Posted on 07/25/2008 5:27:54 AM PDT by kellynla
America’s gas prices are continuing to spiral out of control and Washington has done nothing to give our nation’s motorists the relieve they deserve. Record high prices are having a major impact on American consumers and businesses, from the way people travel to the way they do business to the food they buy at the grocery store. Congress has the ability to decrease prices at the pump and get our nation back to $2 a gallon gas – and it means accessing our nation’s available resources and opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) today.
Last weekend, I traveled to northern Alaska to view firsthand the vast supply of natural resources America possesses. As I expected, ANWR was nothing more than a barren land, an arctic tundra void of wildlife and trees. During most of the year, it’s completely blanketed with ice and snow. Also, of the 19.6 million acres that makes up ANWR, the area which would be used for oil exploration is a small 2,000-acre lot. That is not even 1/10 of 1% of the total area of ANWR. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that 10.4 billion barrels of oil are recoverable in ANWR. If retrieved that would mean a possible 50% increase in total U.S. proven reserves and thousands of new domestic jobs.
It’s critical that Congress make lowering our gas prices a priority and set its political games aside. Yet, Democrats in the majority continue to block commonsense legislation from coming to the floor. In fact, they’re using parliamentary maneuvers to keep Republicans from even offering pro-energy amendments.
Since my earliest days in Congress, I have joined my Republican colleagues in supporting key legislation to curb our nation’s gas costs. Recently, I introduced a bill which would help us return to $2 a gallon. My bill, H.R. 6463, the Emergency Energy Cut-the-Red-Tape Now Act, would allow Americans to tap our national energy resources and provide relief from off-the-chart gas costs. It gives the Secretary of the Interior the ability to open the ANWR, oil shale reserves, and the Outer Continental Shelf, and streamline the refinery process. And if the price of oil exceeds $100 a barrel, my bill would require the Secretary to waive leasing and permitting regulations to open up these energy stores without further delay.
The United States has the ability to be energy independent. With abundant resources in areas like ANWR and the Mountain West we could end our foreign dependence on oil once and for all. Currently, the U.S. is the only country in the world that discourages using its own energy resources. Our country imports 10 million barrels of crude oil every day. Andy, we are importing 1.3 million barrels of refined gasoline. Having toured Alaska, I’ve seen the infrastructure that is already built and the pipeline that is not even at full capacity. We have the knowledge and expertise right here at home to procure and refine these products, get them to the pump, and create American jobs in the process.
Once these federal lands that have been off-limits are open to exploration, we would immediately begin to tap into our own resources, helping make us less dependent on foreign energy sources and reducing the cost to consumers. It’s clear that the American people are hurting and need immediate help. Congress must open up these lands and help Americans by exploring, producing, and putting these sources of energy into production now.
ping
Sounds right (Right) to me!
Better hurry, President Bush is packed, ready to go home...
If you like $4/gal, Thank Congress in Nov.
Pray for W and Our Troops
I am hugely critical of and angry towards our politicians these days, but I always make an exception for Michelle Bachmann.
She’s solid! Two thumbs up!
Pelosi, Reid, Boxer, Feinstein, et al could care less about what the average person is experiencing right now. All they care about is power at any cost. Man...where's the tar and feathers when you need them?
There’s even a difference in the general countenance of the GOP ladies that serve in Congress, is there not? Is it just me?
Evidently they [the American voter]does. They put the Democrats back in control of Congress in ‘06. Things have went downhill ever since.
Not only did the American voters return the Democrats to power in ‘06, they are on the verge of electing a muslim as President in ‘08.
From reading the letters to the editors, watching and listening to news programs, listening to some callers to talk radio shows, I have reached the conclusion that most Americans have lost their desire to live as free people. They would prefer to sell their souls to the Government in return for “free health care”, “free housing”, and “free money”. They would much prefer to live in a Country such as Cuba, Chile, North Korea or the U.K. where the Government takes care of one from the cradle to the grave.
I wish that they would go there and let people such as myself who only want to live and let live alone.
Wh
I'm not sure what, but it sure scares some people that we might not be a slave to ME Oil.
God Bless, Michele!
When Germany bombed Pearl Harbor were we finished?? It ain’t over yet.
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
That is exactly how it looks to me, as well.
Brainless "infotainment," empty-headed yakking on cell phones, and a hand out, rummaging through my back pocket...
DamIfIKnow what we do about it.
When I saw him a few months back he told me he was voting for Obama and knowing him (a former Pat Buchannan campaign worker) I assumed it was his way of protest against the free spending Republicans and the I'll show them insantiy of the '06 elections.
Much to my dismay this morning he told me he changed his party registration to Democrat yesterday. I said you have to be kidding me, I know your angry but joining the anti-American left isn't the answer. Well he went into a rant about how this is the most corrupt administration in the history of the country (he said the same about Clinton at the time) how Bush is a war criminal and we never should have been in Iraq. We can bail out the stock people but my health insurance premiums are going up and they won't give us socialized medicine, they let the real estate market spin out of control, etc. etc.
All I could think of is the world has truly gone insane. Here was a guy who things Reagan was the closest thing to God who is now telling me he's going to vote for Obama becasue we shouldn't have freed the Iraqis, should have socialized medicine and that it's the President's fault that the real estate and mortgage market went out of control. Frightening to think what will be left of this country after 8 years of Obama, Pelosi and Reid!
Start with a Glenn Beck pitchfork!
Contact your Congress critters to let them know that you are tired of high gas prices.
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