Sam Johnson brands Democrats’ so-called energy bill “all hat and no cattle”
Washington,
Sep 17 -
Today on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson (3rd Dist.-Texas) delivered the following statement blasting the Democrats’ so called energy bill as “all hat and no cattle.” Johnson favors a balanced approach and real solutions on energy, supporting an “all of the above approach”
Shortly after the Democrats took control of Congress on January 31 2007, the average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $1.99. Today the national average is $3.84 – down from the July peak of over $4.12.
Remarks as prepared for delivery:
“The American people want, need and deserve a Congress that responds to their needs and acts diligently on their top priority – the high costs of energy. Sadly, the Democrats in Congress – beholden to their radical leftist interests - have blocked progress and will not let us do the job that the American people sent us to Washington to do – that is to come up with a balanced approach to real energy solutions.
“Ironically, the only border fence the Democrats seem to care about is the fence they want to put up around the areas where we can’t explore for oil. It’s just a disgrace.
“Solving our energy crisis means tapping all of America’s resources for America’s future to create American jobs and American prosperity.
“Folks are sick and tired of paying around $4 for a gallon of gas. They are fed up with relying on foreign countries and brutal dictators to supply our energy needs. Americans have had it with the Democrat Leadership who told the Congress to take a 5 week vacation instead of staying around to do their jobs.
“The Democrat bill before us today is just a sham. They’re refusing to allow us to tap into our own homegrown energy resources and discouraging investment in our future energy supply. I am here to tell you—as we say in Texas— this bill is all hat and no cattle.
“On October 1st – the ban on offshore energy exploration on the Outer Continental Shelf expires. This bill would put the lid on the OCS with no progress in sight. I say we should finally open up this resource to domestic production. However, today’s bill puts excessive rules and regulations back on the OCS, landing us back basically where we started. That’s not what I call progress.
“We owe it to the American people to get this one done right. We need to open up the Outer Continental Shelf for exploration. We need to allow states to share the revenue of oil exploration. We need to tap Alaskan areas that hold the potential for domestic energy resources – not just the parts cherry-picked by the Speaker. We must be open to oil shale and clean coal and renewable energy sources, like the wind and the sun. We DON’T need more bureaucracy, we need more innovation and we need to do it all.
“I am opposing this bill and urging my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work together to come up real energy reform for our children and our grandchildren and for all Americans.”
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