With growing alarm and concern, my constituents are paying higher and higher prices for gasoline.  The price of gasoline is just too high and it looks like this trend is only going to continue. Looking beyond the price of gasoline, what concerns me more is our continued dependence on foreign sources of oil and gas and lack of a national energy strategy.  Energy independence is essential to our national and economic security.  Our continued prosperity depends upon it.

 

Over the summer, the average retail price of gasoline in California was over $4.50 per gallon, up over a dollar from last year.  The average retail price of diesel fuel in California is $5.03 per gallon compared to $2.06 a gallon from last year.

 

With these record breaking prices of fuel, we are experiencing the consequences of the failure to have an effective national energy strategy.  We are paying for the federal government’s refusal to open up our domestic sources of energy.  America remains the only developed country in the world that restricts the development of its own energy resources.

 

Furthermore, the United States puts its economy and national security at risk by relying so heavily on foreign oil.  Seventy percent of the oil we use comes from foreign countries and over $700 billion is sent from the United States to foreign countries on oil and gas – dollars that should be spent here on our own supply of energy.

 

For the last 26 years, Congress has voted to continue a ban on any homegrown development of energy off the Outer Continental Shelf.  The 1990 ban was extended to 2012 by President Bill Clinton in 1993.  Yet, in 2006, Cuba allowed foreign countries – some who are major competitors for international sources of oil – to drill off its coast – just 40 miles off the coast of Florida.  In July, President George W. Bush lifted the executive moratorium put in place by President Clinton.  However, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has refused to allow a vote to lift the ban that Congress puts into law each year.

 

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan asked Congress to open up the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).  A Democrat- controlled Congress refused.  In 1995, President Bill Clinton vetoed legislation passed by a Republican –controlled Congress that would have opened up ANWR.  Under the Bush Administration, the House of Representatives passed legislation in 2001, 2003, and 2005 that would have opened up 1.5 million of 19 million acres of the Arctic Coastal Plain of ANWR.  The Senate refused to include this provision in the energy bill.  ANWR is a critical potential supply of oil.  Oil production would increase by at least 50% if this small portion of land were opened up to development.  It is America’s single largest untapped source of oil. 

 

In another example of irony, the 2005 Energy Bill signed into law focused on alternative fuels and clean vehicles with no provisions that would increase domestic oil and gas supply.  At that time, the price of crude was a record high of $63 a barrel.  Today, the price of crude is $125 a barrel.  Yes, we have cleaner cars…a good thing…but the price of gasoline remains shockingly high.  This is yet another example of failing to have a sound national energy strategy.  While I support conservation efforts, with countries like China and India rapidly increasing their energy consumption, the United States can’t conserve our way to lower gasoline prices…we must also increase domestic production of energy.

 

Another potential source of domestic oil production is from oil shale.  The United States is the Saudi Arabia of oil shale deposits.  With 2 trillion barrels of oil that we could extract, the United States could potentially meet its petroleum needs for 250 years on that source alone.  The best deposits are on federal lands, which in 2007 the Congress, controlled by liberal Speaker Nancy Pelosi, placed off limits for energy development.

 

Since I first came to office in 2001, I have repeatedly supported and voted for increased domestic energy production – whether it be from Alaska, the Outer Continental Shelf, the Gulf of Mexico, or public lands in the West.  This Congress, I am an original cosponsor of legislation that would open up ANWR, OCS, streamline the permitting and siting of new refineries, repeal the ban on development of western shale oil, and repeal the ban on the government purchases of oil from oil sands and shale.

 

In addition to supporting increased domestic exploration and production of oil and gas in an environmentally sound manner, I have also supported improving the gas mileage of automobiles and trucks.  These improved fuel economy standards, which will increase from 27.5 miles per gallon to 35.7 miles per gallon by 2015 for automobiles, were signed into law last year.  Trucks, vans, and sports utility vehicles will increase their fuel use from 23.5 miles per gallon to 28.6 miles per gallon.  With these more fuel efficient standards, it is estimated that 55 billion gallons of gasoline will be saved.

 

I have also led the charge to encourage the use of energy efficient vehicles by allowing these vehicles on high occupancy vehicle lanes and special tax incentives for the purchase of clean, energy efficient vehicles.  I have also supported funding for research and development of new technologies and energy resources beyond fossil fuels.  Fossil fuel is fact of life and will be used in the short term and mid term future.  However, it shouldn’t prevent us from developing what will be the next major fuel supply 50 years from now.

 

In addition to a real national energy strategy, Congress must maintain strong oversight over the energy industry and the agencies that regulate the industry.  Strong consumer protections are also important, which is why I am an original cosponsor of a bill which would direct the Commodities & Futures Trading Commission to ensure that US consumers are protected against illegal energy practices and for the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Reserve and the Energy Information Agency to study and report to Congress policies that would increase consumer protections against market manipulation and fraud in energy markets. 

 

In the last Congress, as Chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Energy and Resources, I organized and chaired numerous oversight hearings investigating energy companies, energy markets, federal agencies charged with protecting taxpayers’ dollars from fraud and market manipulation, and looking at policies were needed to avoid the problems we now face.  Specifically, my subcommittee recovered billions of dollars from oil and gas companies through mismanaged leases.  Tragically, many of these solutions should have been done years ago to prevent the current problems. 

 

There is no silver bullet that can lower prices today or even tomorrow.  However, inaction and continued avoidance of addressing the real issues is not an option.  Energy independence is essential to our national and economic security.  Instead of scheduling numerous bills naming post offices and courthouses, Speaker Pelosi should be directing all Committees to work together in a bipartisan way to come up with solutions that will expand our domestic energy supply, encourage efficiency and begin looking to the next generation of energy sources.