico, that money could be for restoration work, for cleanup work, for those who have lost jobs and lost income during that period of time. Unfortunately, that's not what that money will be used for if this bill passes. That money is all going to go to the Federal department into a specific fund which would now bypass appropriations and be just under a billion dollars a year to buy more land in the Federal inventory.…”