Lynn Westmoreland

Mr. WESTMORELAND

Mr. WESTMORELAND. I thank my friend. Now I have got to go catch a plane, but I hope that everybody will go to House.gov/westmoreland, Madam Speaker, to find out who is for drilling and who is for not just drilling, but like the gentleman from Texas said, for producing more of our natural resources to lower the price of gas. Now I want to yield to my good friend from Nebraska, from the heartland of this country, from one of the corn-producing States, another one of my classmates that came in, and that is Mr. Fortenberry.

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Thank you. January 18, and these are quotes from H.R. 6, which was their mantelpiece legislation. This was their commonsense plan, I guess, for bringing down the skyrocketing gas that at the time was $2.23 a gallon: Ms. Sheila Jackson-Lee said: ``The price per barrel of oil is $50 plus.'' Today I think it's about $140. She goes on to say: ``And so what is this Congress and this leadership doing? It is doing the right thing.'' January 18, floor statement by Steve Israel: ``This dependence on foreign oil, Mr. Speaker, is a glaring threat to our national security.'' I could not agree with you more. But we are more dependent today than we were when you made that statement. Mr. John Lewis, my colleague from Georgia: ``More than ever we need to get our priorities straight. We need to stop dancing while Rome burns and reverse the damage we have done to our environment. The American people need relief from energy costs.'' And I couldn't agree with you more, Mr. Lewis, but the problem is that gas has almost doubled since you made that statement. Rahm Emanuel: ``Mr. Speaker, let's review the score: ``Big Oil, one; taxpayers, zero. Now the score is tied, and we are just getting warmed up.'' Well, I hope you're about as warm as you're going to get, Mr. Emanuel, because I don't know if we can stand any more of this. January 18, 2007, floor statement from Allyson Schwartz: ``The United States imports 65 percent of the oil we consume. We spend $800 million every day on foreign oil-producing countries. This threatens our economic stability, our environmental security, and our national security, and today we say `enough.''' Well, I say ``enough'' too, but if we had said ``enough'' then and started producing our own oil and started using our own natural resources, maybe oil wouldn't have almost doubled since then. The chairman of the Democratic Congressional Committee, Mr. Chris Van Hollen, said this: ``This is the time to change direction, to set a new course on energy policy, to say to the country we're not just talking rhetoric, we mean what we say.'' Mr. John Yarmuth: ``Mr. Speaker, my constituent, like yours, paid over $3 a gallon for gas last year. Isn't that enough?'' Absolutely it's enough. But today we are paying over $4 a gallon, and the reason we are is because we refuse to use our own natural resources for the health of this country and, like so many of these other statements said, for the national security of this country. Stephanie Tubbs Jones: ``Critics of H.R. 6 argue this measure will place an undue burden on oil companies which will lead to higher gas prices.'' Okay. We must have been right because what happened was after H.R. 6, with gas being $2.23 a gallon, today it is $4.08. What we are trying to do, before I yield to some of my colleagues, we have that petition that my friend from Indiana and I have been talking about, and what it says is ``I will vote to increase oil production to lower the price of gas.'' And what that means is bringing onshore drilling online, offshore drilling online, deepwater oil online, and bring in more refineries online. If we bring onshore oil online, it will save anywhere from 70 cents to $1.60 a gallon. To bring deepwater oil online, the Outer Continental Shelf, 90 cents to $2.50 a gallon. To bring new refineries online, and not one has been built since 1976, would save anywhere from 15 to 45 cents. The gas tax holiday, 18 cents. To halt oil shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a nickel. Now, I have got some more quotes on that, and, of course, this was passed in the House probably back in May. We stopped those shipments in July, and so we should find out if it's going to bring it down a nickel a gallon. But if you look at what the Democrat plan was, and this is that commonsense plan, I'm assuming, but ``sue OPEC,'' we have had a lot of success with that. ``Launch the seventh investigation to price gougers.'' ``Launch the fourth investigation to speculators.'' Now, we put that lipstick on that pig today with the speculation bill, that we just really passed something that's already on the books. ``Twenty billion dollars in new taxes on oil producers.'' I can hardly wait to see what that does to lower the price of gas. And we've seen that just not even putting the new taxes on them but just taking tax relief away from them has caused gas to almost double. And then of course they've got ``halt oil shipments,'' which is a nickel. You can see that if we put our policies in place that gas today would be somewhere around $2.10, and that's using very conservative savings over there. And you can see that if this works, and we don't even know that this is going to work, it would be about $4.03. So we hope that we will get 300 signatures on this petition to show the American people that we are not going to lie here in a fetal position or just keep doing repetitious things to make you think we are doing something. So if you could just go to the house.gov/westmoreland and look at it. We had 45,000 hits on it, Madam Speaker, last night. And we have had a couple of Members that have come to us and said, We have heard and we want to go from the ``would not sign'' to the ``sign.'' So we can't do it, Madam Speaker, if people aren't going to be involved with us because we don't have that much influence over the majority. I would like to yield to the gentlewoman from North Carolina, my classmate (Ms. Foxx).

