Bill Flores: “I thank my friend from Colorado, and you're exactly right. I do have extensive experience in the oil and gas business…”

“I thank my friend from Colorado, and you're exactly right. I do have extensive experience in the oil and gas business and also in the energy service business. So I know firsthand the impact on jobs and American energy security that having a robust supply of domestic oil and gas can have. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight another missed opportunity by the Obama administration to address rising gasoline prices, to promote American job creation, and to provide for American energy security. While the President may claim his administration supports an all-in approach to energy, the facts, however, tell a different story. Here are four examples of rhetoric versus reality: Example number one, last November, the Department of the Interior released a draft 5-year plan that fails to open any new areas to new energy production in the Outer Continental Shelf through 2017. This proposal will send American jobs overseas, forfeit new revenue to the Federal Government, cause higher gasoline prices, and will deny access to American energy resources that would reduce our dependence on unstable and unfriendly Middle Eastern sources of oil. Yesterday, I helped spearhead a joint bipartisan letter with 182 signatures from this House, which we sent to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, expressing strong support in the House for the consideration of new and expanded access offshore for the production of oil and gas.…”