Rob Bishop: “Mr. Speaker, when we entered this body a couple of months ago I was a high school teacher. And I have to admit it is…”

“Mr. Speaker, when we entered this body a couple of months ago I was a high school teacher. And I have to admit it is somewhat difficult trying to raise 5 kids on a high school teacher's salary. One of the things that was most significant, most difficult, was always dealing with those essential energy costs that were coming to us, the higher utility rates, increased gas, always seeming at the whim of foreign changes that took place, and always without a comprehensive energy policy that this country vitally needs. Those costs were ever escalating. And it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out, if you would just look at the chart we have here and follow the green line which is simply gasoline prices or gasoline production versus the red line which is prices. And you simply know as the green line goes down, prices go up. Now the inverse would also be true. If we could increase the supply, the cost would also go down. There are those who claim that there is no way we can possibly increase our energy source without totally destroying our environment. Mr. Speaker, I have to reject that failed philosophy of the past. It is possible for us to secure our environment. We all want to drink clean water, to breathe clean air, to secure the land. But we can secure our environment by relying on modern technology to also provide us with the energy source we need and a domestic energy source that we desperately need.”