Promoting Responsible Domestic Energy Production
This week, the House of Representatives voted on the DRILL Act, H.R. 6515, which promotes the responsible domestic production of oil and natural gas, primarily in the 20 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Unfortunately, President Bush and his supporters in Congress blocked the bills passage. The President, and his enablers, wants to make this a fight about opening up our beaches and wilderness areas to drilling, in an attempt to open up more public lands for oil companies before he leaves office. There are currently 68 million acres of federal land already leased by oil companies for energy production but they are just sitting idle. 75 percent of all land currently leased by oil companies sits idle.
Oil companies should drill where they have already leased and they should lease lands that are already open for drilling. The DRILL Act was a common sense approach to addressing our reliance on foreign energy sources without needlessly harming the environment. I will continue to support legislation that responsibly increases oil supplies in the short term, while we work to build a long term strategy that embraces green and renewable energy.
Sincerely,
Zoe