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Mr. Burton will dialogue with you.

Mr. WESTMORELAND

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Mr. Speaker, it's good to be here tonight, and I wanted to come and talk about something that's concerning Americans all over this country, and that's the price of gas and what we're doing about it here in this body, this decisive body that's supposed to be decisive, that takes action when we find our country in need. I wanted to talk a little bit about something that happened to me shortly a couple of weeks ago I guess, and I started having people, Mr. Speaker, e-mail me and ask me questions about signing different types of petitions on the Internet, drill here, drill now, lower prices, several other ones on the Internet, so Americans could let their Members of Congress, Mr. Speaker, know how they felt about these skyrocketing gas prices that they had been promised by the new majority that they would get control of. So I was in a service station down home, and there was another petition laying on the counter. I'm assuming that the proprietor of that service station put that down to give people something to do rather than beat him over the head, but it was a petition: Please sign here if you want to see Congress lower gas prices. So I came up with an idea, Mr. Speaker. I said, you know, the American people are letting us know, as their representatives, how they feel. We need to let them know how we feel. And so I came up with this petition that's pretty simple. What it says is: American energy solutions for lower gas prices; bring onshore oil on-line; bring deepwater oil on-line; and bring new refineries on-line. We have not produced in this country, Mr. Speaker, a refinery since the late 1970s. We now import about 7 billion gallons of gas a year. We also import about the same amount of diesel. So we don't even have the refining capacity to refine what we import. So I did this, and I made a little petition. You can see it over here. It's got spots for 435 people plus the non-voting Delegates to sign. So far I'm pleased to say, Mr. Speaker, we've got 188 people who have signed this. We've got three Democrats, three brave Democrats that have signed it: Neil Abercrombie, Patrick Murphy, and Mr. Speaker, I believe Henry Cuellar was the last one from Texas. And so these are brave people that understand that we have got to do something. The majority says, well, it will be 10 years before we ever get oil. We've got to start today. If President Clinton in 1995 had not vetoed the drilling in ANWR, we would be producing 1 million gallons of crude oil for this country every day. So, Mr. Speaker, what this is about--and by the way, this is very simple, because what it says is, I will vote to increase U.S. oil production to lower the price of gas for Americans. And Mr. Speaker, if anybody wanted to know if their Member was on the petition, they could go to house.gov/westmoreland to see if their Member is on there. We've had two Members that did not sign originally, and Mr. Speaker, they were put on the would-not-sign list. They have heard from their constituents and have come back and are now signed onto the petition. So, Mr. Speaker, it is very important for people to understand where their Members of Congress are at on the energy issue. You're going to hear all kinds of excuses. You're going to hear all kinds of different regulations they want to put in place, all kinds of different taxes they want to put in place. This petition is too simple for most Members of this body to understand because it only says, I will vote to increase oil production in the United States, our own natural resources, to lower gas prices for Americans. That's all it says. And if somebody wanted to know, Mr. Speaker, they could go to house.gov/westmoreland, and see exactly where their Member of Congress was at because, listen, Mr. Speaker, we hear about change from just about every candidate running, but we are going to have to be forced to change by our constituents. Because as you've seen since the new majority came in in January of 2007, there's been nothing done. So, Mr. Speaker, I would ask the American people if I could to help us bring about change by notifying your Congressman and say get out of the fetal position and let's be called to action.

