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For Immediate Release
March 19, 2010

WASHINGTON - Gas prices are on the rise again across the United States. And with unemployment still hovering near double digits nationwide, and even higher in many states, increased energy costs are an added burden to family and small business budgets that are already stretched thin. Yesterday, under the headline "Pain in the tank: Gas prices highest since 2008," the Associated Press reported this: 

• Motorists are paying the highest prices for gas since October 2008. Retail gasoline prices rose on Thursday on an expected increase in demand and as more expensive spring and summer blends of gasoline make their way to the pumps. The nationwide average hit $2.799 per gallon, a penny higher than Wednesday, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.

So what are leaders and elected officials in Washington - particularly in the Administration - doing to address our nation's energy needs and security? The short answer is not much.

Today, the US House of Representatives will vote on the Ocean, Coastal, and Watershed Education Act, which authorizes nearly $146 million in tax dollars for "environmental literacy" as it relates to the "impacts of climate change in coastal watershed regions." Will this bill help stabilize energy costs for struggling families, or help break our deep and dangerous dependence on energy from some of the world's most unstable regions? We'll let you decide.

And this week, the Administration - who has proposed $36.5 billion in new, job-killing tax hikes on American oil and gas production - announced that, at the direction of Congress, it will be undertaking a new hydraulic fracturing study. Fracturing - which has been safely used for 60-years to increase homegrown oil and gas production in more than 1 million wells across the country - has never contaminated groundwater, thanks to the industry's unwavering commitment to environmental safety, new technologies and effective, commonsense regulations in energy-producing states. Despite these facts, the EPA announced yesterday that it will begin a new $1.9 million study to analyze this critical and heavily-regulated technology.

America's independent oil and gas producers - who drill 9 out of 10 wells throughout the country - understand that safely producing more homegrown energy, while using our resources more efficiently, is key to keeping our economy moving, creating thousands of good-paying jobs, and strengthening our long-term security and competitiveness. And while the Administration has indicated that producing more domestic oil and gas must be a priority, below are just the facts.

CLAIM

• President Obama: "But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives.... It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development." (State of the Union Address, 1/27/10)
  
  
• Sec. Salazar: "Interior Secretary Ken Salazar indicated Tuesday that the Obama administration could be open to expanded offshore drilling and is considering doing away with a controversial program that allows oil companies to pay in kind for oil and natural gas taken from public lands." (Wall Street Journal, 1/28/09)

FACT

The Washington Post reported earlier this week that "Most Virginia leaders -- regardless of their political party -- have expressed interest in joining Alaska, Texas, Louisiana and other states in setting up offshore platforms to drill for oil and natural gas," and noted that "public opinion polls have shown that many Americans favor offshore drilling." This from the article:

• The political shift comes as pressure builds for the United States to search for alternative energy sources while creating new jobs and revenue during the economic slowdown.
  
  "This is common sense. Why not use our resources so we don't have to depend on fluctuating political realities in the Mideast to determine the cost of gasoline?" McDonnell said in an interview. "We have a tremendous arsenal of assets, and they all need to be used."
  
  Virginia is in line to be the first Atlantic Coast state to drill off its shore, although it will probably be years before it starts, even if it receives the necessary approval from the Obama administration.

And as Governor McDonnell has already done, Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor - the House Republican Whip - met with Secretary Salazar this week, urging him to move forward with job-creating, 21^st century oil and gas exploration off the state's coast. This from the Washington Post:

• Cantor met with Salazar yesterday to encourage him to keep Virginia in the Minerals Management Service's five-year plan and begin soliciting companies to drill off the coast next year.
  
  "During the last comment period ... nearly eight in 10 Virginians expressed support for some form of offshore exploration,'' Cantor said in a statement. "Offshore energy exploration has the potential to provide thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue for Virginia and is supported by the people of the Commonwealth, our Governor and our legislature."

While leaders in Washington continue to keep enormous amounts of taxpayer-owned oil and gas reserves off-limits, other nations are working aggressively to produce energy right off our coasts. In an editorial yesterday, The Washington Times writes this under the headline "Obama surrenders gulf oil to Moscow":

• The Obama administration is poised to ban offshore oil drilling on the outer continental shelf until 2012 or beyond. Meanwhile, Russia is making a bold strategic leap to begin drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. While the United States attempts to shift gears to alternative fuels to battle the purported evils of carbon emissions, Russia will erect oil derricks off the Cuban coast.
  
  Offshore oil production makes economic sense. It creates jobs and helps fulfill America's vast energy needs. It contributes to the gross domestic product and does not increase the trade deficit. Higher oil supply helps keep a lid on rising prices, and greater American production gives the United States more influence over the global market.

And the Washington Examiner writes this in an editorial today: 

• Last week, it was Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announcing that no new permits will be issued for outer continental shelf development until 2014 at the earliest. Salazar has also used bureaucratic obfuscation to delay new energy development on Western lands. There are billions of recoverable barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas in those areas, enough to put the United States well on the way to complete energy independence.

CLAIM

• Joseph Aldy, special assistant to the president for energy and the environment: "It is unclear whether fracturing chemicals are fouling groundwater." (Reuters, 3/10/10)

 FACT 

• IPAA's Lee Fuller: "Fracturing has a long and clear record of safely leveraging otherwise unreachable homegrown, clean-burning, job-creating energy reserves." (Associated Press, 3/18/10)
   
• o "Efforts in Congress to give the EPA authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing should be halted until the study is done. Such authority could harm energy production and job growth, he said." (Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 3/19/10)
   
• Washington Examiner Editorial: "Never in the 60-year history of hydraulic fracturing has it been linked to a single proven public health threat to water quality; and the EPA has already studied hydraulic fracturing, most recently in 2004, when it found no threat." (3/19/10)