Democrats' Disingenuous Claims on "Use It or Lose It" Energy Bill Proven False
With Gas Prices Rising To $4.08 Per Gallon, How Much Longer Will Democrats Refuse To Increase American Energy Production?
Washington,
Jun 16 -
According to AAA, gas prices have surged to $4.08 per gallon today – a full $1.75 higher than they were on January 4, 2007 – Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) first day as Speaker of the House. With gas prices continuing to soar each and every day, Democrats in charge of Congress are feeling the pressure to do something – anything – to help lower the price at the pump. But rather than bringing the House GOP’s comprehensive plan to lower gas prices to the floor, Speaker Pelosi and her fellow Democratic leaders are wasting valuable time and doing nothing to improve the situation for American families and small businesses.
The latest example: the Democrats’ “use it or lose it” hoax. Rather than unlocking America’s vast natural energy resources both on land and in deep ocean energy zones – areas with known quantities of oil and gas reserves – the Democratic Majority is suggesting that there are millions of acres of federally-owned land right now under lease that energy companies are not bothering to tap. And they are demanding that the companies “use” the lands or “lose” their lease on them. But there are two problems with the Democrats “use it or lose it” hoax.
First, as House Republican Conference Adam Putnam (R-FL) notes, this policy already is the law of the land. Indeed, federal energy lease holders already must produce oil or natural gas within five to 10 years after drilling on the land begins – and the Secretary of the Interior has the power to cancel the lease if the energy company fails to comply.
Second, it takes years for an energy company to actually begin drilling for oil or gas on federally-owned land; it first must map the land and actually determine that there is oil and gas present before drilling can commence. And even so, according to today’s Wall Street Journal, the federal lands currently under lease for oil and gas exploration aren’t producing much oil and gas in the first place – only about a quarter of those lands are generating any energy, in fact:
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“Democrats are looking to shift the terms of the debate by arguing it is possible to increase domestic oil production without opening up new lands. The government, they point out, has leased some 91.5 million acres of land and waters for drilling, but federal data show only about a quarter of that is producing oil and gas. Moreover, the portion is shrinking; about 27% of the onshore acres were producing oil and gas in 2007, down from an average of 30.5% in production over the preceding decade.”
“The industry and its backers say such arguments reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the oil industry. Companies don’t know how much oil is under the lands they lease, so they buy up large swaths in the hope that a fraction will work out. Much of the area that isn’t producing, they say, doesn’t have oil or gas in commercially viable quantities.”
“Moreover, bringing a new field into production can require years of mapping, testing, drilling, and construction – during which time the land would show up in statistics as being ‘not in production,’ even as companies spend millions or even billions of dollars to bring it online.”
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While Democrats attempt to mislead the American people into thinking their “use it or lose it” hoax would lead to more American energy production, about one million barrels of oil per day sits idle in Alaska’s arctic coastal plain. Moreover, some 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lie untapped in deep ocean energy zones, according to an op-ed by Rep. John Peterson (R-PA) in this morning’s New York Post. And what is this Democratic Congress doing about it? Not a thing. Meanwhile, gas prices are spiking higher than ever.
American families and small businesses are counting on their leaders in Washington to work together to help bring down fuel costs. House Republicans have offered a comprehensive plan to do just that. Unfortunately, the Democrats in charge won’t schedule that plan for a vote, nor will they reveal any real energy proposals of their own. Instead of touting the “use it or lose it” hoax and other equally meaningless measures, isn’t it time for the Democratic Majority to get serious about their responsibility to tackle the energy crisis which has occurred on their watch?
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