Dear Senator Brown,
Instead of repeating the liberal talking points on oil why don't you think out of the box a bit. If there are almost 100 million acres presently available to drill, but the key reserves are on other lands why not trade the leases acre for acre, in that way your still get to please the environmentalists by protecting land.
Why not enact laws requiring that all oil found on federal lands only be used in the United States. Why not put a time limit on the leases, produce it or lose it.
Since the Federal government get 25% of the revenues off all oil pulled from the ground on Federal land take 10% of the revenues out of the Federal share and 10% of the oil companies share and ear mark it for alternative energy research.
The minute that our government announced the opening up of ANWR, the coastal areas, the Bakken fields and other areas speculators would be insane to bid up the price of oil futures. Shell oil says they have the process to extract oil from shale, we have enough oil in this form then all of the Saudi resverves.
I disagree with you assesment of how long it would take to bring oil to market, in fact the argument is so weak you should be ashamed to write it down. Using the same logic someone that is 40 years old shouldn't bother saving for retirement or parents shouldn't save for college for their kids, because you will only have 20 years so why bother. The previous adminstration said the exact same thing, why bother drilling it will take 10 years, that was more than ten years ago.
The American people are growing restless with $4.00 gas and with an election in the near future anyone who is not proposing way to produce more oil will be a very visible target. This nation runs on oil for better or worse the leaders of your party promised to reduce the price at the pump when they took over the congress, as of now it is a promise unkept.
PS I didn't even get around to asking why the congress isn't fast tracking nuclear power plants!
the assessments the liberals use why the the ban can not be lifted are nothing but lame excuses.