Rob Bishop: “Let me throw a couple more statistics at you, and then I want to do some dialoguing here because the numbers are good…”

“Let me throw a couple more statistics at you, and then I want to do some dialoguing here because the numbers are good, but we have to put them in context eventually. This administration is always big about saying, well, we need to have alternative energy sources to help our economy grow. I think we need to have all kinds of energy sources. But the Chamber of Commerce has identified 380 renewable energy projects that have been blocked or stalled over the past 4 years. The total cost of those stalled projects is $560 billion in lost economic activity and approximately a quarter of a million jobs that were not allowed simply because--it doesn't matter whether we're talking about fossil fuels or wind power or solar power or nuclear power--we're not doing anything to develop new energy sources. Western Energy Alliance did a survey to find out what would be taking place in the West, these areas that I'm saying have been heavily hit. Seventy-four percent of the respondents to the survey by the Western Energy Alliance said their companies are downsizing capital investment in the Rocky Mountain area. That's $1.1 billion of investment that has been shifted from the Rocky Mountains to other parts, simply because of the inability of the government to try and help us to develop energy sources. That is $2.8 billion in infrastructure that would have come into the West and has not. And it has a ripple effect.…”