Congressman
Henry E. Brown, Jr.

As a long-time supporter of an ‘all of the above’ energy solution, I believe that addressing our nation’s energy crisis is the first step in correcting our economic woes.

Just this week, the U.S. Department of Interior announced that it will begin the process of opening areas off the Virginia coast for exploration and production of American energy.  This is just the kind of step that must be taken to follow through on this fall’s historic lifting of the offshore drilling ban.  Even though energy prices have seen a recent reduction, this should not reduce the need to move our nation towards energy independence and financial stability.

By opening up more domestic energy sources off our coasts and on our soil, we can begin providing Americans more with American energy. In addition, we will keep billions of dollars here at home, instead of sending it to fill the treasuries of foreign nations.  These dollars can be used to create thousands of jobs for the American people and begin to rebuild our economy with the resulting infrastructure.

Our task now is to ensure that this victory is not short lived.  House Democratic leaders have already asserted that restoring the bans ‘will be a top priority for discussion next year.’ Liberal Democrats close to President-elect Obama have stated that they plan to urge the new President to use executive orders to reinstate these outdated energy bans.  House Republicans will do everything to prevent this.

Posted by Henry E. Brown (11-16-2008, 12:53 PM) filed under Energy

 

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