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Energy Independence

Energy

Energy Independence

It is vital to our national security to develop renewable sources of energy that will break our dependence on foreign oil and put us on the path to becoming more North American energy independent.  While alternative energy sources, like hydrogen fuel cells and solar power, are part of a long-term energy strategy, in the mean time we must expand the production of American-made energy.  I strongly support an energy policies that take an “all the above” approach to solving our nations’ energy challenges in both the short term and the long term future.  Ultimately, we need more energy with the stamp, “Made in U.S.A.”

  • I successfully co-led an effort in 2008 to secure enough support in the House of Representatives to sustain a presidential veto of spending bills had they contained an extension of the congressional moratorium on offshore energy exploration and production.  In late 2008, Congress did not renew the congressional moratorium. 
  • I have cosponsored “all-of-the-above” energy legislation to increase the production of all kinds of American energy, including conventional, nuclear, renewable, and alternative sources of energy.
  • I have introduced legislation which would repeal Section 526 of the 2007 Energy Bill. This section prevents the federal government from purchasing energy derived from unconventional sources, such as oil sands and oil shale.  Repeal of Section 526 would enable the federal government to use its purchasing power to spur advances in alternative fuels derived from unconventional sources.