GOP Revs Up American Energy Initiative as Dems Recycle Same Old Job-Crushing Solutions

Congressman John Boehner
March 29, 2011

With analysts now saying our economy is heading for a soft patch due in part to rising gas prices, the need for the new House majoritys American Energy Initiative, with its commitment to stopping policies that drive up gas prices and expanding domestic energy production, could not be clearer.  Over the weekend, the Tacoma News Tribune looked at how the House Natural Resources Committee is putting a spotlight on this critical issue:

On Thursday, the House Natural Resources Committee has set a hearing on the effect of rising gasoline prices on families and businesses as part of its effort to determine what has or hasn’t been done since President Obama took office two years ago.   Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., the panels chairman and a nine-term congressman from Pasco, already has an answer.  He said the president has done nothing by not moving fast enough to allow more oil drilling in the Gulf Coast and on public land.  And he said his hearing will put a spotlight on the issue. As the new chairman of the committee, Hastings gets a loud megaphone on the issue, and hes using it. Obama clearly is sensitive about the criticism.

Far from rising to this occasion, the Democrats who run Washington have fallen back on the same old job-crushing solutions:

• Higher Prices.  Gas prices should be expected to go up, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said last week when asked if the spike in gas prices is helpful.
• Higher Taxes.  Do we do gas tax Senate Budget committee chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) asked after requesting a report detailing how the government could go about taxing people based on how much they drive.
• Higher Dependence.  President Obama recently backed more job-creating energy production in Brazil while continuing to block new American energy production in ways that former president Bill Clinton has called ridiculous.  An editorial in todays Washington Post says the president’s ironic position makes no sense.
• Higher Recycling (Not the Good Kind.)  Leading Democrats have rallied around the use it or lose it hoax (which is already the law of the land) and called for tapping the emergency oil supply in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) a tacit acknowledgment that more supply would help lower fuel costs. 

 Its telling that even when proposing solutions to high gas prices, the Democrats who run Washington expose how theyre part of the problem. The American Energy Initiative is a no-excuses, all-action project to stop Washington policies that are driving up gas prices and expand American energy production to help lower costs & create more American jobs.  For more information on this weeks hearing on rising gas prices, visit the Natural Resources Committee website, or check them out on Twitter @NatResources.  You can also check out the Energy & Commerce (@HouseCommerce) and Agriculture committees (@HouseAgNews) for more on the American Energy Initiative.