mr. speaker , 1976 was a great year . 
we built our last refinery in this country , and i graduated from high school . 
that is too long for that to occur . 
our domestic demand for crude oil averages 21 million barrels a day . 
we refine only 17 million barrels a day . 
that means we import gasoline . 
people understand we have a dependence upon foreign oil . 
what they do not understand and find incredibly ridiculous is that we import refined product just making us more dependent on the industry . 
this is a great piece of legislation , and anyone from coal country ought to support it . 
coal to liquid , fisher trove technology developed during world war ii is evident in production in south africa today . 
what we have done in this bill is we have taken the definition of refinery and added coal to liquid , which means we can harvest the great coal reserves of this country . 
we can turn them into clean fuel and use that clean fuel to reduce our demand for foreign oil . 
we are also able to disburse our refinery assets around the country so we are not held hostage by having 47 percent of our refineries in hurricane alley . 
this bill is a tremendous step forward in decreasing our reliance on foreign oil , new technology , diversifying our refinery portfolio , and i ask all of my colleagues to join me in support of this legislation . 
