mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman for yielding me this time , and for his leadership on this issue as well as many others .  it is good to be in the house doing something that is pretty basic .  i support this legislation .  i would note that if you vote `` no , '' you are actually voting to increase taxes because this is legislation simply extending current law that expires in the coming year .  i also want to point out a provision that is very , very important in districts like mine , in areas like the chicago suburban area , because it is legislation that addresses the need to revitalize old urban areas , to recycle , and to use old abandoned industrial sites .  that is the brownfields provision .  i have worked over a number of years with chairman thomas and others , and we have worked in a bipartisan way , to find ways to encourage reinvestment in old abandoned industrial sites .  you will find , in many cases , that these old industrial sites have environmental contamination , and because of that investors would much rather go out and buy a cornfield , a greenfield site , and create an industrial park , which consumes five to six times as much land , creates urban sprawl , and also costs the taxpayers more because you have to replace the water and the sewer and the infrastructure and the roads .  well , in the coming year , the environmental cleanup provision for brownfields , that tax incentive , expires .  so we extend that .  but we also do something more , which i think is very , very important .  and , really , the recent occurrence of katrina highlights it , because we have often heard about the petroleum contamination in the new orleans area and the need for cleanup .  well , if you think of your own communities and the south suburbs of chicago and rural areas that i represent , we can always think of that gas station on a corner that has been closed for 20 years and which sat abandoned , with no one buying it .  and if you ask the local real estate people or the local economic development people why , they say , well , they had some petroleum contamination there .  if somebody buys it , they have to pick up the cost .  it does not qualify for the lust program .  so the investor who purchases that old abandoned gas station has to pick up the cost .  with this legislation , we expand the brownfields tax incentive to include petroleum .  so whether it is oil factories , gas stations , transportation hubs , or rail yards , we give that opportunity to recycle , renew , and revitalize .  