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Reducing Gas Prices and Foreign
Oil Dependence
Timeless Bush Urges Congress
To Expand Domestic Oil Production
President
Bush called on Congress to help
American families by removing
barriers to domestic production
of oil and gasoline. For many
Americans, there is no more
pressing concern than high
gasoline prices. Behind them is
the basic law of supply and
demand. In recent years, the
world's demand for oil has grown
dramatically.
Meanwhile, the supply of oil has
grown much more slowly. As a
result, oil prices have risen
sharply, and that increase has
been reflected at American gas
pumps. And now much of the oil
consumed in America comes from
abroad, including from unstable
regions and unfriendly regimes.
The Bush Administration has
repeatedly called on Congress to
expand domestic oil production.
Unfortunately, Congressional
Democrats have rejected
virtually every proposal. Now,
Americans are paying the price
at the pump for this
obstruction.
Congress Needs To Respond Now To
The President's Call To Expand
Our Domestic Production
President Bush asks Democratic
Congressional leaders to move
forward with four steps to
expand American oil and gasoline
production. With these four
steps, we will take pressure off
gas prices over time by
expanding the amount of
American-made oil and gasoline;
strengthen our national security
by reducing our reliance on
foreign oil; and strengthen our
ability to convince foreign
producers to increase their oil
and gas production. The results
will not be immediate, but the
sooner Congress acts, the sooner
Americans will be better off.
Specifically, to expand American
oil production, Congress
should:
1. Increase access to the Outer
Continental Shelf (OCS).
Experts believe that areas under
leasing prohibitions on the OCS
could produce about 18 billion
barrels of oil. Actual
resources may be greater, but we
will not know until exploration
is allowed. The problem is that
Congress has restricted access
to much of the OCS since the
early 1980s. Since then,
advances in technology have made
it possible to conduct oil
exploration in the OCS that is
out of sight, protects coral
reefs and habitats, and protects
against oil spills. With these
advances - and a dramatic
increase in oil prices - these
Congressional restrictions have
become outdated and
counterproductive.
Republicans in Congress have
proposed several promising
bills that would lift the
legislative ban on oil
exploration in the OCS.
President Bush calls on the
House and Senate to pass
such good legislation as
soon as possible. This
legislation should give the
States the option of opening
up OCS resources off their
shores and ensure the
environment is protected.
There is also an Executive
prohibition on exploration
in the OCS. When Congress
lifts the legislative ban,
the President will lift this
Executive prohibition.
2. Tap into the extraordinary
potential of oil shale. Oil
shale is a type of rock that can
produce oil when exposed to heat
or other processes. In one
major deposit - the Green River
Basin of Colorado, Utah, and
Wyoming - there lies the
equivalent of about 800 billion
barrels of recoverable oil. If
it can be fully recovered, it
would equal more than a
century's worth of currently
projected oil imports.
Oil shale is a highly
promising resource. For
many years, the high cost of
extracting oil from shale
exceeded the benefit, but
today, companies are
investing in technology to
make oil shale production
more affordable and
efficient. While the cost
of extracting oil from shale
is still more than the cost
of traditional production,
it is also less than the
current market price of
oil.
Democrats in Congress are
standing in the way of
further development. Last
year, Democratic leaders
used the omnibus spending
bill to insert a provision
blocking oil shale leasing
on Federal lands - President
Bush calls on Congress to
remove that provision
immediately.
3. Permit exploration in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
(ANWR). In 1995, Congress
passed legislation allowing oil
production in a small fraction
of ANWR's 19.6 million acres,
yet President Clinton vetoed the
bill. With a drilling footprint
of less than 2,000 acres - about
0.01 percent of this distant
Alaskan terrain - America could
produce an estimated 10.4
billion barrels of oil. This is
the equivalent of roughly two
decades of imported crude oil
from Saudi Arabia.
Scientists have developed
innovative techniques to
reach ANWR's oil with
virtually no impact on the
land or local wildlife.
These techniques are
currently being utilized
successfully in other
areas. President Bush urges
Members of Congress to allow
this remote region to bring
enormous benefits to the
American people.
4. Expand and enhance our
refinery capacity. It has been
30 years since our Nation built
a new refinery, and upgrades in
our refining capacity are
urgently needed. Refineries are
the critical link between crude
oil and the gasoline and diesel
fuel that drivers put in their
tanks. America now imports
millions of barrels of
fully-refined gasoline from
abroad, imposing needless costs
on American consumers and
depriving American workers of
good jobs.
President Bush is proposing
measures to expedite the
refinery permitting
process. The President
proposes that challenges to
refineries and other related
energy project permits must
be brought before the D.C.
Circuit Court of Appeals
within 60 days of the
issuance of a permit
decision. In addition, the
President proposes that the
Secretary of Energy be
empowered to establish
binding deadlines for permit
decisions and to ensure that
the various levels of
approval required in the
refinery permitting process
are all handled in a timely
way. And Congress should
allow new refineries to be
built on abandoned military
bases. These Proposals
Will Take Years To Have
Their Full Impact, But That
Is No Excuse For Delay For
the long run, we are dealing
with the demand for oil by
promoting alternative energy
technologies. President
Bush's Administration has
worked with Congress to
invest in gas-saving
technologies like advanced
batteries and hydrogen fuel
cells, mandated a large
expansion in the use of
alternative fuels, and
raised fuel efficiency
standards to ambitious new
levels. With all these
steps, we are bringing
America closer to the day
when we can end our
addiction to oil.
Building on this progress,
President Bush announced the
"Twenty in Ten" initiative
in his 2007 State of the
Union address. Congress
responded to this challenge
and passed and the President
signed, the Energy
Independence and Security
Act of 2007 (EISA), which
mandates that fuel producers
use at least 36 billion
gallons of biofuel by 2022.
EISA also requires a
national fuel economy
standard of 35 miles per
gallon by 2020 - which will
increase fuel economy by 40
percent and save billions of
gallons of fuel.
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