Murphy Leads Effort to End Gridlock on Offshore Drilling, Energy Legislation
Contact: Kristen Bossi
Today, Congressman Chris Murphy (CT-5) asked the House leadership to bring a comprehensive energy package to the House floor for a vote soon after Congress reconvenes in September. Murphy wants the House leadership to include a compromise solution that allows expanded offshore drilling.
In a letter sent to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (MD-5), who maintains the schedule for what is brought to the floor of the House for a vote, Murphy called on House leadership to work with Republicans to reach a compromise on increased offshore drilling in order to pass a comprehensive energy bill.
"It has become clear that without a compromise on some increased, sensible offshore drilling, we will not be able to move forward on ideas that will make us truly energy independent. We have to work together to negotiate a common sense solution to help consumers who can't afford the bickering. Increased offshore drilling won't solve our energy problem by itself, but this issue shouldn't continue to be a barrier to us passing energy legislation," said Murphy.
To move forward and end the partisan stalemate on energy policy by acting in September, Murphy urged the House leadership "not to foreclose any options, including the option of expanding exploration and production in currently protected offshore areas, if such exploration and production would increase domestic supply, lower prices, and could be done in a manner that protected our coastal environment and respected the wills of individual coastal states."
In his letter, Murphy cited the progress the House leadership attempted to make to help consumers in the short term with high energy costs. In July, the House voted on:
legislation to expand production and supply by requiring oil companies to drill on their currently leased holdings;
a bill to authorize increased development of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A);
legislation to release oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserves to put more oil on the market;
and a measure to reform commodities market trading to reign in rampant oil speculation.
However, Republicans blocked these measures, with most of the Republican Caucus voting against each energy relief bill