High Gasoline Prices

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Mr. DURBIN. I want to thank the Senator from West Virginia for his comments on our dependence on foreign oil. We import about $1 billion worth of oil a day. That does not make our Nation any stronger. In fact, it makes us more dependent. For our economy to grow, we need to have good homegrown energy sources. We may never be totally independent, but if we do not move toward independence, then I am afraid we are going to continue to be victimized, as we have been recently, by not only oil companies but the greed the Senator mentioned that drives up gasoline prices every Spring. Just as sure as the baseball season is going to open, gasoline prices are going to go sky high. Then they are going to retreat, but they never retreat to where they started. They always end up higher as we go into the summer vacation season. The Senator from West Virginia has some thoughtful ideas here on how to address this. I share his support of Herb Kohl's legislation that deals with NOPEC, the OPEC cartel, and the fact that we have been victimized by them for way too long.

Like the Senator's State, we have a lot of coal in Illinois. We want to find an environmentally responsible way to use it, to take all of the energy out of the ground and put it to work for America so Americans can go to work. I thank the Senator for his leadership on this important topic.

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