Gas Prices and President Obama's Energy Agenda

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, today, right now in America, around the dining room tables at home, there are two topics of discussion that I have to think are most pressing during that dinner conversation, and that is unemployment and price at the pumps; and, frankly, they're both related, very closely.

Madam Speaker, before being appointed to office, President Obama's Energy Secretary Steven Chu stated: ``Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.''

Well, Madam Speaker, at the time of that statement, gasoline prices in Europe were $8 to $10 a gallon. Last week, the Energy Secretary made headlines when he seemed to say the administration's goal was not to lower gas prices. Considering the goal is not to lower gas prices, this may be the first time that the administration's energy policies match its rhetoric.

Now, despite the President's rhetoric about the need for increased domestic production of fossil fuels, to date, this administration has seemingly done everything it can to block production. But the purpose of these remarks is to highlight not the administration's statements but, instead, their policies.

Let's look at the record, starting with some positive things that happened just before President Obama took office and continuing through 2012 to present day, as shown on this graph.

First of all, July of 2008, at the peak of the 2008 gas price spike, President George Bush removed 18 years of Presidential Executive Orders restricting offshore oil and gas energy development. Prices began to fall immediately, almost overnight. Given the fact that not one additional barrel of oil was drilled, it was a message to the market, a strong message to the market that America finally recognized that the American taxpayers owned assets in oil and were willing to use them. What a message to the market it would be today, a similar message. But back in 2008, that's where we saw this drop begin to start.

Now, in September of 2008, just a couple of months later, Congress finally followed, after its 26-year ban on offshore drilling, to allow that to expire. Prices at the pump, as you can see, Madam Speaker, dropped dramatically, even more.

Then President Obama took office. February 2009, soon after, not long after inauguration, the administration rescinded oil shale lease plans put in place during the Bush administration to aid the production of oil in U.S. Government lands. These are lands that are owned by Federal taxpayers. President Obama's actions reduced production of oil in the United States Government lands, and we see what continues to happen with prices.

In June of 2010, the House Democrats passed a cap-and-trade national energy tax, which would have dramatically increased gasoline prices.

In November of 2009, the administration unilaterally shortened lease terms on some Outer Continental Shelf leases. Well, this policy not only discouraged oil and natural gas production, but also decreased much needed government revenues. In March of 2010, the administration canceled the remaining lease sales in seas off the Alaska coast, eliminating development of reserves that the government estimates could be as large as 65 billion barrels of oil.

In May of 2010, the administration canceled the Virginia offshore lease sale, which had bipartisan support from the Virginia Governor and the Virginia congressional delegation. The administration also canceled the remaining 2010 Gulf of Mexico lease sales.

In December of 2010, the administration extended the moratorium on leasing off the Atlantic and eastern Gulf of Mexico through 2017.

In January 2012, President Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline. Estimates show that the Keystone XL pipeline would add 1.1 million barrels a day of friendly Canadian oil to our Gulf of Mexico refineries.

Madam Speaker, moving forward with a credible energy policy can only be achieved if we all have a shared understanding of the facts. Global demand for oil is increasingly driven by developing economies such as China and India. In the U.S., our demand is down 6 percent year after year, and prices are still skyrocketing. And it's going to stay that way.

Eighty-five percent of the world's energy consumption comes from hydrocarbons--oil, coal, and natural gas. While renewable energy is needed and new consumption efficiencies should be encouraged to meet future energy demands, hydrocarbons will be the dominant source of fuel for the world's economy for many decades to come. No one can deny that before we can create an energy supply that is substantially more diversified, we are going to need more fossil fuels to get us there.

We're not running out of Natural Gas. In 2000, shale gas represented just 1 percent of American natural gas supplies. Today, it is 30 percent and rising.

We are not running out of oil. Former CEO of Shell, John Hoffmeister, stated last week on State of the Union, ``We use 20 million barrels a day every day in a full economy in this country. We only produce 7. We used to produce 10. Let's go back to 10. We know how to produce 10. We have the oil to produce 10 for decades to come.''

Unfortunately, this Administration is preventing the U.S. from developing additional energy supplies to meet our demand. As a result, families are struggling with rising energy costs and higher gas prices at the pump.

Madam Speaker, these are the facts and the solutions are within our reach.

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