In two weeks we will celebrate American energy independence day if the Democrats in Congress will do what they do best, and that is do nothing.  In two weeks the moratorium on developing the oil and gas that we have on the outer continental shelf will expire.  We have decades and decades of American oil and gas in the ground just waiting there to be developed.  The Democrats won’t allow us to do it.  Yesterday, along with Congressman Shadegg of Arizona, we delivered a letter to Speaker Pelosi with 155 signatures saying that if you try to keep this moratorium, if you will not allow us to develop American oil and gas, we will sustain the President’s veto of that legislation.

American families are struggling. I don’t know what she’s hearing in the salons of San Francisco, but in the coffee shops of east Dallas people are in pain; people need the help.  Republicans want an all-of-the-above energy bill. We want to have conservation, we want renewables, we want alternatives, but we also want what the Democrats don’t want and that is to produce more American oil and gas in America by Americans and for Americans.  They look upon our oil and gas reserves as toxic wastelands to be shunned. We look upon them as valuable natural resources that can ease pain at the pump for working families in America, and that’s the difference.

I am sure many of you have been paying attention to the debate (or lack thereof) on energy in Congress.  Well now the majority has decided to take up a bill after months of pleas from Republican members of the House.  However, this bill is designed to fail, and worse yet it increases spending and taxes.  Don’t believe it?  Here are some of the details.

Lack of Incentive: The bill allows offshore drilling, only for States that choose it, no closer than 50 miles from the coast, however it also prohibits revenue sharing of new oil and gas proceeds, thereby removing any incentive for States to “opt in” and allow drilling off their coasts. Nor does the bill offer any lawsuit protection, so companies that do search for oil will continue to be hampered with limitless litigation by environmental groups. Read the rest of this entry »

All Americans feel the pain at the pump and understand the urgency of solving our nation’s energy crisis.  Too many in Washington have offered offshore oil drilling as a false hope to reduce energy prices, when in reality it will do nothing to lower today’s gas prices.
Recently the House of Representatives took important strides to deliver on the promise of an effective energy plan, but fell short by expanding offshore oil drilling.
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HR 6899, The Comprehensive American Energy Security & Consumer Protection Act, passed by the House Tuesday, draws heavily from HR 6709, the bipartisan Abercrombie-Peterson energy legislation that a group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers put together in July.  I’m pleased that our efforts led to House consideration and passage of this critical legislation.

Our bipartisan bill took some bold steps that couldn’t be included in this measure: allocating 40% of all revenue from new offshore drilling to the rapid development of alternative fuels, renewable energy technologies, energy conservation and environmental clean-up, and sharing 30% of the revenue with the participating States.  But President Bush’s “politically clever” reversal of the ban on offshore drilling put in place by his father completely changed the way the Congressional Budget Office scored our bill.  Because of the Administration’s half-baked move, we couldn’t share federal revenue with the States or alternative energy R&D without making up the funds from elsewhere.
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The Energy Bill currently under consideration in Congress is being widely touted as a compromise, because it includes some provision for drilling. The implication is that House Democrats, bombarded with complaints from their constituents over high energy prices this summer, have bowed to the inevitable and reached out to their Republican opponents to agree on a new dawn for drilling in the United States. Nothing could be further from the truth. The bill is simply a rehash of old measures aimed at making affordable energy more expensive, fronted by a bait-and-switch on drilling. Read the rest of this entry »

Late last night, the Democrat Rules Committee decided to allow debate on ZERO amendments to the Democrats’ new energy gimmick bill. It is a closed bill, so no amendments can be offered, and no compromise can be reached.

They made this decision over Republican objections, in the dead of night, and less than 12 hours before the House would begin consideration of the bill.

Not only is their approach wrong; but so is their bill. Their bill bans drilling in 9/10ths of our off-shore reserves and bans exploration in ANWR entirely. They’re blocking nuclear power. They’re blocking coal-to-liquids. They’re blocking oil shale and the list goes on. Really, they’re blocking All-of-the-Above. Read the rest of this entry »

America’s energy crisis has reached critical mass. Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, the result of decades of misguided Washington policy, is making us vulnerable abroad, and destroying jobs and hurting families and schools at home.

To solve this crisis, we need to do it all, and we need to do it now. We need alternative energy sources – wind, solar, biomass, clean coal, nuclear. We need more conservation. And in an environmentally sound manner, we need to unlock the vast oil and gas resources that are currently off-limits to the American people in energy-rich locations such as Alaska, the mountainous West, and deepwater energy zones far off our coasts.

In short, we need all of the above. Read the rest of this entry »

Monday, House Democrats came back to Washington after a five-week vacation and held a press conference to reveal their energy plan crafted by Speaker Pelosi.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have much to say.  There was some mention of off-shore drilling but no specifics about where, when, and at what cost to American taxpayer. One point remains clear—House Democrats are more interested in protecting their seats than protecting American families.

While Democrats in Congress continue to pander to the agenda of extremist environmentalists, American families continue to suffer.  In a poor attempt to address the real needs of Americans, Democrats have done nothing to lower energy prices but favor policies that actually restrict the supply of energy and increase its cost.  With no thoughts to the vast amount of resources available in ANWR, Speaker Pelosi’s legislation is consistent with her agenda. Read the rest of this entry »

The Hill’s Jackie Kucinich gives a preview of the week ahead in Congress as it returns to session after August recess.

When John McCain announced that Sarah Palin would be the Republicans’ vice presidential candidate last Friday, many in Washington scrambled to try to fill in the blanks about this relatively unknown candidate.  But those of us who follow environmental and energy issues knew immediately that Palin’s nomination was cause for concern.

Palin supports the same, Big Oil-directed energy policies that the Bush administration has embraced for the last eight years.  She denies the scientific reality that global warming is caused by humans.  And her assertion that her preferred mechanism for constructing a gas pipeline is “God’s will” is troubling.
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