Frank Pallone: “It is, frankly, stunning that after about 2 years of Republicans talking such a big game on energy security and energy…”

“It is, frankly, stunning that after about 2 years of Republicans talking such a big game on energy security and energy independence, that one of the Republicans' first bills this Congress is a proposal that would seriously undermine both. The truth is that Republicans' decades-old drill-baby-drill mentality is outdated, it is reckless, and it simply cannot and will not protect Americans from the volatile price movements of a global commodity. Our country has adopted this mentality for decades, and it just doesn't work. The United States is already the world's top producer of both oil and gas, and the fossil fuel industry already controls large portions of U.S. public lands and waters, and it isn't using most of it. Right now, fossil fuel companies control over 26 million acres of U.S. public lands, half of which is going unused. The problem is not a shortage of land or leases. Republicans only want the American people to think that that is the case because they want to keep doing the bidding of Big Oil. But the bottom line is, Big Oil doesn't want to pump oil because that would lower prices. They don't want to do it. They don't want to address the issue of affordability with gas prices. They don't want to pump more oil.…”