the reality is that fuel derived from tar sands comprise a small portion consumers purchase. mr. chairman, this amendment simply clarifies that the hands of the federal government are not tied and federal agencies can in fact procure commercially available fuel

that oil we get from canada comes from tar sand. it's got a little sand in it. it causes a little increase of production of carbon dioxide a footprint that's more than conventional petroleum. that's all the amendment does, the gentleman from virginia, i support the amendment, but what we need to do is eliminate section 526 and i have an amendment that i signed on with the gentleman from texas, mr. hensarling, the gentleman -- the other gentleman from texas, mr. conaway, that's what we should have done that amendment should have been made in order. we need to eliminate section 526 and take the handcuffs off the department of defense. we're b duck -- we're talking about big bucks here. i yield back and do support the amendment. mr. connolly: i thank the support of my friend but i would clarify that we already have tar sand oil, about 6% of the gasoline supply of the united states already has it. we already have the liquefication of coal used in the united states in the bill i hope we'll pass tomorrow or saturday. i yield one minute to the chairman of the committee

you are right on when you talk about coal and oil from tar sands and that kind of thing. i'm a big supporter of all of the above. we need to do it all. in my district in michigan this past week and gas went up to $2.95 and when i go back i guess it will be a little bit higher as the summer season continues. we are importing most of the oil we consume, better than 70%, in fact. that price is driven by opec and what is the world wide price. the more we can do for all of the above to develop domestic sources of energy -- whether it is oil shale out west, tar sands, and obviously electric cars, anything we can do to reduce the dependence on foreign oil, we are better off. electricity is just one of the options we ought to be able to pursue. one of the reasons why electricity generation in this country is going to go up by 30% to 20% by 2013, we have to be prepared for that, which is why the nuclear option is a good one, as well as clean coal. the last caller, from current -- host: the last call is from kentucky. bruce, you are on the line. caller: i'm wondering why you are no

similarly, with tar sands, shale oil, those sorts of things that we have in abundance in north america we appear to be saying we ought not to take a look at those. similarly, we have abundant sources of petroleum offshore. offshore my state of california, offshore some of our states in this union, and yet we have a policy which basically says we ought not to utilize american technology which is being utilized around the world to safely extract petroleum. if you look at my state in california and you go to santa barbara you see historically there have been leaked from the bottom of the ocean there because of the pressure, because of the petroleum that lies under the ocean floor. we can actually take some of that pressure off by drilling and producing there. lastly, i would say it would be -- someone would have to be a hermit somewhere stuck in a cave to not understand that we have a terrible economic problem in california, a terrible problem with our budget, terrible deficits, and one of the ways that we could achieve some sort of stability with our budget in california, our state budge

independence and security act that does not preclude agencies from purchasing fuel that is not derived from tar sands and other my carbon sources. this amendment remains section 526 by ensuring taxpayer money is not used to subsidize hiley polluting products. section 526 precludes federal agenciro

we tried to get the refinery done in indiana to handle canadian tar sands. another one over by detroit. they are going to be tied up for 10, 15 years. they were half of e.p.a. discharge. rahm emanuel and others are going we can't build that refinery. we don't want any in america. what are we -- i make 58% of the r.v.'s. what are you going to do put a little fan on the roof? international designs 800 people design the big trucks in my district. how are we going to deliver goods to market? the rail is already jammed. the canals are jammed. rivers are jammed. if we can't use trucks, which take up about 40% of the energy on our roads, how are we