Rep. Pompeo Counters President's Oil Attack

Press Release

Today, the day after President Barack Obama's 3rd State of the Union Speech, Congressman Mike Pompeo (KS-04) took issue with the President's direct assault on a significant portion of our energy sector. In last night's speech, the President stated, "I'm asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don't know if you've noticed, but they're doing just fine on their own."

Congressman Pompeo, a member of the influential Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Representative for Wichita, Kansas released the following response:

"As a Congressman who represents a district in this country that relies heavily on job growth spurred by oil and gas investments, I take it pretty personally when I hear the President of the United States single out that industry for attack by criticizing American companies - ones that create many American jobs, no less - in his most important address of the year.

"Across the country, oil and gas companies are faced with costly and uncertain permitting procedures that are hampering current output and having long-term implications for U.S. oil and gas production. Most visibly, the Administration's nonsensical moratorium on offshore drilling is costing Americans more jobs.

"As the President calls for 80 percent of America's electricity to come from clean energy sources by 2025, we need to look a bit more closely about how we are to arrive at that arbitrary benchmark. Congress spent tens of billions of dollars on the federal government's favored energy sources in the so-called stimulus, yet America remains dependent on hostile foreign nations to power our lives. The answer is not to hyper-subsidize preferred industries or force consumers and job creators to purchase energy they cannot afford. That is not how a free market selects its sources of energy. I oppose forcing energy technology mandates that have to be met regardless of cost.

"Let me be clear: I oppose all corporate welfare for preferred energy industries and pet projects. Instead, I support an "All of the above' energy plan that uses a market-determined combination of all energy sources: coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear power, hydropower, geothermal, and alternative sources (wind, solar, and biomass). "All of the above' will be needed to meet much higher demand during the coming decades. But individual consumers responding to market incentives, not government subsidies or mandates, should drive our energy economy by choosing the most effective and efficient energy sources available.

"Wrongly, the Obama Administration picks winners and losers, and they are picking the most expensive forms of energy as our future -- a future that, if realized, will result in a poorer, less productive, and less powerful United States.

If President Obama's policies prevail, it will further drive up consumer gas prices and utility bills that will burden our families with greater economic hardship, which many simply cannot shoulder," stated Pompeo.

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