Glenn Beck: Congress takes notice

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June 18, 2008 - 13:03 ET

GLENN: Is it just me that wants -- I just, I want a leader. That's all I want, I just want a leader. It will all be done with a leader. You know what? We just have to lead ourself. We just have to demand it ourself. Just done with them. Aren't you don't with the people in Washington? Every time you walk up to a gas tank and you have to fill it in -- hang on. George Bush is like, can you take this? High oil prices at the root of high gas prices, families are looking to Washington for a response. Basic law of supply and demand is behind the gas price. That's what Bush is saying so far. Let's see what he's -- just bring it up live. What, is he -- what's he saying now?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Paying the price at the pump for this. Congress must face a hard reality. Unless members are willing to accept gas prices at today's painful levels or even higher, our nation must produce more oil and we must start now. So this morning I ask Democratic congressional leaders to move forward with four steps to expand American oil and gasoline production. First, we should expand American oil production by increasing access to the Outer Continental Shelf, or OCS. Experts believe that the OCS could produce about 18 billion barrels of oil. That would be enough to match America's current oil production for almost 10 years.

GLENN: That's what we talked about yesterday.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Problem is that congress has restricted access to keep parts of the OCS since the early 1980s. Since then advances in technology have made it possible to conduct oil exploration in the OCS that is out of sight, protects coral reefs and habitats and protects against oil spills. With these advances and a dramatic increase in oil prices, congressional restrictions on OCS exploration have become outdated and counterproductive.

GLENN: By the way, the 420 cubic feet, 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas is there and I thought natural gas was a clean energy. Are we worried about that washing up on shore as well? That's in the OCS. Go ahead. Some more.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Republicans in congress have proposed several promising bills that would lift the legislative ban on oil exploration in the OCS.

GLENN: This is what we did yesterday. They postponed it today.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Calling on the House and the Senate to pass good legislation as soon as possible. This legislation should give the states the option of opening up OCS resources off their shores.

GLENN: Stop just a second. This bill that we talked about yesterday, this has been delayed now in congress. Pelosi pulled it off the roster. It was supposed to be voted on today. They pulled it off because they don't know what to do now because public opinion is saying -- 67% say drill. 67% of Americans say this. And you were calling yesterday and they don't know what to do. They know their head's going to be handed to them. So they've delayed this bill. You need to call them again today and say, do it, vote on it, now, put it back on the roster. They are doing fancy footwork until they can figure out what to do.

The Democrats are screwed. They can't go into the Outer Continental Shelf. They can't. Are you kidding me? Al Gore? He can support this? He can't support this. And this is what the President is doing and this is what is unfortunate here is he is -- he has the way to do it. It's called an executive order. He can do it. You know, they're going to go crazy, but that's fine. Bring that fight on every single day of the week. When people are paying for this, bring it on. And you know what? If congress doesn't do it, he should do it. He should do it in the next 60 days. If they don't do it, rescind those through executive order, make that the number one priority in all of the debates. Let Barack Obama and all of the Democrats stand against drilling for more oil when America's paying $4 and $5 a gallon gas, or astronomical rates to heat their house come November. You let that happen. Bush, I'm telling you, get if front of the cameras and stop with this four-step plan. Do one. "I'm signing an executive order. We're drilling. We're going into ANWR and we're going offshore," period. Here are the points on the map, and bring it out. Do a Ross Perot. Show the points where India and Venezuela and China and Vietnam are all drilling off our coasts. Show them on a map and say, why aren't we doing it? Why aren't we buying the leases? Why are we doing this to ourselves? We are bringing this on ourselves. The rest of the world isn't waiting for us to join them. We're leading the way in stupidity. The rest of the world won't follow. Why is that? We won't drill in ANWR and yet Russia is trying to get the mineral rights of the North Pole? Come on. What are we doing? That's what he should do.

All right, let's hear Step 2.

PRESIDENT BUSH: New leasing revenues and assure that our environment is protected. There's also an executive prohibition on exploration.

GLENN: Are you going to rescind it?

PRESIDENT BUSH: When congress lifts the legislative ban, illicit the executive prohibition.

GLENN: Stop. Why are you doing that? Why are you doing that? Joe, you're a political animal. Why is he doing that? Why is he waiting to lift the ban of the executive -- lead the way! Lead the way. Why would you say that? "When you do it, I'll do it." No, I'll do it. Now get your butt in gear and vote, today. Go ahead, Dan.

PRESIDENT BUSH: We should expand oil production by tapping into the extraordinary potential of oil shale. Oil shale is the type of rock that can produce oil when exposed to heat or other process. One major deposit, the Green River Basin of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming --

GLENN: Hang on just a second. Is it a coincidence that Bush has been against these things and now when these two bills have come up and we've asked you -- and I'm not saying it's us alone, but we have asked you, call and tell them to open up the oil shale and call them and tell them to open up the offshore drilling, that once the American people get their butts in gear and call, all of a sudden we start to see something. Now, I don't believe they are actually going to do anything. Isn't it interesting when all of a sudden, all of a sudden that's just brushed off to the side by congress and they've got their butt in a wringer. And George Bush all of a sudden comes out and says, let's go. The only thing I'd like is for you to call the White House and say, hey, why not lift it now. Lift your executive ban right now.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Has the equivalent of about 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil. That's more than three times larger than the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia, and it can be fully recovered. And if it can be fully recovered, it would be equal to more than a century's worth of currently projected oil imports. For many years the high cost of extracting oil from shale exceeded the benefit, but today the calculus is changing. Companies have invested in technology to make oil shale production more affordable and efficient, and while the cost of extracting oil from shale is still more than the cost of traditional production, it's also less than the current market price of oil.

GLENN: Okay, stop for a second. I've got to take a break, but let me just leave you this. He is going to go on and he's going to talk about drilling up ANWR, that we should open up ANWR and also coal-to-oil technology. Let me just, let me just put this in perspective. This is how the country becomes disenfranchised. You are not as important as the government is. That's quite a statement. You are not as important as the government. Why would I say something like that? Because two years ago I told you then the government was doing experimental flights to make sure that their coal-to-liquid gasification fuel was working in our military jets. Our Pentagon has built coal gasification and coal-to-oil plants to be able to fully maintain our military. This is one of the best pieces of news I've heard for our strategic defense, yet it's good enough for the military but it's not good enough for you: We've got to keep the military running, but the rest of the country we can worry about polar bears. You know what? If it's good enough for the people, it's good enough for the military. That's the way it should be. Coal gasification and coal-to-oil should have been the priority for America. At the same time you make it the priority for the Pentagon, but that's not the way they do it. They build their coal gasification plants, they just leave it out there so they can run but you can't. It's time to demand that we have our economic security as well.