Things got a little testy Sunday on the set of ABC's "This Week" when U.S. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Malden) squared off with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) over the energy crisis facing the country.[img_assist|nid=70|title=U.S. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Malden)|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=120|height=116]

Facing the news of Saudi Arabia agreeing to increase its oil production to 9.7 million barrels per day and with pressure mounting on OPEC to do the same, Markey, the chair of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence, lambasted Republicans for blocking Democratic energy measures.

"This crisis is really caused by twelve years of Republican control of congress," Markey said. "We've gone from 46 percent dependence [on oil] when the Republicans took over the House and Senate in 1995 to 61 percent dependence on imported oil today."

The Bush administration, he went on, has had an "oil and gas agenda" while Republicans have "thwarted the renewable energy agenda."

Hutchison, who chairs the Republican Policy Committee, said it was the Democrats that were holding up congress.

"The Democrats have thwarted every effort we have made to increase our supply" or oil, Hutchison said. "This is a supply and demand issue. The demand has skyrocketed mostly because of global increases and we have not done anything about supply because we're thwarted in nuclear power, we're thwarted in using our own natural resources."

The senator from Texas added that she believed off-shore drilling on a state by state basis is "an option that I think we could do very environmentally safely."

Markey and Hutchison were joined by Jeffrey Sachs, the Author of Commonwealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet and leading critic of the Bush administration's energy policies, and Red Cavaney, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute. Cavaney and Sachs chimed in occasionally, but the heated debate took place between Markey and Hutchison.

"It's kind of a sad day in American history," Markey said. "We were given one week's notice to go over to Saudi Arabia today to beg the Saudi Arabians and OPEC to please produce more oil that we can purchase."

Markey noted that there are 700 million barrels of oil in the country's strategic petroleum reserve and called on the president to announce he will deploy 100,000 barrels a day to drive down the price. He also said the president should announce a "crash program" to deal with the rising price of oil and, by extension, gasoline.

"Congressman Markey just said we are going over there with a tin cup," Hutchison responded, "but at the same time the Democrats are passing in the United States Senate a bill that would sue them. What kind of reaction are we going to expect from Saudi Arabia?"

Markey also added, near the end of the segment, that Democrats in the house will be presented legislation that will charge oil companies to drill on public land in the United States. These companies have had access to eighty percent of public lands, Markey said, but they have chosen not to invest in drilling there. Markey called the legislation the "use it or lose it" plan.

"We've given you access to all of this oil and gas," Markey said, "start drilling or we're going to start putting a fee on you."

View the segment here.