HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

Washington, Jul 10, 2008 - Asserting that Congress should not leave Washington for the upcoming August recess without voting on a meaningful plan to increase production of American energy, this afternoon House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) delivered a speech on the House floor highlighting congressional Democrats’ decades-long inaction on the most important issue facing American families and small businesses today.  With an overwhelming majority of Americans favoring more energy production here at home to reduce the price at the pump, House Republicans continue to promote their “all of the above” energy plan to increase American energy supplies, encourage greater conservation and efficiency, and promote the use of more alternative fuels.  The comprehensive GOP energy blueprint is the centerpiece of an American Energy Tour Boehner and 10 of his House Republican colleagues will take next week to a renewable energy lab in Colorado and a desolate, energy-rich area of Alaska’s coastal plain. 

Video and the full text of Boehner’s floor speech follows:

Click HERE for full video

“Let me thank my colleague from Texas for yielding.  I think all of us understand that American families are struggling with the high cost of food, the high cost of health care, and yes, the high cost of gasoline.  Small businesses are struggling.  And what Americans are about to see in the coming months is that the cost of fuel is in virtually everything that we buy and everything that we use.  And when we begin to see these giant price increases in the coming months, the squeeze on American families and small businesses is going to get a lot worse.  

“That’s why I and my Republican colleagues have been supporting a plan that says ‘let’s do all of the above.’  If we are serious about energy independence and serious about helping our economy, helping families, and helping small businesses, we know we need to conserve more fuel and more energy in America.  That’s why many of us voted to increase CAFE standards to get higher fuel mileage for American cars.  We voted to promote biofuels.  Whether it’s cellulosic ethanol, regular ethanol, biodiesel, there’s still room to grow in the biodiesel area.  We also need to have alternative sources of energy, whether it’s wind, whether it be solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, all of these alternatives are out there.  But we have to make sure that the incentives we have are sufficient to help bring these alternatives to market as soon as we can.  

“But we need to be serious about nuclear energy.  France produces almost 80% of its electric from nuclear energy.  In America, we put such a strangle hold on the ability to construct a nuclear plant that it takes over 15 years and billions of dollars to maybe, maybe get one sited, much less build it and to operate it.  We can meet all the safety concerns of nuclear energy in a much more efficient way that would allow people to bring these plants on and save the oil, gas and coal that is used today.  

“But even if we did all of these, we haven’t done enough.  We haven't done enough to take the step toward truly helping Americans be energy independent.  And that’s where we need to drill.  We need more American-made oil and gas and we can do this, but a lot of people on the other side continue to say no.  

“In 1989 when the ANWR bill was on this floor, George Miller, my colleague and friend from California said, we shouldn’t pass this, because even if we pass it, we wouldn't see any oil or gas out of ANWR for 10 or 12 years.  Well, let’s see, I’m not the greatest mathematician, but that was somewhere around the year 2000, we would have started to see a million to a million and half barrels of oil a day coming out of ANWR.  And even when congress finally – the House passed ANWR drilling legislation 10 or 12 times, but it’s the Senate that continued to block it.  But in 1995, the Senate actually came along and we passed an ANWR drilling bill and we sent it to President Bill Clinton and he said when he was vetoing the bill that ‘well, even if this were to become law we wouldn’t see any oil or natural gas out of ANWR for 10 years.’  Well let’s see, that’s 2005.  So for the last three years, we would have been getting a million to a million and half barrels of oil a day.  

“Now, my colleagues on the other side want to make all kinds of excuses and want to blame the speculators, they want to blame oil companies, they want to blame everybody other than who they should blame.  Get the mirror out.  Look in the mirror, because it’s my colleagues on the other side over the last 20 years who over 85% of the time have voted to block more American-made energy, every single time.  

“Now, we have been having this debate the last several months about having a pro-energy vote here on the floor of the House, right here, right here in the people’s House.  Why can’t we vote?  Why can’t we have a debate?  Why can’t we let the American people see where their Congress is, where their members are?  What do we have to fear?  

“We have to stop the appropriation process, because oh my goodness, someone might offer an amendment that would lift the moratorium on offshore drilling.  We can’t expose our Members to a vote like that, they might vote the wrong way.  Why can’t we have a vote right here in the House on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a 19 million-acre plot of ground and where we would use about 2,000 acres to actually do the drilling?  Now, if you want to look at that, that’s the size of a postage stamp on a football field.  That’s how much of ANWR would be affected by oil production up there?  Why not have a vote?  Why not let the Members make a decision?  Offshore oil drilling, how about the oil shale in the intermountain West?  Why can’t we have a vote here to have more energy production?  

“But I’m going to say it one more time, we need to do all of the above if we’re serious.  We can drill in an environmentally sound way, and that’s what we should be doing.  And Mr. Speaker, let me say, I support the gentleman’s motion to instruct and I would tell my colleagues on the other side, we’re not going to leave here for the August recess until we get a vote on having more American-made energy.  And I see my friend, the Majority Leader coming down, maybe he can promise us we will get a vote over the next three weeks on having more energy produced right here in America.  I yield back.”

#####