Free Republic

House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday he will soon introduce legislation that would pay to fix the nation's crumbling infrastructure by increasing domestic energy production. Money for roads, bridges and water projects would be financed through existing royalties and other taxes paid by companies allowed to expand domestic oil and gas drilling. The bill would make it easier for those companies to obtain drilling permits and make it easier to build nuclear power plants. "This is a new, devoted revenue stream," Boehner, R-Ohio, told a group of reporters. "As American-made energy production increases, so too does the revenue for infrastructure...

The House on Friday morning moved to block federal light bulb efficiency standards without even a roll call vote. An amendment from Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) defunding the Energy Department's standards for traditional incandescent light bulbs to be 30 percent more energy efficient starting next year was approved rather anticlimactically by voice vote. The success of the amendment appeared inevitable in the House, where the fate of the incandescent light bulb became a symbol in the fight against federal regulations. Democrats and the White House have opposed the move to block the standards, which were included in a 2007 energy...