Major Issues
Lower Prices for Gasoline and Energy Independence
America needs to find new ways to achieve energy independence. Efforts like increased conservation and bringing online new technologies will help this effort, but alone they won't be enough to solve the issue.
It's time to produce more American oil for American families.
I have joined other House Republicans in calling for a comprehensive set of federal actions that will immediately encourage the oil and gas industry to expand exploration and produce more oil here at home.
Unfortunately, House Democrats are blocking these efforts. This should come as no surprise.
The Democrat leader in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, voted in 1993 to place an energy tax on all gasoline, natural gas, coal and electricity. This “BTU tax” would have increased the cost of living for all Americans, but Pelosi and her party apparently think the best energy policy is to raise energy prices on consumers.
Pelosi and her fellow Democrats have stopped oil from being produced offshore on the Outer Continental Shelf, on federal-owned lands in the Rocky Mountains, and in just 2,000 of the more than 19 million acres that make up the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Area.
It’s estimated that these combined areas have more than 828 billion barrels of oil which can be produced here in the U.S., creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
These proven sources of oil represent more than 100 years of annual U.S. consumption, which currently stands at 7.5 billion barrels every year.
For a further explanation of areas we can tap for more American oil, click here.
There is no greater example of misplaced self-confidence than when House Democrats go to the floor and claim they know how much oil is underground in areas such as Alaska and the Rocky Mountains, or beneath the Gulf of Mexico.
Just this year, the estimate of recoverable oil in North Dakota was raised 25-fold by the U.S. Geological Survey. Why? Oil exploration and production technologies are constantly getting better, thanks to the innovative (and environmentally conscious) professionals at American-based oil companies. These improvements are helping to discover and produce more oil in the U.S.
Texans in Dallas know the positive side in the story of the oil industry. Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and my opponent think only in negative terms about oil producers. They take direction on energy policy from Al Gore.
Don’t you think it’s time we Americans produce more oil right here at home?
The current high prices of gasoline are the result of a failed energy policy at the federal level. To a great extent, America’s cost of gasoline is a self-inflicted economic burden, caused by policy makers in Washington, too many of whom believe they know more about oil and gas than the professionals who explore and produce those resources.
Since the late 1970s, solutions to relieve the inevitable tight oil supply (caused by constantly rising demand) have been thwarted, as officeholders in Washington could not agree on the steps necessary to increase production.
Americans deserve an energy policy that works. As a nation, we need to do everything possible to develop alternate sources of energy, simultaneously encouraging Detroit to engineer cars with higher gas mileage. As part of that goal, and to build new electric capacity for plug-in hybrid cars, we should develop new technologies that will make power generated by coal plants completely clean. Also, we should build new nuclear power plants - but do so by utilizing innovations developed for that technology in the last 25 years, all of which have significantly improved this energy source and made it safer.
Most importantly for the immediate term, we should encourage oil and gas companies to drill for oil and natural gas in America.
There is no one “fix” to the high cost of gasoline. Instead, we have to mobilize the nation to adopt every viable solution. By combining all of these courses of action, we can bring down the price of gasoline and lower the cost of energy for American families. With this approach, we can turn a present-day challenge into a long term opportunity.
American Oil Production
(And what the Democrats are doing to stop it)
FACT SHEET
| Sources of Oil in U.S. or U.S. Controlled Waters | Description |
Estimated Amount of Oil in Terms of Proven Resources |
Actions Taken by Democrats to Stop Production |
Outer Continental Shelf |
The U.S. is the only developed nation in the world that prevents oil companies from exploring for oil in its Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). More than 85 percent of the OCS is off-limits to oil production in U.S.-controlled waters. | America’s deep seas contain 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas. (The U.S. consumes about 23 TCF every year.) | The original ban on drilling for oil and natural gas in the OCS was passed into law by the Democratic-controlled Congress in the 1980s. Since then, several votes in Congress have re-affirmed that policy, all at the expense of American households and commuters. |
Oil Shale Production in Rocky Mountains |
Probably the largest single deposit of oil shale in the world is the Green River Basin that stretches through Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, much of which is on federal land. | The Green River Basin contains more than 800 billion barrels –100 years’ worth of oil required by the U.S. at today’s consumption of 7.5 billion barrels per year. | In June of 2007, the majority of House Democrats passed an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill, preventing regulations for producing oil from oil shale on federal lands from being established. (Approved by a 219-215 vote) |
| Development for oil exploration and production would be limited to just 2,000 of the 19.6 million acres in ANWR. | The mean estimate of all studies of oil reserves in ANWR comes to 10.4 billion barrels. Developing this 2,000 acre tract of ANWR would yield at least 1 million barrels per day and create a million new jobs. | The area of ANWR for oil production was set aside by President Carter and the Democratic-controlled Congress in 1980. In 1995, President Clinton vetoed a bill to allow for oil exploration in ANWR. Nancy Pelosi voted against that measure which would have allowed oil production in this small area of ANWR. | |
North Dakota Bakken Formation Oil Shale |
Proof that the technology exists for economical (and environmentally safe) extraction of oil from oil shale can be found in North Dakota. | Oil production in North Dakota is evidence of how estimates of proven oil reserves have to adjust to reflect improvements in technology. In 1995, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that the Bakken Formation had just 151 million barrels of recoverable oil. In a new, revised estimate released earlier this year, the USGS said the formation has 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil – a 25-fold increase. | Natural gas from the hundreds of oil wells being drilled in North Dakota is being burned off today – wasting a valuable resource. Why? One explanation is that the rates pipelines can charge are capped by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) - at the insistence of powerful Democrat committee chairmen. With these price controls in place, too many pipelines are built too slowly – or not at all. |
Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale |
The oil and gas industry has known for years that this formation (running from Pennsylvania into West Virginia, eastern Ohio and up state New York) contains natural gas. The ability to affordably produce it was always the question. Using well-completion and other drilling techniques perfected in the last few years, this massive formation is now commercially viable. | The Marcellus Shale deposit has the potential to dwarf the Barnett Shale natural gas deposit in North Texas. One natural gas industry expert calls the recently developed ability to extract natural gas from shale deposits “a game changer.” The Barnett field yields 3 billion cubic feet a day. That volume could double by 2015. Marcellus could have as much as 50 TCF of natural gas, according to researchers at Penn State. The proximity of Marcellus to natural- gas-consuming cities in the northeast is just a short pipeline distance away, making the field more important. | Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques are not cheap. If Democrats maintain control of Congress and win the White House, count on them to make good on their pledge to pass a “windfalls profits” tax on oil companies. With such a tax in place, the economics of developing natural gas in the Marcellus Formation could go out the window. |