Issue Position: Energy

Issue Position

Roughly two-thirds of all crude oil used in the United States is imported from other countries. Consequently, Americans send hundreds of billions of dollars each year to countries that, to say the least, do not always have the best interests of the United States in mind. It doesn't need to be this way. Congress needs to authorize oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ("ANWR"). Congress also needs to direct the U.S. Department of the Interior to promulgate its long-awaited oil shale leasing program, which has the potential to unlock hundreds of billions of barrels of shale oil. In Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming, there are over one trillion barrels of proven, recoverable oil shale reserves. (That's more oil than the combined petroleum reserves of the world's top-ten oil producing countries.) But because much of that oil shale is tied up in federal lands, shale oil will continue to be known as "the fuel of the future" until such time as the federal government is willing to lease federal lands for the purpose of shale-oil production. That needs to happen now.

To ensure that we have an adequate supply of clean, reliable energy, we need to develop all available energy resources. No single source will prove sufficient; we need to rely on nuclear power, clean coal, petroleum oil, natural gas, oil shale, solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric power.

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