eastern oil and stabilize gas prices. they create hundreds of thousands of good american jobs and make our nation more securer. but what is the obama administration saying and they're being helped to perpetuate these myths by the lame stream media? they claim they are not responsible for the increased prices and that there's nothing they can do, but what they're trying to take credit for previous presidents clinton and bush pro-energy policies. the reason oil production is up today is because of development on private and state land. north dakota alone produced almost 16 million barrels of oil in january, 2011, compared to only a little more than two million in january, 2012, the majority of which is on state and private lands. the obama administration is not opening new offshore areas for energy production. the president and the administration claim to be opening more than 75% of offshore lands for energy exploration. this is absolutely false. the obama administration has blocked energy production on federal lands. the o

there could be other middle eastern countries that stop themselves, or we will slow our actions to improve missile defenses. it could be widespread. i don't think we have made a specific choice of where we are going to do this. >> you talked about a more disciplined use of defense dollars, but you are doing a lot of procurement in ways touching programs out, which inevitably adds to unit cost. how is that a more disciplined use of dollars? >> fair point. if we had our way, we would not have done it. congress passed the budget control act. you react to be consistent with title 1 of that act. we try to do them in a way that minimizes adverse effects. your points are well taken, and some of the stretch out will result in higher unit costs. >> to contained $400 million for the medium, extended, do you expect to see that face through or not? >> we have asked for money in fiscal '13, the last year of the program. we have legal presentations on fiscal '12. frank, do you want to add to this? >> it is a program that the u.s. decided not to procure a year ago. we agreed to a two-year termination pha

eastern oil and protects consumers from rising gas prices over the long run. mr. speaker, let's make a leap to support american families by striking at the heart of rising gas prices. to that end i urge my colleagues to support this motion. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from colorado reserves. the gentleman from utah. mr. bishop: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah reserves. the gentleman from colorado. mr. polis: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield two minutes to the gentleman from california, mr. garamendi. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized for two minutes. mr. garamendi: i thank you, mr. speaker. i want to talk about two issues here one of which was discussed by my colleague from california which is the bill that will be up later this afternoon. while the rule allows for amendments, some of the amendments are not -- that were proposed are not going to be before us. specifically this bill is a blatant attempt to do two things. one,

i just wish he would have helped our country reduce our dependence on middle earn oil while creating tens -- eastern oil while creating tens of thousands of jobs here in america by approving the pipeline application. the president's excuse for not approving the pipeline application was he didn't have enough time. radical environmentalists say that tar sands crude is the dirtiest of all and they talk as if that's something foreign, something new. mr. speaker, i'd like to point your attention to a friday, february 3, 2012 article on the front page of the national journal, an article that i believe shows the fallacies and the arguments against the pipeline. the article states that despite environmental opposition, the obama administration administration has approved a controversial oil sands pipeline. the article refers to an oil sands pipeline approved by the administration over two years ago. on august 20, 2009, secretary of state clinton approved a 1,000-mile pipeline with the capacity to carry 800,000 barrels of oil from canada's oil sands to wisconsin. mr. speaker, if a pipeline th

speaker, house republicans have a plan to wean our economy from unstable middle eastern oil. if we want an america built to last like the president referred to in his state of the union address, we must have access to safe and affordable, american energy to build that economy, to build that and power that america that is built to last. mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support and pass h.r. 7, the american energy and infrastructure jobs act, so we can work together to grow the economy, to create american jobs, to facilitate lower gasoline prices and to provide energy security that this country needs, not only for our current generation, but for future generations of american children and grandchildren. and i yield back to my friend from colorado, mr. gardner. mr. gardner: i thank the gentleman from texas. and he talked about the keystone pipeline and i would point out that the development of the alberta oil sands for the state of text a as and this was -- texas and this was given by the alberta representative in washington, in the state of texas,

eddie, if you want to rely on the saudis and middle eastern countries for oil, hey, god bless you. i just don't think that is a good long-term strategy for the united states when we have the innovative, the capacity, the cree atitive to have alternative energy. and global warming, which i am sure you are not concerned with, but many of us are and think this could be a whole new industry for us. but to say we're going to rely on oil from the saudis for the next 100 years i think is really reducing and diminishing america. he talked about fairness. eddie, is it fair that people in the united states of america, the wealthiest country in the world have a sick child that can't get adequate health care or affordable health care because of the screwed up health care system we got? is it fair that someone sitting in youngstown or akron, ohio, had to feel the ramifications of a deregulated wall street of people who followed their self-interest right off a cliff and took the entire economy down with it? is that fair? no, that's not fair. fairness is regulating these market and making sure th

eastern or venezuelan neighbors. when we look at the iranians threatening to block the strait of hormuz, i think this just illustrates how critical it is that supply to the united states be north american. but under this bill the republican bill there is no guarantee that even a drop of the tar sands oil and fuel will stay here in this country. they keep saying how great it would be that we have a million barrels of oil coming to the united states from canada. there is no guarantee in this bill and that's because many of the refineries where the keystone crude will be sent plan to re-export the refined fuels. this is the map of what the oil industry plans on doing with this oil. comes right through the united states and then it heads off to asia, south america over to europe. and valero, one of those refineries, says in its investor presentation that it plans to refine the canadian crude at the same facility it is building in port arthur texas, an export zone because doing so leverages its export logistics. our amend

it takes roughly 10 days to get from the middle of the gobi desert to the eastern shore of my beloved virginia. just 10 days. we know that a significant portion of the mercury in our air is coming from foreign sources. not our plants, but foreign sources. mr. griffin:ky inject something there? mr. griffith: i yield back. mr. griffin: i think it's a great point. and a lot of times some of us think about this country and pollution here. but i think that what i hear you saying, it's a very, very good point, is that this is one world and we in this country, through the processes and the regulatory structure that we have, we burn coal cleaner, we are a better steward of the earth when it comes to using some of these traditional energy sources. so what i hear you saying is, i think it makes a lot of sense. if you believe that coal will not be used if we do not use it here, then that's not exactly accurate. somebody's going to burn it. the question is, do we do a better job with some of these traditional energy sources, do we do a better job than other countries that will burn it if we don't

even middle eastern countries. i was in saudi arabia last year and they are concerned about the increase in domestic demand for their oil. as more and more countries draw on this sort of the available pool of oil, if you will, that is being exported, that means that there is less for countries like the u.s. the more we can do to promote production either in our territory or in this hemisphere with friendly countries like mexico and canada, the more secure our supply will be in the future. host: let us go to maryland. teresa is on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to know why we are drilling with mexico. it was the oil companies in the u.s. who built the refineries, give them everything they needed because they did not have the wherewithal. as soon as it was all up and working, they took away the percentage that the oil refineries were supposed to get an nationalize everything. i am sorry -- i do not believe in using foul language, but "screwed." go ahead and do keystone. take the

the conference begins at 3:45 eastern. house speaker spoke about the house-passed a version of the bill earlier today with supporters and was joined by eric cantor. this is about 15 minutes. >> good morning, everyone. as middle-class families and small businesses struggle in this economy, small businesses continue to focus on the number- one issue in our country, and that is jobs. the house has passed over 130 bipartisan bills in the senate at this moment. many of these bills were embraced by the president's own jobs council, and the president has made it clear he is in favor of a handful of these bills. so, the obama administration told us that if the president's plan were passed, unemployment would be at 6% today. i certainly think it is important to act if the president wants to accomplish anything this year. time is running short on the payroll tax, for example. we have a four-year extension of the payroll tax credit, fully paid for, as the president said it must be. but the president and senate democratic leaders will