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For Immediate Release
January 8, 2010

WASHINGTON - Today, the Labor Department announced that 85,000 Americans lost their jobs over the month of December. At the same time 1 in 10 Americans are without work, energy prices continue to climb, making the recession even more difficult for struggling consumers. And under the headline 'Rising gas prices could be a drag on economic recovery', the Washington Post reports this today:

• "The global economy has been improving for six months, and more activity means more demand for oil, driving up prices. ... More than a minor annoyance encountered every time you pull up to a pump, rising gasoline prices have a real impact on the U.S. economy, especially as it's struggling to recover after a nearly two-year recession."

So what is Washington doing to help stabilize energy prices and create more energy jobs in America? Almost nothing. In fact, many policies are actually making it more difficult for Americans to access job-creating energy reserves that are rightfully theirs on federal lands. Just this week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unveiled a new set of bureaucratic rules and regulations that discourage homegrown oil and gas production.

IPAA, the voice of independent oil and gas producers who are responsible for 90 percent of the wells drilled in America, spoke out forcefully against Interior's burdensome regulations. In a release, IPAA president and CEO Barry Russell says:

• "The new regulations announced today by Sec. Salazar are not consistent with an American energy policy that provides more jobs and revenues and strengthens national security. They will further restrict access to oil and natural gas resources on onshore federal lands, which an overwhelming majority of Americans want and deserve."

Russell's comments were included in several news articles:

• "Similarly, Barry Russell, president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said the changes will 'significantly limit' the ability of producers to navigate the federal leasing process. 'We believe that decisions regarding oil and natural gas development are best made at the field office level rather than the top-down approach being advocated in these regulations,' he argued." ("Onshore Leasing to Proceed More Slowly," Oil Daily, 1/7/09)
  
• "Independent Petroleum Association of America Pres. Barry Russell said, 'We do not see the need to further expand the consultation process that is already in place as it will only lead to more delay and confusion for small producers.'
  
• "Russell said IPAA also strongly supports using CXs as outlined in EPACT and believes that efforts to revise or only allow their use under 'extraordinary circumstances' will limit independent producers' ability to use 'these important and common-sense tools.'
  
• "'This initiative will add great bureaucracy, delay and confusion to the oil and gas leasing process on federal lands. The current leasing process on federal lands works, and if small changes need to be made to the system, BLM has the ability to make those corrections. The concept of developing a master leasing plan will only create the potential for litigation and protest on every oil and gas lease issued by the agency,' Russell warned." (Nick Snow, "Salazar draws industry heat with oil and gas leasing reform," Oil & Gas Journal, 1/7/10)

And members of Congress - from both parties - are speaking out against these new regulations that will stifle domestic energy production, job creation and deepen America's foreign energy dependence.

The Tulsa World reports this under the headline 'Boren blasts Obama administration's energy policy':

• "U.S. Rep. Dan Boren, in a letter the Oklahoma Democrat described as blistering, expressed opposition Thursday to the Obama administration's new rules on oil and gas production on federal lands.
  
• "'I am deeply disturbed by this administration's continued hypocrisy with regards to American energy policy,' Boren stated in a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
  
• "Your policy changes not only violate federal law, a law which you and President Obama both voted for in the Senate, but they are also inconsistent with the administration's stated goals for an American energy policy that provides more jobs and strengthens national security."   

** Click HERE to view the full letter on-line.

And the top House Natural Resources Committee Republican, Washington Rep. Doc Hastings, had this to say:

• "It's unfortunate, but not surprising, that the Administration is starting this New Year by implementing misguided policies that will destroy jobs and hinder American energy production.
  
• "This Administration has leased less acreage than any other on record and appears determined to throw up every roadblock possible to stall and ultimately halt energy development on federal lands. Few Americans would agree that the solution to any problem is more bureaucracy, more regulations and more red tape, but unfortunately that's what we've seen from this Administration."

Newspapers are weighing in, too. Investor's Business Daily writes this in an editorial entitled "Salazar Slips Energy Policy In Reverse": 

• "As energy prices surge to uncomfortably high levels, a top administration official wants to make it harder for U.S. companies to get more oil and gas. Once again, we're shooting ourselves in the foot on energy. ... Salazar couldn't have picked a worse time to announce that he's placing new barriers on the development of oil and gas resources.
  
• "'Because of Salazar's unwise and even hostile energy stewardship, we will likely suffer through years and years of higher prices for crude oil, natural gas and other badly needed resources.
   
• "During the next 25 years, U.S. energy consumption is expected to grow by 15%, according to government estimates. We desperately need all the energy we can get - now. If not, we face a future of rising prices, higher inflation, slower economic growth and lower standards of living. That may be change, but it doesn't sound very hopeful."