Shadegg’s Boston Tea Party for American-Made Energy
“For three months, the Majority has suppressed the rights of the Minority to have a single vote on more American-made energy, and that’s just dead wrong.”
Washington,
Aug 1 -
Today, Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ) made the following remarks as he led a protest against the House Democrats’ refusal to permit a vote on increased production of American energy. Although the House Majority had left for its five-week vacation, Congressman Shadegg and several of his colleagues remained on the floor, fighting for the American people.
“Ladies and gentleman, all of you who are here in the House Chamber today, listening to us speak without the TV cameras on, and without the microphones on, are watching history. How many of you remember the Boston Tea Party? This is the Boston Tea Party! How many of you remember the Orange Revolution when they tried to repress free speech behind the Iron Curtain? This is that revolution!
In this great nation, powerful leaders cannot repress the right of the Minority to speak out. And, that is what this is about. This is about the right of the Minority to be heard on this floor, of this House, today, in this debate on the single most important issue facing this nation and that is energy policy! It’s affecting the lives and livelihoods of every single American.
Now, make no mistake about it. Those of us who are here speaking want more production of American-made energy. But we haven’t said it’s our way or the highway. We haven’t said we only want more production of oil. We haven’t said we only want oil produced from the outer continental shelf. We haven’t said we only want more oil produced from the Intermountain West, or more oil from ANWR, or even oil shale. We have said we want all of the above! We want solar! We want nuclear! We want wind! We want America to have the power it needs to get the job done.
Why would they turn off the microphones? Why would they turn off the television cameras? Because, the truth is, a majority of Americans want more American-made, American-produced energy. They are tired of being blackmailed by our enemies like Hugo Chavez. They are tired of being dependent on foreign oil when they know we have American petroleum we can use to power our economy.
You are watching history. You are watching an effort by the Minority to express itself. And you will go home someday, those of you who are young, and remember the day that you stood here. Because in America, freedom of speech rules. I will make a prediction for you right here, right now. We will, in this nation, produce more American-made energy in the very near future, notwithstanding Nancy Pelosi!
It is important to understand, that on this floor, both majorities and minorities get to speak. Typically bills come to the floor, and the Minority can offer amendments. We wanted to offer amendments for the last four months, amendments to look at the issue of where we can get more American-made energy. An amendment perhaps to allow drilling on the outer continental shelf for the thousands of barrels, tens of thousands of barrels, hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil that are off our coasts! We wanted to offer an amendment to allow us to drill on the outer continental shelf for the trillions of cubic feet of natural gas.
Now why do we want that? We want that for the average American because if we start producing our own oil and our own natural gas, prices would come down today and people would stop suffering! Please understand we didn’t want to be here today. We wanted to debate these things in regular order. We wanted a chance to offer those amendments when the bills were offered.
We wanted the chance to offer one of those amendments just two days ago, when the Majority took up a bill they thought would affect energy prices. You know what the Majority did? They said ‘No, not a single amendment will be allowed.’ They bring the bills to the floor and the rule says no amendments. So no amendment could be offered. For three months, for three months, the Majority has suppressed the rights of the Minority to have a single vote on more American-made energy, and that’s just dead wrong.
Let me end by thanking you for being here and for witnessing this moment in American history—this Boston Tea Party for America’s energy. Today, we can overcome Speaker Pelosi with your help.”
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