The Friday Faxline

Op-Ed

The Friday FAXLINE

The Weekly Update from Congressman Joe Pitts

National Petroleum Reserve

This week my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have begun promoting drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve, a large desolate tract of land to the west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Since gas flew past $4.00 a gallon, this is the first time they have acknowledged the need to explore for more oil here at home. But it is strange that they are willing to advocate for drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve and yet continue to oppose the same in ANWR. The Petroleum Reserve contains about 440 barrels of oil per acre, compared to ANWR's 5,475 barrels per acre. Some Petroleum Reserve oil and gas fields are more than 250 miles from the existing pipeline infrastructure, compared to ANWR's 75-mile distance to the pipelines. The Petroleum Reserve's oil and natural gas fields are spread over about 23 million acres, compared to 1.9 million acres for ANWR. The oil in the Petroleum Reserve is more spread out and will require a much larger footprint to access. The oil resources in ANWR can be accessed by using just a small portion of land. As an analogy, if ANWR were the front page of the New York Times, the area we would need to use in order to extract oil would be the size of one letter on the front page.

Offshore drilling

Until this week, there were two prohibitions on offshore drilling. One was imposed by Congress and another by executive order in 1990. On Tuesday, President Bush lifted the executive ban. Standing in the Rose Garden he said, "The only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress. Now the ball is squarely in Congress' court." With this action, the President has made it painfully clear who is standing in the way of American made energy. In the face of President Bush's call to lift the Congressional ban, Speaker Pelosi simply reaffirmed her opposition to lifting the ban, or providing any opportunity for Representatives in the House to vote on such a matter.

Wild and scenic rivers

In their never-ending effort to block investments in American energy infrastructure, the Democrats this week passed a bill in the House to designate approximately 40 miles of the Taunton River, in Massachusetts, as a part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. The lower nine miles of the designated portion is highly industrialized, including power plants, oil refineries, and yacht clubs. In contrast, is the White Clay Creek in southern Chester County, which I worked to add to the system in 2000. Including the lower nine miles of the Taunton River will block a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) station from being built there. This was advocated by the many of the same Representatives from New England that annually ask for federal assistance in alleviating the cost of home heating for their residents. As in all markets, increased supply of energy resources would be the single best way to decrease prices.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced plans this week to shore up mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Legislation will come to the House floor as soon as next week to address their plans. However, Democrats in the House have decided to couple it with a housing bill that will provide a slush fund for liberal activist groups like ACORN. Also absent in the current draft of the legislation is any significant changes in regulations to keep the American taxpayers from having to bail out the mortgage companies in the future.

Quote of the Week

"His motives were largely political. His alibi was a 'counterinsurgency.' His intent was genocide."

-- Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, accusing Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of genocide against his own people.

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