Issue Position: American Energy

Issue Position

From high gas prices at the pump to electricity bills going up at home, North Carolinians are hurting because government continues to stand in the way of domestic energy exploration and production.

A balanced and responsible approach is the solution. This means developing more of America's own energy resources, including wind, solar, clean coal, biofuels, nuclear energy, as well as oil and natural gas, which will reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil and create thousands of jobs here at home. The stringent regulation of our own untapped energy reserves constricts available supply and only compounds the global demand for energy. The lack of progress on the Keystone XL Pipeline is but one of the many examples of failure to take action to grow our energy industry.

North Carolina is home to some of the world's largest deposits of oil shale and there are potentially vast resources off our coastline. The challenge does not lie in our industry finding these resources, but in man-made government regulatory hurdles that prohibit us from allocating the time and investment to capitalizing on them.

I believe that by adopting a market-led approach we can create a more abundant, affordable, and sustainable energy supply that will unlock the potential for a more prosperous America. This is a simple way to relieve our fiscal burdens now, and ensure we remain the world's most dynamic economy in the future. I stand in firm support of increasing domestic energy supply.

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