Mr. WESTMORELAND

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. WESTMORELAND

Mr. WESTMORELAND. It's good to be here this morning and to be back to work on a good Tuesday morning, Madam Speaker, to let the American people know that we are on the job and that we're here to, hopefully, this week work on the price at the pump. We are here to work on America's independence. As we're coming up on Independence Day, on the Fourth of July, we're working on America's independence from foreign oil. About 2 weeks ago, I started getting calls from constituents about signing a petition that was on americansolutions.com, and then there were other petitions I was called about--Internet petitions--where Americans were telling Congress this is what we want you to do: Drill here. Drill now. Lower prices. I was at a gas station in my district, and I went in, and there was a petition there. It said, ``We want to lower gas prices.'' I guess the attendant there was doing that to keep people busy so they wouldn't be hollering at him. So I came up with an idea. The American people are telling us how they feel. Let's have an opportunity. Let's have our own petition within this House, Madam Speaker, to tell the American people how we feel. So I've come up with a petition. There is no legislation. There is no discharge petition. It's just something that each Member of this body can state to their constituents. Basically, it says American energy solutions for lower gas prices. Bring onshore oil on line. Bring deepwater oil on line. Bring new refineries on line. The pledge has 435 lines, one for every Member. What it says is ``I will vote to increase U.S. oil production to lower gas prices for Americans.'' It's very simple. ``I will vote to increase U.S. oil production to lower gas prices for Americans.'' That's very simple. Now, I've heard every excuse in the world from people on this floor, Madam Speaker, about why they didn't want to sign it. Well, if people out there are wanting to know if their Member has signed, they could go to house.gov/westmoreland and see if their Member is on there. They can see if they've signed, and they can see if it says that they will vote to increase U.S. oil production to lower gas prices for Americans. This is very important. We need to let you know, the American people know, how we feel about the situation that you're in. You're in a situation where you go to the gas pump, and you may have to spend a larger portion of your paycheck than you normally would, but that's only small. We've got winter coming. With natural gas prices as high as they are, you're going to be cold in your home and will not be able to get in your car and drive anywhere to get warm. So it's not just about the crude oil. It's about the natural gas. We have so much off of our coast, so much natural gas, so much oil in the Outer Continental Shelf. Untie our hands, Madam Speaker. Let our oil go. We want to be self-dependent. We don't want to rely on foreign countries. I hope that the American people will help us persuade other Members of this body that we need to vote to drill here, to drill now and to lower prices.

