Tom McClintock for Congress

Sen. McClintock delivered this speech to the Butte County Republican Party and the Chico/Oroville Republican Women Federated, "Mainstream America" BBQ, August 16, 2008

Thank you all for being here today; thank you for your hard work on behalf of our candidates and on behalf of our cause.

A funny thing is happening on the way to the Obama coronation. Americans are waking up and asking some basic questions, like:

Does anyone seriously believe our health care is going to be improved by handing it over to the same people who run the DMV and the Post Office?

Does anyone seriously believe that a House leadership that places William Jefferson on the Homeland Security Committee after he was caught with $90,000 in bribe money in his freezer has the best interests of our nation at heart?

Does anyone seriously believe that socialism will work any better in America than it did in the Soviet Union?

Nobody here does – and fewer and fewer people across the country do either as they begin taking a closer look.

And when they began asking those questions, the political tide began to turn in our favor.  Just since the energy debate began in Washington last month, the Rasmussen poll has tracked a FIVE POINT shift toward Congressional Republicans.  Yesterday, John McCain pulled even with Obama for the first time in the Gallup poll.

You need look no farther than the corner gas station to see what is at stake with this election.  And as people begin to do that, we are watching them rally to our cause.

Americans are finally awakening to the damage that the Luddite Left has done to our country, our economy and our lives by the governmental moratoriums and restrictions on energy development that liberals like Nancy Pelosi and Charlie Brown obstinately cling to.

According to the Bureau of Land Management, there are 38 billion barrels of oil under American soil (19 billion barrels onshore and another 19 billion offshore – that we KNOW is there) that Congress forbids developing.  But that’s just the beginning of known American oil reserves.  The Rand Institute reports that the Green River shale formation (covering portions of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming) holds a proven recoverable reserve of roughly 800 billion barrels of oil – that’s three times the petroleum reserves of Saudi Arabia.  And yet, an American Congress forbids us from developing this American oil and declaring our energy independence.

Put together, there is enough American oil under American land to provide for American needs for the next century at current rates of consumption.

And this doesn’t include additional fields that are yet to be discovered.  Brazil opened its offshore waters to oil exploration, and in January a new discovery increased its known reserves by 40 percent.  But in America, it’s illegal even to look for oil on 97 percent of our offshore land and 94 percent of our on-shore land.

Meanwhile, the vast oil fields off the coast of Florida that American law prevents Americans from developing are now being leased out by the Cuban government to Chinese, Indian, Canadian, Spanish, Norwegian and Malaysian companies in Cuban territory.

And still Nancy Pelosi and her supporters in Congress continue to block the development of these vast American oil reserves.  At least until today, when a small crack has appeared in her resolve.  Everett Dirksen was right, “When they feel the heat, they see the light.”

Not so my friend Charlie Brown.

He’s been saying he’s all for drilling – but only on the existing acreage which he assures us is sufficient to meet our oil needs.  Memo to Charlie: most of that land has already been explored and found to be dry and the little that can be developed IS being developed.

The Democrats’ energy policy reminds me of what Tolstoy once wrote about the Russian bureaucracy.  He said: “I sit on a man’s back choking him and making him carry me, and all the while I assure him and anyone who will listen that I am very sympathetic to his plight and I’m willing to do everything I can to help him – except by getting off his back.”

There’s an old saying – you hunt where the ducks are.  Sorry Charlie, but we need to drill where the OIL IS – and not where IT’S NOT.  There’s 19 BILLION barrels of known oil off our coasts – that remains off limits because of YOUR discredited policies and we need to drill there and drill there NOW.  There’s another 19 BILLION barrels of known oil under our own soil – 10 BILLION barrels of it in the desolate Arctic tundra – that remains off limits because of YOUR discredited policies and we need to drill there and drill there now.

And there’s 800 BILLION barrels of recoverable shale oil in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming – three times the oil resources of Saudi Arabia – that’s off limits because of your discredited policies and we need to drill there and drill there now.

Their excuses against opening American land for American production would be laughable if they weren’t destroying our economy, our independence and our quality of life in the process.

Out of one side of his mouth, Charlie argues that America’s oil reserves are only 2 – 6 percent of world energy supplies and won’t make a dent in prices.  Yet he then turns around and says that releasing a tiny fraction of that amount from the strategic reserve would bring a dramatic price reduction.  Go figure.

