mr. speaker , i rise in strong opposition to this ill-conceived legislation .  this bill is a shameless attempt to use the tragedy of katrina as an engine to drive bad policies into law .  the purported reason behind the bill is the high cost of gas caused by katrina , and this is the bill that is supposed to meet that challenge .  but gas prices were at record highs before katrina hit .  katrina merely ramped them up and provided an excuse to push more failed republican energy ideas .  i guess the best thing we can say about the bill is what is not in it , namely , the repeal of the longstanding , bipartisan moratorium on new offshore drilling .  but the bill , however , does gut public health and environmental laws .  it does strip states and localities of the authority to protect their own citizens .  and , bottom line , it fails to protect consumers from price gouging at the pump , which we have seen going on on a regular basis .  mr. speaker , the problem of high gas prices is a serious one .  it affects businesses and families on a daily basis , and i should know because my gas prices in my district are usually among the highest in the nation .  right now they hover around $ 3.50 a gallon .  but this bill is not about trying to do something about that .  it is about trying to distract the american people from a failed republican energy strategy , a strategy that fails to realize that we have 3 percent of the world 's oil reserves while we account for 25 percent of the world demand .  this is a strategy that relies on increasing our supplies at all costs while conservation efforts are ridiculed by our vice president as `` signs of personal virtue. '' this is a strategy that says if laws over the past several years , we have had repeated chances to craft commonsense , efficient , and effective energy legislation that would set america on a more stable future ; but this republican congress has failed to do that and this , failure is once again realized in this bill .  so i urge my colleagues to vote for the alternative and to vote down this awful legislation .  