Peter Welch: “There are two issues that have been debated during the course of this proposed amendment. One is what is the proper way…”

“There are two issues that have been debated during the course of this proposed amendment. One is what is the proper way to try to provide new supplies of oil. There is a debate here, as Mr. McKeon has outlined it, and it has been carried on in many other bills relating to energy, about the possibility of the United States drilling and capturing more oil and natural gas here in our own territorial boundaries. The premise, of course, is if we did that, we would be able significantly to address the problem, and it also has as a premise that the obstacles to drilling are what is causing us not to drill. In fact, that simply is not true. There are tens of millions of acres of federally owned land that are leased to the oil and gas companies, and only 28 percent of acres on shore and only 20 percent of the acres offshore where there actually are leases left are producing oil and gas. So there is an enormous capacity already that is out there for oil and gas companies to do the drilling. Why they don't, I guess we would have to ask them. But it is hard to imagine that there is a disincentive for them to take these leases that they have, giving them the opportunity to drill, when we have got oil that hovers around $130 a barrel. So the suggestion that that is the problem I think is incorrect.”