Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, in 2008, the President and the House of Representatives lifted the 24-year-old moratorium on offshore oil and gas production on most of our Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Back in March, President Obama pushed for offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast through 2017. Then in April, the BP oil spill happened. That disaster is certainly a cautionary tale. Yet, in the first week in December, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, without an act of Congress or a Presidential executive order, single-handedly prohibited offshore energy development from 2012 to 2017--a 5-year plan for offshore leasing. In reality, this change means no new production can even begin until 2022, if then. That is not the way to reduce our rising dependence on foreign oil or to solve our unemployment problem or our lack of economic growth. We must learn our lessons from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and proceed with care--but we must proceed. President Obama, through Secretary Salazar and strangulation by regulation, has set back our country's path to energy security by at least 12 years, which is certain to produce higher energy prices and to and increase our dependence on foreign imports--hardly sound energy policy. ____________________”