Political Quotes

“I come to speak against the Congressional Review Act resolution to overrun an important rule that has been put in place to protect the American taxpayer and to protect the health of American citizens. For almost 100 years, the Federal Government has regulated undue waste in oil and gas fields. The story of oil and gas waste is as old as the story of oil and gas. Early oil gushers, like Spindletop in Texas, revealed two things about oil as an emerging source of energy: First, there was a huge amount of it. Second, without rules in place, it could be easily wasted. That is why, way back in 1915, Attorney General Thomas Gregory issued a report to the public about this issue. Gregory wrote that the law at the time allowed oil companies to ``occupy and operate any number of tracts of public oil land without restraint upon the quantities of oil produced or the methods of production and without rendering to the . . . government anything in return.'' One can imagine that concern. Gregory went on to point out that ``the incentives to speculative occupation, negligent and wasteful operation, and excess production become obvious.'' Some of my colleagues who are not on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee may not be familiar with the law Congress passed after Attorney General Gregory put his finger on the waste problem. The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 established our modern leasing program for oil and natural gas.…”