FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 18, 2006

CONTACT: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider 202-226-7616

Pelosi: ‘We Cannot Drill Our Way to Energy Independence’

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement tonight in support of the Putnam-Capps-Davis amendment to the Department of the Interior Appropriations bill, urging Congress to protect the longstanding moratorium on new oil drilling in areas of the Outer Continental Shelf.  Below are Pelosi’s remarks:

“In 1969, California learned the hard way that we must protect our magnificent coastline when more than 3 million gallons of crude oil fouled the beaches of Santa Barbara.  California has so much at stake: the spectacular beauty of our 11 hundred-mile coastline, our tourism industry, our fishing industry, complex marine ecosystems, and the survival of species such as the southern sea otter.

“For 25 years, a bipartisan moratorium has protected California’s coast and other sensitive coastal areas from oil and gas drilling.  It was a good policy in 1981, and it is still a good policy in 2006.

“The opponents of the moratorium say that our nation needs more fuel, and therefore we must drill for oil and natural gas anywhere and everywhere we can find it.  I strongly disagree.  We cannot drill our way to energy independence.

“President Bush says our nation is addicted to oil, but five years after adopting the recommendations of Vice President Cheney’s secret Energy Task Force, the Administration continues to feed the addiction.  Conceived in secret, the Administration’s energy plan was written by and for their friends in the oil industry, who raked in more than $100 billion in profits last year.  It is a big success for Big Oil.  It is an enormous failure for the American people.

“Energy prices have shot up.  Over the past five years, gasoline prices are up 71 percent, American families are spending a record amount of their paychecks to keep up with energy costs, and our nation’s dependence on foreign oil has increased.  Our nation needs an energy plan based on home-grown renewable energy, innovative technologies, and efficient use of energy in our homes, vehicles, workplaces, and factories.  We need to send our energy dollars to the Midwest, not the Middle East.

“That is why last week I joined our Democratic Rural Working Group to unveil their plan to energize America.  America’s farmers will fuel our energy independence and we will achieve it within 10 years.  The plan would rapidly expand the production and distribution of biofuels, encourage the deployment of new engine technologies for flex fuel, hybrid and biodiesel vehicles; and encourage cutting-edge research to develop the next revolution in renewable energy.  That’s the kind of legislation we should be debating on the floor, rather than fighting the same old fights over the same old bad ideas.”

“ Democrats are united in presenting a New Direction for America, one that will make our nation as strong as its people, one that brings opportunity, security, and prosperity to all Americans. ”

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi