Supply and Demand

SUPPLY AND DEMAND -- (House of Representatives - June 26, 2008)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, you know, Americans are beginning to pressure the Democrats to face up to the basic law of economics: supply and demand. They understand that, despite all the rhetoric on the part of the Democrats, what we need is more supply to meet the demand for petroleum products.

The Democrats refuse to respond in the appropriate manner. What they continue to do is bring up sham bills, avoid the issue, and try to take away people's attention from the real issue.

So what they did today was bring up a bill under suspension of the rules, H.R. 6251, which they called use-it-or-lose-it. This has been their mantra for the past few days, trying to say again that the oil companies--and they love to beat up on the oil companies--have all the means at their disposal to meet the supply needs in this country.

However, the American people understand that's not true. Even 19 Democrats understood that that's not true, and thankfully, the bill did not pass because it required a two-thirds majority vote, and it didn't get that.

What H.R. 6251 would have done was threaten increased American energy production. It would do nothing to lower the price at the pump, and it would breach existing oil and gas contracts. But of course, what we've seen from this Democratically controlled Congress, they don't care much about the law. They don't care much about contracts, the basic part of our law in this country.

I want to share with you some editorials that have been written about this harebrain scheme on the part of the Democrats, but it's not just the Republicans who feel this way, and as I've said, 19 Democrats voted against the bill today. I'm very proud of them for standing up to their despotic leadership and voting ``no'' on this bill.

But here's some of the editorials that have come out about this legislation. The Charleston, West Virginia, Daily Mail, the hometown paper of Congressman Nick Rahall, one of the main sponsors of the bill: ``Now comes a new wrinkle, another attempt to dodge sensible policy--this one from West Virginia's Representative Nick Rahall. He proposes to give big oil companies an ultimatum: Unless they drill on the 68 million acres of inactive land they now lease from the Federal Government--or give up those leases--they would be barred from getting new leases.

``Oh, for pity's sake. It may not be possible to produce from some reserves at the current price. Huffing and puffing around that American companies shouldn't have access to any new reserves until they have made full use of the reserves they have would unnecessarily delay the identification of new domestic sources, and production from those sources.

``Rahall's bill is yet another pitiful attempt to avoid doing what clearly needs to be done--make more U.S. reserves available to U.S. companies.'' That's in the Charleston Daily Mail editorial, 6/18/08.

The New Hampshire Union Leader: ``Of all the dumb ideas to come out of Washington in recent memory, last week Representative Carol Shea-Porter embraced what might be the dumbest of them all. Shea-Porter has cosponsored legislation to force oil companies that hold leases on Federal land to commence developing that land or lose the lease. Simply put, Shea-Porter hasn't the slightest idea what she's talking about.''

Another one. ``Furthermore, AAPG's Nation says, current leases already require oil companies to take certain steps to use the land. The premise behind the bill Representative Carol Shea-Porter is cosponsoring--that oil companies have huge reserves of untapped oil wells sitting beneath already leased Federal land, which they can tap right away if only Congress orders it--is unsupported by the facts. Nation called it `laughable.' ''

It is a great day when the American people can prevail, when they will convince the Democratic leadership--and it's important that we say over and over and over and over again that it's the Democrats who are in charge of the Congress. They are the ones in charge of bringing bills to a vote. Republicans have common sense answers to this. We will increase American-produced energy sources, and it's time to bring those bills for a vote.

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