Mr. WESTMORELAND

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Thank you, sir. You know, I want to just show the American people: We're not going to immediately drill ourselves out of the spot, Mr. Speaker. But in 1995, the Congress passed drilling in ANWR. President Clinton vetoed it. Had he not vetoed it in 1995 we would be getting one million barrels of oil today out of ANWR. So is this an immediate relief? No. It's immediate relief from, I think, the speculation and the amount of escrowing. But this is an all- of-the-above issue. We've got to start drilling. We've got to start doing alternative fuels. We've got to build refineries. We've got to be doing onshore and offshore drilling. We've got to do coal-to-liquid. There are a lot of things we have to do and not just lay here in a fetal position. But this is what really burns me up when I think about being dependent on foreign oil. This is a picture of Mr. Chavez from Venezuela and Mr. Castro from Cuba. In a recent interview on al Jazeera, Chavez called for developing nations to unite against U.S. political and economic policies. ``What We Can Do Regarding the Imperialistic Power of the United States.'' ``We have no choice but to unite,'' he said. ``Venezuela's energy alliances with nations such as Cuba, which receives cheap oil and are an example of how we use oil in our war against neo liberalism,'' he said. If you saw it on TV this morning, you saw where he threatened the European nations with no more Venezuelan oil because they passed an immigration law that he didn't like. This guy is not our friend. The bottom, on March 15, 2005, Washington Post; or as he put it on another occasion, ``We have invaded the United States with our oil.'' Now, I'm fixing to show you something, Mr. Speaker, and I don't know if you can see it or not, but maybe you'll get a look at it. But Mr. Speaker, I'm going to show you something that's really going to burn you up. This is a copy of the check that American families and businesses write to Mr. Chavez. Every day, 365 days a year, we write him a check for $170,250,000. Mr. Speaker, that's a crime. We could be writing those checks to American men and women with the jobs that we would create if we would use our own natural resources for our own benefit. So Mr. Speaker, I've got 5 minutes to close. And I want to put up this address, because this address, Mr. Speaker, is for real energy solutions. It's a simple address, www.house.gov/westmoreland. And you can go to that address, Mr. Speaker--and I hope you will go tonight, Mr. Speaker--and see the names on there that have signed the petition, the commonsense petition, a petition that just says ``I will vote to increase oil production to lower the price of gas for Americans.'' That's as simple as you can get, Mr. Speaker. We had 32,000 hits on this Web site either last night or the night before last. Americans want to know where their Congressman represent. And Mr. Speaker, let me close by saying this: So many politicians today that the American people hear on TV are talking about change. And I don't know if it's the kind of change that we're thinking about because, as an American citizen, the change that I hope that Congress or that elected officials would have, Mr. Speaker, is a change that they would be honest, that they would be honest with what they tell the American people and not come to Washington and write a bunch of legislation that's very confusing about what it really means. And I read your excerpts today, Mr. Speaker, that read what some of your colleagues had said about the legislation that they passed and what it was going to do for fuel prices. And some of that legislation was over a year ago, and it has just continued, gas is at $4.08 a gallon. But Mr. Speaker, if I could talk to the American people, I would tell them this: that there will never really be any change in this country, Mr. Speaker, until the people that get up every morning that are citizens of this land, that look in the mirror, and if that person, Mr. Speaker, that they see in the mirror will not change, then we're not going to change. And so sometimes it takes effort, Mr. Speaker, from the men and women out there that watch us and listen to us and abide by the laws that we make to take things into their own hands and to let us know how they feel. Over a million people have signed a petition, ``Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less.'' We're hearing from them. We need to hear from you. Mr. Speaker, if I could talk to the American people, I would tell them, your Congressman and your Senator need to hear from you. You need to know if they're willing to vote to increase the production of oil in this country from our own natural resources, be less dependent on foreign oil and foreign resources, and lower the price of American gas. And you can find out if your Congressman is on that petition or not by going to house.gov/westmoreland. You're going to hear all kind of arguments of why they didn't sign it or haven't signed it, but Mr. Speaker, those arguments are so simple that the argument doesn't even hold up. So Mr. Speaker, with that, I'm going to yield the well and yield my time here, and just thank you for your patience in listening to the truth that's been brought to you. And thank my friends that have come down tonight, my colleagues that have come down to help me, Mr. Speaker, try to explain to the American people that we're serious about bringing them some relief at the pump.

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Ms. Foxx, after these bills come to the floor next week, or if we ever do get a chance to see them, we're going to have to bring back the old truth squad to make sure that the American people, Mr. Speaker, get the truth. It's now my honor to yield to a friend of mine that came in shortly after I did to Congress, and if I could name anybody in this Congress a taxpayers's friend, I would have to name John Campbell. And so I yield to him.

