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Rep. Don Young's Statement From Today's Hearing On Democratic Bill To Reduce U.S. Energy Security & Raise The Cost Of Gasoline & Electricity

Washington, D.C., May 23 -

Rep. Don Young’s Statement

“Mr. Chairman, I’m disappointed in your bill.  If this bill became law it would make energy more expensive and less available, and lead to more foreign imports - just the opposite of what we should be doing.” – Rep. Don Young

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, I welcome the witnesses here today, and I want to thank you for holding this hearing. 

            Energy is the oxygen of modern life, and reasonably priced energy has given our nation a standard of living second to none.  Freedom of movement, upward mobility and opportunity exist in this nation in large part because the use of energy to amplify human strength makes all things possible. 

            Nothing provides more benefits for the modern quality of life than access to energy, and it is incredibly important to our future as a world power that we take advantage of our ample energy resources to ensure that future.

            That’s why, in all honesty, Mr. Chairman, I’m disappointed in your bill.  If this bill became law it would make energy more expensive and less available, and lead to more foreign imports - just the opposite of what we should be doing. 

Democratic Bill Makes Oil & Natural Gas More Expensive

& Reduces Future Of Wind Energy Projects

            So far as I can tell, this bill:

·        Makes oil and natural gas harder and more expensive to produce domestically,

·        Increases the costs of all energy by making energy corridors tougher to build,

·        Makes wind energy projects harder to build and adds more uncertainty to the projects,

·        Stops our nation’s largest potential liquid transportation fuel source – our two trillion barrel oil shale resource - dead in its tracks,

·        Federalizes the traditionally state-managed fish and wildlife resources under the guise of “global climate change”,

·        And importantly, does absolutely nothing for our nation’s other huge resource, coal.

In sum, it makes energy harder to produce, more expensive, and less available.  The only logical consequences are that Americans will pay more and get more foreign energy at a time when everyone in this town is complaining about how much Americans pay for too much foreign energy. 

Maybe that’s why the President of the Defenders of Wildlife – a group that has opposed all attempts to produce more energy to meet the demands of our nation - called this bill “a stunning piece of legislation.”   When the Defenders of Wildlife supports an energy bill, it ain’t an energy bill. 

            I want to urge all of my colleagues to take a very good look at this bill.  I think some of you will wonder why it makes wind energy projects more difficult, when so may have called for more wind energy to diversify our energy supplies. 

            I urge those of you from California to think very hard about the impact of less natural gas to fuel your electrical plants.  California uses natural gas for over 50 percent of its electricity generation and electrical prices are going up 29 percent this summer to pay for natural gas. 

            If you have a manufacturing plant in your District - and most of us do - I urge you to talk to someone about what their number one problem is right now.   I’ll bet they’ll tell you its energy costs. 

Should We Have Less Energy At Higher Prices,

Or More Energy At Lower Prices?

In fact, I urge everyone to go back home next week and ask voters what they think of energy:  Should we have less of it at a higher price, or more of it at a lower cost?   

I know a lot of people in my State of Alaska who are really hurting from the increased price of energy.   Diesel fuel for fishing boats is now close to $5 in some places, and so is heating oil in rural Alaska where there is no alternative.   And this is in Alaska, which has enough energy to run this country for a century or more.

            I can’t believe many people except on college campuses – and most of them graduate and get real jobs - in Pennsylvania or California or West Virginia think that we should pay more for our energy. 

            But that’s what this bill would do, sadly.  Energy would become more expensive for Americans, and the least among us who would be hurt the most.   For a nation as rich as we are to purposely starve our citizens for energy is sinful.  

            I hope that as a result of this hearing, Mr. Chairman, we can get together and work together on a bill that increases domestic production of all forms of energy, including coal and oil and gas and wind power and alternatives.  If we worked together, we could produce a bill that reduces foreign oil imports and increases energy security. 

            We need more energy, not less.  We need more affordable energy, not more expensive energy. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

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