mr. speaker , we need an energy policy desperately in this country . 
we needed it 30 years ago . 
this is an excellent bill . 
it addresses the energy policy in a very comprehensive way . 
it addresses oil and gas . 
it addresses conservation which people over here say it does not , and it does ; environmental issues , electrical , hydropower , everything is addressed , nuclear . 
it is a very comprehensive bill . 
and we need this for many perspectives , but most importantly passing this very important bill is important for national security issues as well as jobs and economic development . 
you know , people talk about high gas prices in this country , and people go back to their districts and say that gas is high . 
well , one way we can reduce the cost of gasoline for everyone in this country is we expand refining capacity in this country . 
and we address this in this bill . 
right now our refineries are operating at almost maximum capacity . 
like our chairman said in the committee , if we added five new refineries today in america , it still would not address the demand that we have . 
in many instances when we do get oil and gas drilled here domestically , sometimes we have to send that oil to another country to refine it , and we buy it back at a higher value . 
that is what third world countries do , and we need to stop that . 
it is very important that we address the anwr situation , and open anwr . 
and a lot of the environmentalists will say , we can not do that , it might hurt some species of some animal or insect . 
but we need to think of the human species from time to time . 
if we open anwr , if you put it in perspective , if it was the size of the ou football field , the area that we are talking about drilling in would be the size of a postage stamp on that football field . 
and the beauty of it is , we can produce oil , experts say , at least 2 million barrels a day out of anwr , and that is exactly what we were importing from saddam hussein in iraq before all of this 9/11 happened . 
it is asinine that we rely so much on foreign oil , especially in areas around the world that we have carpet-bombed . 
it is ridiculous . 
so we need to spur domestic production , support this very important comprehensive energy bill that is for jobs and economic development , as well as a national security issue for this country . 
i urge my colleagues to support it . 