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Have a safe trip. Mr. Speaker, thank you for this, and sorry, but he had to take a little trip. And I want to go back, first of all, and just talk about the petition for a minute and the fact that I had been contacted by several of my constituents, Mr. Speaker, asking me if I had gone on to some of these web pages and signed the petition that said, one said, drill here, drill now, pay less. There were some others. I don't know the particular names. And then I was in a service station/grocery store that had a petition laying on the counter where you paid. It said, Sign this if you want to lower gas prices. And so what I found is that the American people were doing everything that they could, Mr. Speaker, to let us know, Members of Congress, the people who are sworn to take action to help our constituents, the people were telling us. But there was no way for them to know how we felt about reducing the price of gas because under the new majority, we will never have an opportunity to vote on these things because they know if they brought it to the floor that it would pass and it would hurt their base, the radical environmentalists. So I tried to come up with something as simple as possible because I believe in simplicity and people can understand the simplicity. So I came up with my own petition, Mr. Speaker. And this petition was for the 435 Members that have the ability to vote in this House and then the delegates from some of the other territories. And it says, American energy solutions for lower gas prices. Bring onshore oil on line, bring deep water oil on line, and bring new refineries on line. A lot of people might not realize with the refinery part of it that we haven't built a refinery in this country since 1978, 30 years since we built a refinery. A lot of people would be amazed to know that we import from Canada, Great Britain, Norway, a number of other OPEC nations, 6.9 billion gallons of refined gasoline into this country every year, about the same amount of diesel fuel because we cannot even refine what crude oil that we've got. So I have made these boards up. I have had them up now, today is Friday, and we have had them up 4 days this week and 1 day last week. And it is so simple that it is confusing a lot of people on this floor. It says, House of Representatives energy petition. I will vote to increase U.S. oil production to lower gas prices for Americans. Mr. Speaker, I know that you understand that. I understand that. But some people must not understand it because we've only had 170 people sign it. And so if this bill comes to the floor, which I don't think-- and by the way, the Speaker said today that she's bringing four energy bills next week, and I'm going to talk about them in a minute and give you some kind of idea how they're going to help. But this is real simple, it just says that whoever is representing you will vote to increase our U.S. oil production. Because see, we shouldn't be in a position--because to me, we're the greatest Nation in the world. And Mr. Speaker, we shouldn't put the leader of the free world, the President of this country, in a position to where Mr. Schumer from the Senate or Ms. Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, is asking him to go hat-in-hand to countries that are basically our enemies and asking them to increase their oil production to use their natural resources for our benefit. Now, somebody is not thinking clearly. We don't need to put our President in that position. We don't need to be asking anybody anything when in this country in shale oil in the western States we have 1.5 trillion barrels. That's more than Saudi Arabia has. And so why in the world do we want to be in this position? So I came up with a petition. Right now we have 170 people that have signed the petition. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to give the American people an opportunity, and I know I can't talk to them, but if I could talk to them, if I could address them, I would tell them for real energy solutions that they would want to go to www.house.gov/westmoreland and see if their Congressman has signed this petition. And when you call them, you might get some dancing, some shuffling around. There is no dancing, there is no shuffling. It's one sentence. One sentence: I will vote to increase U.S. oil production and lower gas prices for Americans. I will be quiet about the petition for a minute. Here is the address. I will say one thing about one individual that signed this. And his name is Neil Abercrombie, and he's from the great State of Hawaii. Neil is the only Democrat that has signed the petition. He's the only Democrat that has signed the petition. And he knows that at some point in time, we have got to start. And he knows that the party line that, you know, there's 68 million acres out there that's been leased, and that's true, but there's 2.5 trillion acres that could be leased, Mr. Speaker. But this Congress has passed bans that says you can't. The President has said he's willing to take off the executive order if Congress would move to take off our order. We're not going to move on that. So I want to congratulate Neil and all of the people that he represents for him having the courage. And he's given some of the greatest speeches on the floor of this House that I've heard in my 16 years of legislative experience, not just in here but in the State of Georgia. So Neil, my hat's off to you and you should be congratulated. I want to talk about for just a couple of minutes, I know I have got several of my colleagues here to join me, but I wanted to talk for a minute about what the Democrats have done so far in the 110th Congress. Because see, back in April, and if you will remember the gentleman, Mr. Shimkus, had a thing up about when the Democrats took over this Congress in 2006, that oil was about $56 a barrel. What happened