mr. speaker , what have members been hearing in their districts ? 
i will tell members what i have been hearing : there is a constant uproar and anguish about the gas prices across this country . 
one of the home builders that i met with earlier this week , it cost him $ 94 to fill up his pickup . 
sadly , i do not see that price going down any time soon . 
this is a long-term , not a short-term , problem . 
worldwide , we consume what we produce . 
this country uses 25 percent of the world 's energy , yet we have only 2.5 percent of the world 's energy reserves . 
and in fact in alaska , we are getting 50 percent of what we got only 7 years ago . 
the energy bill signed in august will help us in the long term , but it will not help us in the short term . 
this bill will help us in the long term , not in the short term . 
we have heard the arguments . 
we have fewer refineries than we had 30 years ago . 
we have not built a new refinery in a generation . 
we need more , and this bill will bring that about . 
we have dozens of boutique fuels , 45 different blends of gasoline to serve this country . 
that means we have a different blend for st . 
louis than milwaukee than detroit than los angeles than houston than philadelphia than washington . 
it is crazy . 
this bill is going to reduce that from 45 blends to no more than six or eight . 
the bottom line is if we are not happy with $ 3 gas , we need to vote `` yes '' on this bill . 
we need to send it to the senate . 
i will remind my colleagues that this bill passed by a voice vote after 16 hours of markup , and i applaud the gentleman from texas ( mr. barton ) xz4000180 , my chairman , for making sure we did it in a bipartisan way . 