But the main point is he simply ignores our shale oil supply that makes Saudi Arabia look like a petroleum pigmy.

He also says that it will take years to develop these fields so it won’t have any impact on current prices.  (Of course, that’s the same argument we’ve heard from the liberals for many years as an excuse for crippling our oil production).  But the fact is, they were wrong then and they’re wrong NOW.  And if we had rejected them THEN we wouldn’t be in this mess NOW.

But the point is, current prices reflect future expectations – that’s how speculators drive up prices by betting on continued scarcity.

When President Bush announced the largely symbolic act of removing the executive ban on exploration, world oil prices tumbled that very day.   And since Nancy Pelosi turned out the lights, turned off the microphones and cameras and adjourned for a 5-week vacation, 100 Republican House members have been waging a daily debate on the house floor that has captured the attention of the world.

And let me ask you this. Since that debate has begun – since the mere prospect of opening up America’s vast oil resources has been raised – what have you seen happen to the price of gasoline?

Pelosi and Charlie want to create a massive new bureaucracy funded by taxes on oil companies.

I’ve got news for Charlie.  Oil companies don’t pay taxes.  Oil company taxes are paid by us as consumers through higher prices.

And the real tragedy is this: Our oil is owned by the people of the United States.  The profits of selling that oil go directly to the people of the United States.  According to one estimate, our off-limits offshore oil alone would produce a TRILLION dollars of new revenue for our nation WITHOUT increasing taxes. In fact, it would make it possible for a trillion dollar tax cut.

That’s not to say that petroleum is a permanent solution to our energy needs – far from it.  But the development of America’s oil resources would buy us the time to transition to hydrogen as the replacement for fossil fuels.

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe – we have entire oceans filled with the stuff – but it takes vast amounts of electricity to separate it.  In order to produce cheap hydrogen, we must first generate cheap electricity.  And once again, Charlie Brown and the Luddite Left would stand in our way.

The cleanest and cheapest possible way to produce electricity is from our dams.  Hydroelectricity costs about 1 1/2 cents per kilowatt-hour (compared to 28-cents for solar energy).  At 1 ½ cents per kilowatt-hour, your monthly electricity bill should come to about $90 – per year.

A short distance from here is the site of the Auburn Dam.  The footing was carved for that dam more than 30 years ago, but it was suspended because of the Luddite Left.

The Auburn Dam would generate 800 Megawatts of the cleanest and cheapest electricity on the planet – enough for nearly a million families.  And it would conserve 2.3 million acre feet of water – enough for more than 2 million families. All this at a time when we can’t guarantee enough electricity to keep your air conditioning going or enough water to keep your lawn green this summer.

And yet Charlie Brown has vowed to block the development of this vital local resource that promises both cheap electricity and abundant water for the people of this region.

Ronald Reagan was right: Government is not the solution to these problems – government has been the cause of these problems.

And to change these foolish policies, we have GOT to change this Congress – and that’s what this election is all about.

Eighty days from now, the people of the Fourth Congressional District will send a clear and powerful message to Nancy Pelosi and her minions: We want our country back.  We want our freedom back.  We want our energy independence back.  We have had it with your high taxes, your bloated bureaucracies, your empty promises and your endless obstruction of every attempt by American enterprise to restore American abundance and prosperity.

I can say that with some confidence.  In the recall election in 2003, more than half of my votes came from NON-REPUBLICANS.  When people are paying attention and actually listening to the candidates, legions of voters who have never thought of themselves as Republicans rally to our cause.

We used to call them the Reagan Coalition – and they’re still out there.

In 2006, I received 36,000 more votes running for Lt. Governor IN THE FOURTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT than Charlie Brown received running for Congress.

Ladies and gentlemen, what has happened to our country has happened on our generation’s watch, and it is our generation’s responsibility – and our generation’s destiny -- to set things right.

And when history looks back upon this period, I believe it will record that just when it looked like our American rights might be consumed by the bureaucratic state, this generation of Americans rose to the defense of our liberties and when we were done, we had produced a new era of American freedom, prosperity and energy independence and abundance for generations to come.