was when they were running for office, Speaker Pelosi said back in April of 2006, Democrats have a commonsense plan for lowering the skyrocketing price of gasoline. Now, keep in mind that the skyrocketing price at the time was about $2.26 a gallon. Man. Did you ever think you would long for the days when gas was $2.26 a gallon? Anyway, we have yet to see that secret plan. They have brought out some plans, but I don't think they've really brought out the secret plan yet. I want to quote a little bit here from the Democrats. They passed a price gouging prevention, and you can see right here. Here is the Democrats' philosophy on lowering the gas prices: Sue OPEC. That's gone a long ways. Launch the seventh investigation into price gougers. The seventh investigation. Mr. Speaker, I think the American people want us to get out of the committee hearing, the investigation mode, and get into the action mode. We're in the fetal position mode right now. Launch the fourth investigation into speculators, $20 billion in new taxes on oil producers. Mr. Speaker, that took an economic genius to figure out that raising taxes $20 billion on a producer or a manufacturer is going to lower the price to the consumer. Halt oil shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would save a nickel a gallon. So their price, it brings it down from $4.08 to $4.03. But I want to read you some of the quotes. This was the Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act, H.R. 1252, that the Democrats in this body passed on May 23, 2007. May 23, 2007, was when this was passed. ``This bill has been around for over a year. So let's stop the excuses. American people don't want arguments about that process. They want relief at the pump, and that's what we're doing today. Lookit, today Members of the House have a very simple choice. Vote to stand up with consumers, your constituents, who are paying record gasoline prices, nationwide average, record prices, or vote to protect big oil companies' enormous profits.'' That was Representative Bart Stupak on May 23, 2007. When this was passed, oil was $65.77. As you saw earlier, it's $136- and-change now. At the time this was passed, the national average was $3.22 a gallon. It is now $4.08 a gallon. So you see the price gouging does not work, Mr. Speaker. Another comment: ``Mr. Speaker, again, the American consumers need us to act, they want us to act, they demand that we do act. Now is the time.'' Congressman Bobby Rush on May 23, 2007. I think that action was just a charade because it has not helped the price of our gas. And so while we look at these things, we've got to understand that the things that the Democrats are wanting to do does not do it. Now, let's look over here at what my petition does or at least asks to do on the Republican side. Bring onshore oil online, ANWR, shale, anywhere from 70 cents to $1.60 a gallon; bring deepwater oil online, OCS, 90 cents to $2.50 a gallon; bring new refineries online, 15 cents to 45 cents. That would bring it down probably to about $2.10 a gallon. These are actions. These others are charades. And so I think the American people, Mr. Speaker, are tired of the charades. But let me just identify one more charade that we've had, and Mr. Speaker, that was when we had H.R. 6022, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Fill Suspension and Consumer Protection Act of 2008. This was passed on May 13, 2008, and you can see, halt oil shipments to the strategic petroleum, a nickel. So this is the bill. Here was the quote from Chairman Dingell: ``While there is no guarantee that putting this oil onto the market rather than into the SPR will lower prices, even such a modest step could potentially prick the speculative bubble now characterizing oil markets.'' Mr. Chairman, it didn't prick anything because evidently it made them mad because it has gone up. But let me tell you what will prick that speculative market. What will prick it is when we vote to put a drill bit in the ground, and just by us voting to put the drill bit in the ground, the speculation will stop. Representative Peter Welch, the lead sponsor, said this: ``When we have reduced oil going into the SPR in the past it has proven to actually have a direct and immediate impact on lowering the price of gas at the pump from 5 cents to 25 cents a gallon. ``And basically the question for us is whether or not, even as we have to proceed with long-term debates about our future energy policy, is this Congress going to be willing to take a short-term step that has the potential to bring down energy prices.'' Congressman Welch, there was not a lot of potential there because prices have gone up. Representative Nick Lampson from Texas, somebody that should know about drilling and the benefits that drilling would do to bring down the price of energy: ``This bill provides a quick first step, maybe not much, but at least it's an action on the part of our Congress. ``Suspending the SPR will put an additional 70,000 barrels of oil on the market each day. It could help reduce prices at a critical time for us in our country.'' It has not reduced the price at all. Representative Jason Altmire: ``This Congress has to act. And we are going to act today. And we are going to save the American people a quarter on the gallon.'' So, when you go into the service station to fill up tomorrow or the next day or tonight, ask them if they've heard that we have passed the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Fill Suspension and Consumer Protection Act of 2008, because I can promise you your gas will not be 25 cents a gallon less than what it was on the day we passed this. I'd now like to recognize my friend from North Carolina, the battering ram as some people call her in here, but she's one of the most fierce legislators that I've ever met in my career, and the congresswoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx).

