Mike Levin: “I had hoped that I would be able to vote for the energy bill before the House today. Now more than ever, this country…”

“I had hoped that I would be able to vote for the energy bill before the House today. Now more than ever, this country urgently needs a balanced, forward-looking policy to meet America's energy requirements in the 21st Century. Unfortunately, the energy legislation before the House falls far short of even the minimum requirements of a balanced, comprehensive energy program. I therefore urge my colleagues to join me in opposing passage of this bill today. The overarching flaw in this bill is its lack of balance. This legislation contains relatively few energy conservation provisions and instead places most of its emphasis on production of traditional energy sources. In so doing, the bill weakens important environmental protections and offers subsidies and incentives to industry, even in cases where none are required. I am also extremely disappointed that one provision of this bill would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. This provision would do serious environmental harm to one of the last pristine wilderness areas in America. It might be argued that doing so could be justified if drilling in the Refuge would substantially lessen U.S. dependence on foreign sources of oil. But we know that this is not the case. According to a 1998 U.S. Geological Survey study, the mean estimate of economically recoverable oil in the Refuge is 3.2 billion barrels, an amount roughly equal to the amount of oil the U.S. consumes in six months.”