Obey Says Real Effort Must be Made to Reduce America's Dependence on Oil
Obey Says Real Effort Must be Made to Reduce America's Dependence on Oil
Calls for Crash Course Manhattan Project' Style Effort for Alternative Energy
In response to stop-gap plans proposed by the President and members of Congress to lower gas prices, Seventh District Congressman Dave Obey (D-WI) today repeated his call for the creation of a crash course "Manhattan Project' style effort to develop alternative energy sources to help wean the nation off our huge dependence on oil.
"Why should anyone be surprised with gas prices today when the Administration is filled from top to bottom with oil men and the only thing Congress has done is to pass the so-called Energy Policy Act of 2005 which did little more than hand $14 billion in new taxpayer funded subsidies to the profit bloated oil companies," said Obey.
"I don't think a company that just announced that it made $8.5 billion in profits in just the last three months and is giving $400 million to a departing president needs more in taxpayer subsidies," he added, referring to recent disclosures by Exxon Mobil Corp.
"To truly lower prices and reduce the nation's dependence on oil, we must get serious about alternate energy sources and energy conservation," Obey said. "We must have a Manhattan Project-like effort to develop alternative energy sources. We must double mileage standards for automobiles. And we must commit to a long-term change in the way we approach energy use in the United States."
However, Obey noted that the odds are long against those kinds of changes coming from the current Administration. "President Bush founded Bush Oil Exploration; Vice President Cheney is the former CEO of Halliburton, the world's largest oil services company; Condi Rice served on Chevron's board of directors for ten years and even had an oil tanker named after her; and the list goes on . . ." Obey pointed out. "In fact, at the start of the Administration, Cheney assembled a 63-member team to set the Administration's energy policies - fifty members were from big energy companies, but only one was from a public interest group and only one was an energy efficiency expert. Those seem like pretty long odds for John Q. Citizen."
"Is it any real surprise given their credentials that they would allow energy prices to go out of sight?" Obey added.
But, Obey says, the Administration's credentials are only the latest roadblock to sound energy policy.
"We are paying the price for the fact that after President Carter managed to double funding for energy conservation and efficiency and expand research and development of alternative energy sources, his successors slashed those programs 70% and scrapped Carter's long term energy policies," Obey said. "In his first year alone, the current President Bush cut funding for renewable energy programs 27%. He cut energy efficiency programs at the Department of Energy by 26%. And he scrapped an air conditioning efficiency standard that would have saved American consumers enough electricity to power every home in America for a year."
"If we were committing as much today as President Carter did to improve our energy independence we would be investing four times as much in energy research and development and twice as much on energy conservation and efficiency and we might not be in the position we are today," Obey concluded. "Because we are not, energy prices are once again putting the squeeze on our economy, and we're taking the hit while Big Oil laughs all the way to the bank."
http://obey.house.gov/HoR/WI07/Newsroom/Press+Releases/Obey+Calls+For+Real+Effort+To+Reduce+Oil+Dependence.htm