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Fifty-four cents a gallon.

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Thank you, Mr. Campbell. And I'm going to go back down front and play a little musical chairs here.

Mr. WESTMORELAND. If I could just interrupt, claim back my time for just 1 minute in the fact that they want us to use alternative fuels. They want to go to alternative fuels and we do to. We think that is something that we need to be developing. But this, what you're talking about the, the Outer Continental Shelf, the U.S. coal, the shale oil, those are things that we know we have. And the funny part about what they want us to do about using alternative fuels, there was section 526, if you'll remember, in a defense bill that said that the U.S. government could not use alternative fuels. So, you know, which is it? Do they want us to or not? And so, you know, that's where we're caught, and that's what a lot of people, I think, to my friend in America, don't understand that we're getting a lot of conflicting things from the majority side right now.

Mr. WESTMORELAND. A good-paying job.

Mr. WESTMORELAND. And to my friend, reclaiming my time for just a moment. That is the reason that I came up with the petition because there were so many people that were signing petitions on the Internet, drill here, drill now, lower prices, other locations, that I knew we will never get to have a straight up or down vote on the drilling, onshore, offshore and adding refineries. And so that's the reason I wanted to come up with the petition. And I appreciate the gentleman making the point. This is the only way the American people will ever know how their congressman feels is by his or her signing this petition, because they will have no chance to have that simple of a vote. And what this petition says, I will vote to increase U.S. oil production to lower gas prices for Americans. And you know, some things may be too simple for some of these legislators to understand. They keep wanting to make it complicated. It's not complicated, because to sign that pledge and they know that they're never going to get to vote on it. I think it would at least let their constituents know that they have some feeling for them when those people ride up to the gas pump and feel that pain at the pump.

Mr. WESTMORELAND. That's about as simple as it gets, isn't it?

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Mr. Speaker, I'm glad that I'm able to be here today with my friend, Mr. Shimkus, and I think that he has some travel plans, so I'm going to immediately yield to him. And I can't wait to hear what he's got to say.

Mr. WESTMORELAND. And can I read one comment? This was from Greenpeace. They say, Let's end fossil fuel use. For decades, we have relied on oil, coal, and gas to meet our ever- increasing energy needs. And now we are facing the consequences for our actions in global warming. You know, 85 percent of our energy consumption today is supplied by fossil fuels. This is the base of the majority party, and this is what is driving our energy policy in Congress today. And I think what the gentleman has gone through, especially with the coal and the shale to oil to liquid, just reiterates the Democrats' position almost precisely what Greenpeace stated on their Web site.

Mr. WESTMORELAND

Mr. WESTMORELAND. I feel like I know the answer to this, but if this motion should pass, could the bill not be referred back to the committee from which it came and be reported out the next legislative day?

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Mr. Speaker, parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. WESTMORELAND

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight to address you and the other Members of this body. And I wanted to bring to the attention, Mr. Speaker, the fact that I guess several weeks ago we had calls from constituents and seeing constituents at town hall meetings and other places. They had asked me if I had been on-line or on the Internet to sign some of the petitions that different people had up to bring down the price of gas. They were tired of going to the pump and paying $4 a gallon for the gas. They had heard the promises from the Majority of the 110th Congress made back when they were running for office, that they had a commonsense plan to bring down the cost of skyrocketing gas which, at the time, was about $2.20. It's now about $4.08. So they were mystified as much as I was about what this secret plan was. And so they were going on-line and signing these Internet petitions asking us or letting us know, Members of this body, that they were demanding that gas prices come down, and by doing that, to drill here and to drill now. One of those Internet sites, and there's many, but one is American Solutions. And I understand today, from reading an article, that over a million Americans have gone to that site and said, you know what? Let's drill here, let's drill now, and let's lower gas prices. And so I was thinking to myself because I had gone into a service station to fill up with the $4 a gallon gas in my pickup truck, and there was a petition laying on the counter that said, you know, we want our gas prices brought down. Sign this petition. And I thought, you know, not only is this an Internet, but people that are working at these service stations and I'm sure other places are having these petitions saying, you know, we need our energy costs brought down. And Mr. Speaker, I said, you know, the American people need to know how their Members of Congress feel. We're hearing from them on all of these different petitions how they feel. They need to know how their representative feels. So I came up with a petition. And basically, this petition says, American energy solutions for lower gas prices. And it brings onshore oil on-line. It brings deep water oil on-line. And it brings new refineries on-line. And that's pretty simple. That's about as simple as you can get in this body. Everything we vote on here is so convoluted that many of the Members don't understand what they're voting on, Mr. Speaker. And a majority of the American people do not know. Some of these bills are three and four and 500 pages. And it's hard to consume all that information and understand what is going on. So a lot of Members can have an excuse to vote for or against it because, as Mr. Obey said today on the floor, they make these bills to get 218 votes. So they take these bills and put as many sweeteners in it as they need to to get to 218. So many Members can say, well, it was a bad piece of legislation, but because they put X, Y, or Z in it, I voted for it. I wanted to keep this petition as simple as possible. And so basically, what the petition says, I will vote to increase U.S. oil production, to lower gas prices for Americans. How much simpler can you get? Mr. Speaker, you can't imagine some of the answers from the Members of this body for not wanting to sign this. They're unbelievable. I don't know how they're going to explain it to their constituents, but their constituents have an opportunity to see, and we update this, Mr. Speaker, on our Web site, which is house.gov/westmoreland, W-E-S-T-M-O- R-E-L-A-N-D. We update it after every series of votes, so it will be updated probably in about 30 or 45 minutes. It will be updated and you can go to that Web site. And we had 32,000 hits on that Web site last night, for people wanting to go and see how their congressman felt about it. Now, we've had about 160 Congressmen that have signed this so far, so we're probably about 58 short of getting to 218, which is what you need to pass this. So, Mr. Speaker, I would encourage all Americans to go to that and to find out how the Members of this House feel about lowering gas prices in this country.

