Issue Position: Energy

Issue Position

Congressman Rogers takes a look at a Honda car.Hard working Alabama families are paying ever-increasing prices at the pump. While stabilizing and lowering the cost of energy is a long term challenge, it is critical in the short term that Congress provides real solutions for encouraging the use of alternative, home-grown fuels like cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel to help reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy for the future.

Congress should pursue every option to help expand our use of domestic sources of energy, including expanded drilling into the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR), and the expansion of nuclear power.

Alabama is poised to be a national leader in the development of alternative energy technology given its wealth of natural resources, prominence of the agriculture and timber industries, and cutting-edge research at our universities like Auburn and Tuskegee.

Soon Congress is expected to consider Cap and Trade legislation that would address climate-change that would limit the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Under this system, plants and other manufacturers that produce carbon dioxide as a byproduct of their operations, including major employers in East Alabama, would be required to buy emissions allowances from the Federal government.

I am strongly concerned by imposing a cap-and-trade system on our economy, prices of all goods and services would increase even higher hurting our competitiveness and unfairly burdening working families.

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