Issue Position: Energy Independence

Issue Position

With our state's and nation's economies still struggling, it just makes good fiscal sense to capitalize on U.S.-based energy sources. And it makes good environmental sense to ensure that alternative fuel sources--and power generation--are an integral part of the plan

Issue of Energy
What we need are rational, sensible congressional policies that will move our country constructively and quickly toward true energy independence!
We have enough natural resources to be the leader in energy production. Yet we are the world's largest importer of oil. Rather than discuss energy in a narrative, it is easier to point out some facts:

*Oil previously was at $11 a barrel in 1999, now it is around $75. Hugo Chavez is pushing to increase the oil to $200 a barrel.
*2/3 of the world's proven reserves are in the middle east, an area of great unrest
*We potentially are funding terroristic activities, indirectly by the purchase of billions of dollars worth of oil from tyrannical governments; governments that despise our way of life and our freedoms.
*The oil rich nations are able to manipulate us with the price of oil, they have us over a barrel
*We have not created competition with the international energy market to force a competitive price for oil
*We are not fully drilling in the outer continental shelf but need to be -- now!

We have the ingenuity, the manpower and the means to "Drill Here, Drill Now"; to drill the OCS and in Alaska's "ANWR" region.

We should take advantage of all our natural energy resources both nonrenewable fossil fuels and renewable sources.
· I support the advancement of fossil fuel exploration and recovery
· I support the immediate lifting of the congressional ban to all offshore drilling, including oil, gas, and gas hydrates
· I support the drilling of oil now in OCS and ANWR
· I support measures to promote the recovery of oil shale, found in the green river formation
· I support drilling for natural gas
· I support research and development to promote the recovery of gas hydrates in the OCS off the arctic and off the Alaskan coasts
· I support increase in new refineries
· I support the advancement of hydroelectric, solar, wind and nuclear power
· I support biofuel technology as long as there is no increase in the cost of our food source
· I support litigation reform that will ease the choke hold on energy development
· I support measures to make it easier for energy firms to obtain necessary funding for research and development of domestic fossil fuels

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· I oppose environmental extremists who file frivolous law suits that cost millions to the citizens and the energy companies as well as cause delay in energy development
· I oppose the congressional ban on drilling off the OCS
· I oppose the congressional ban on drilling in ANWR
· I oppose bureaucratic efforts that burden the expansion of energy development
It is time for congress to make the connection that America can and will fail if we continue to depend on others for the energy we can provide.

Congress should lift all bans on drilling in America now! Doing so would immediately lower the price of oil, create thousands if not millions of jobs and would jump start the economy!

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