Mr. WESTMORELAND

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Thank you. And let me just close with saying this: You're probably going to hear later on tonight that there are 68 million acres out there to drill on. Keep this in mind, Madam Speaker, we don't go to the hardware store to buy groceries. We're not going to drill on land that does not have resources under it. If you look at the Outer Continental Shelf and the lands that the Federal Government have inside this country, it is 2.5 billion acres of land. You're going to hear that the oil companies have these leases and they're not drilling them. It is law today that if a company that leases land does not honor that lease agreement, that lease is taken away from them. These arguments will not hold water. It is time to act, and the time is now. It is time that this Congress turns into a Congress of action that wants to move forward--our being less dependent on foreign oil--and quit relying on our enemies in an unstable region to produce our oil, to produce our energy. So I want to thank the two gentlemen for joining me tonight. I hope you will go to house.gov/westmoreland and see the people that have signed up and believe in the fact that we need to increase U.S. oil production to lower the gas prices for all Americans. And Mr. Peterson, you can close.

Mr. WESTMORELAND. And Madam Speaker, with that, I know you have enjoyed this, we yield back the balance of our time.

Mr. WESTMORELAND. That is the part that we know the billions of gallons of oil are under. That's the part.

Mr. WESTMORELAND. See, this is a picture of it. It's a frozen tundra. It goes back to the fact that we are continually getting further and further behind. I think the American people, Madam Speaker, are at a point where they're saying we are wanting some action. And that's the reason we came up with the petition for Members of Congress to sign because we are the ones that can create the action. The American people can't create the action. It's our duty to create the action. And so we started the petition, and this is a petition for just the Members, the elected Members of this body. It says: American energy solutions for lower gas prices. Bring onshore oil online, bring deepwater oil online. And I guess we need to add natural gas to that, too, because that sounds like something we need to get on in a hurry. But also bring new refineries, bring new capabilities of refining this oil where we don't have to import 6.9 billion gallons of gas into this country a year. And so what we did, we came up with a petition that's simple. This is not hard for anybody to understand, and you can't dance around it. It basically says: I will vote to increase U.S. oil production to lower gas prices for Americans. And we've got every Member, even the Delegates, a place to sign here. So far, out of the 435 Members, plus the Delegates, I don't know if that's seven delegates or whatever it is, we have 126 signatures. And so it's going good, and you can go to house.gov/westmoreland to find out if your Member of Congress has signed it or not. We're trying to make this as simple as we can, to make us a responsive body, a body of action, rather than just laying here saying ``we can't'' to ``we can.'' And I think that the gentleman from Pennsylvania and the gentleman from Indiana have made terrific points here tonight, and I want to thank you all for coming. We've got about 8 minutes, so I'll give you a couple minutes a piece to close, and then we'll wrap it up.

Mr. WESTMORELAND. Mr. Peterson.