Press Releases - Capito: Gulf of Mexico Petroleum Discovery Yet Another Reason to Take Advantage of Domestic Energy Resources

Capito: Gulf of Mexico Petroleum Discovery Yet Another Reason to Take Advantage of Domestic Energy Resources

CHARLESTON, WV - Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) today pointed to the recent discovery of a petroleum pool that could increase our country's oil reserves by more than 50 percent as yet another reason for our country to make domestic oil and gas production a larger part of our country's immediate energy policy.

"Two months ago I helped lead the fight on the House floor to pass legislation making it easier to explore the deep waters off our coast in order to increase domestic oil and gas production," said Capito. "The recent discovery of a vast oil field below the waters in the Gulf of Mexico underscores the need to continue pursuing policies that make it easier to utilize our domestic oil and gas reserves rather than relying on imports from the Middle East and other unstable parts of the world."

Initial tests indicate the new oil find in the Gulf of Mexico could be the nation's biggest since the Prudhoe Bay oil fields were discovered nearly 40 years ago.

Capito added, "Advances in technology and alternative energy sources will one day help fuel our cars and national economy, but until that day we cannot sit on our domestic oil and gas reserves while families across the country are struggling with high energy costs."

On June 29, the House of Representatives passed legislation cosponsored by Rep. Capito, the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act (H.R. 4761), which aims to lower energy costs on consumers by eliminating outdated federal regulations that impose a blanket prohibition on deep sea energy production. The Senate passed similar legislation, and the two chambers are now in conference to work out the differences between the two bills.

Earlier this year, Capito outlined a five-point plan that Congress should follow to help bring relief to West Virginians suffering from the high cost of gas. Along with exploring for oil and natural gas in the deep seas off our coasts, the plan called for opening a small portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) to energy exploration, banning price gouging, temporarily waiving boutique fuel regulations and the tariff on imported ethanol and utilizing West Virginia coal by building a coal liquefaction facility.

In addition to passing the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act, the House of Representatives has also acted on other provisions in Capito's five-point plan by passing the American-Made Energy and Good Jobs Act (H.R. 5429), which allows energy exploration in a small part of the ANWR, and by passing anti-price gouging legislation, the Federal Energy Price Protection Act (H.R. 5253).

http://capito.house.gov/press_office/detail-page.aspx?id=200&whichone=pr