Yesterday, I wrapped up the second leg of my American Energy Tour. It started with a heated debate against four of my Democrat colleagues in regards to American energy policy at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. On the Democrat side were
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR), Rep. Jay Inslee (WA), Rep. Hilda Solis (CA), and Rep. Bart Stupak (MI). Joining me on the Republican side were
Rep. Denny Rehberg (MT), Rep. Fred Upton (MI) and Rep. Zach Wamp (TN).
Here are a couple of articles that provide good accounts of the event:
In sum, Republicans advocated an All-of-the-Above strategy that not only pushes for increased oil and gas production here domestically, but improves conservation and energy efficiency and promotes new and ever-improving energy technologies to help bring gas costs down. Democrats, on the other hand, were still talking about the 68 million acres that oil companies have leased and are "selfishly sitting on," ignoring the reality that companies are not yet able to tap these lands because of the bureaucratic mess of a permitting process Congress has created. The Democrats offered nothing.
If Democrats were really concerned with our energy costs, they would advance legislation to fast track the permitting process like my
Emergency Energy Cut the Red Tape Now Act (H.R. 6463), and open up those areas like 10-02 of ANWR, which contains at least 10 billion barrels of recoverable oil and is located within 75 miles of the Trans-Alaskan pipeline already in place.
After the debate, I visited a deep sea oil rig with officials from the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS). The MMS, which manages our nation’s natural gas and oil resources on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), estimates that there could be about 3.6 billion barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico and even more natural gas.
What was most impressive was how much more advanced our technology has gotten since we first banned offshore drilling almost three decades ago. Just as technology has made big advances in the way we communicate (from cell phones to blackberries to text messaging) and the way we care for ourselves (from in utero heart surgeries to liquid bandages), it has made vast improvements in how environmentally safe offshore drilling can be.
This week, I plan to offer a discharge petition to force action on legislation that will open up the energy reserves in ANWR to exploration and production. And, I am working on legislation to provide tax incentives for renewable energy sources.