Murphy Calls on Administration to Reverse Course on "No New Energy Plan"

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On Wednesday, the Obama Administration announced enactment of a moratorium on offshore oil and natural gas production in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the Atlantic Coast through 2017, reversing the March 2010 decision to allow drilling in these areas.

Rep. Tim Murphy, who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, expressed "surprise" at the Administration's "flip-flop."

"I am disappointed that the President just slammed the door shut on 1.2 million new jobs and $8 trillion in economic output when close to seventeen percent of Americans are out of work or looking for work."

"We need to create jobs here, not in the Middle East," Rep. Murphy said. The U.S. will buy roughly $350 billion in foreign oil this year. One-third of U.S. oil crude production comes from offshore drilling in state and federal waters.

"By locking away America's energy resources, the White House seems to be offering up more of the same energy policies that got us into this fiscal mess: higher taxes, debt to China, and dollars to OPEC," Rep. Murphy remarked. "I urge the President to reconsider the new moratorium on offshore energy production and to rally behind a solution that doesn't raise taxes or send our dollars to OPEC."

As an alternative to the moratorium, Rep. Murphy called on the President to support comprehensive, bipartisan energy legislation, H.R. 2227, the American Conservation and Clean Energy Independence Act, which he introduced in May 2009. H.R. 2227 invests an estimated $2.2 trillion to $3.7 trillion in federal lease and royalty payments from expanded offshore oil and natural gas exploration into clean energy, a clean environment, and the rebuilding of America's infrastructure.

"H.R. 2227 will put more than a million Americans to work, all of this without buying oil from OPEC, borrowing from China, or raising taxes. It's the all-of-the-above energy strategy that's fully paid for and puts our economy back on track."

"Now is not the time to maintain the status quo on the staggering unemployment, sluggish economy, and dependence on foreign oil," Rep. Murphy continued. "The choice is simple. We can choose to ignore the issues and shut down our largest domestic asset. Or we can pass this bill, get to work, and move forward responsibly."

As co-chair of the Congressional Natural Gas Caucus, Rep. Murphy leads efforts in Congress on policies geared towards safe production and use of domestic natural gas, which can serve as a critical component of America's goal to achieve energy independence. In an annual report released Tuesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration found that the U.S. currently has 285 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of proven natural gas reserves, an increase of 11 percent, or 28.8 tcf, over last year.

A large portion of this natural gas is contained within shale rock formations residing thousands of feet underground. To access these resources, energy exploration and production companies use a technique called "hydraulic fracturing" to create small fissures in the rock formation that release gas from the shale.

Addressing concerns that liquid solutions used in the hydraulic fracturing process should be disclosed, two multi-state environmental regulatory and advisory groups announced efforts to create a public registry of hydraulic fracturing fluid contents. The Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission is launching a one-stop information registry later this month detailing the composition of hydraulic fracturing fluids. Components of hydraulic fracturing fluids are already required by law to be disclosed on Material Safety Data Sheets, and many state environmental protection agencies, including the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, have begun listing these fluids on their public websites.

Rep. Murphy applauded "industry leaders and state regulators for moving toward greater public disclosure of the compound makeup of hydraulic fracturing fluid." He explained: "This is the right thing to do. Many states, like Pennsylvania, have already adopted these measures. This effort will continue to reassure the public that domestic natural gas exploration is being done safely and with minimal impact to the environment."

Rep. Murphy urged state regulators and producers to continue working together on developing America's abundant supply of clean natural gas using the latest technology while maintaining the highest levels of safety, and vowed to keep working, as co-chair of the Congressional Natural Caucus, "on these efforts to support expanded use, responsible transmission, and safe exploration of our domestic natural gas resources."

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