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On energy, the Obama administration’s actions speak louder than rhetoric

By Congresswoman Virginia Foxx

North Carolina gas prices increased by almost a third in the last year and continue to tick higher.  For workers, families and students driving to jobs or school these high energy prices stretch their already thin budgets to a breaking point.  However, Washington bureaucrats appear to be blind to the heavy burden that outrageous energy prices place on already tapped-out taxpayers. 

Instead of taking steps to develop new sources of American-made energy, the Obama administration is dragging its feet or even blocking promising energy projects.   Solving the problem of high energy prices is not going to be easy but standing in the way of domestic energy development is certainly not going to help. 

Here’s how we can change things: in order to bring down the price of energy in the United States we need to take an all-of-the-above approach that attacks the program from many angles.  I support plans that allow new drilling of oil and natural gas and that use the resulting federal revenues to support research in alternative and renewable energy like solar or clean coal projects.  This is the sort of common sense approach that strikes a balance between moving towards new sources of energy and tapping our plentiful sources of traditional energy such as natural gas or coal.

This middle ground approach isn’t good enough for some people though, which helps explain the Obama administration’s counterproductive energy policies.  These harmful policies are exemplified by the de facto drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico that is destroying jobs and hampering our ability to produce domestic oil and natural gas.

A recent study from Louisiana State University found that the drilling moratorium destroyed 13,000 jobs in the Gulf region and 19,000 nationwide for a total of $1.1 billion in lost wages.   That’s not theoretical.  Those are thousands of families without a livelihood and countless barrels of American-made energy left untapped. 

Thanks to this moratorium, formerly successful businesses are going belly up.  Several weeks ago, one company in the Gulf, Seahawk Drilling, declared bankruptcy because the federal permits needed to put its equipment and employees to work are almost impossible to secure. 

After declaring bankruptcy the company’s president said, “Seahawk’s greatest rival was no longer our industry competitors but the U.S. government.”  This company used to provide 1,000 good jobs.  Now, due to the federal government’s refusal to approve even the safest drilling permits, most of those jobs are gone.  

President Obama recently said he wants to reduce American oil imports by a third over the next decade.  I support this goal.   But we cannot reach this ambitious benchmark by putting our own supplies of oil and natural gas under lock and key.  In addition to encouraging alternative energy sources, we must also allow American energy supplies to be used. 

While the administrations rhetoric sounds nice, actions are what matter.  And what we’ve seen so far is not encouraging.  At almost every turn, the administration is putting the brakes on new drilling and energy exploration.  For instance, shallow-water drilling permits in the Gulf are down by more than 50 percent.  

Of course a U.S. District Court Judge found that the Department of Interior’s delay tactics on permits in the Gulf were "increasingly inexcusable.” He told the agency to decide on five pending deepwater drilling projects within 30 days.  In turn, the agency refused to comply.  Instead, the Interior Department appealed the judge’s decision and caused further delays.  These do not appear to be the actions of an administration committee to reducing our oil imports by a third. 

Additionally, despite saying the U.S. should “partner with neighbors like Canada” when it comes to oil imports, the administration is also standing in the way of making this a reality.  Consider the fact that a major pipeline to connect Canadian oil reserves (the second largest in the world) to American refineries is being held up by the State Department for unexplained reasons. 

An Energy Department study found that this pipeline could “very substantially reduce U.S. dependency on non-Canadian foreign oil, including from the Middle East.”  Plus, the construction of this pipeline, in addition to shielding us from purchasing Middle Eastern oil, would create thousands of jobs right here in the U.S. 

The Obama administration’s de facto drilling moratorium and the holdup of a major U.S.-Canada pipeline illustrate that actions mean much more than rhetoric.  If we are going to get gas prices under control and reduce our reliance on Middle Eastern oil, we must pursue a broad policy that includes smart and safe offshore drilling and domestic energy exploration. 

Right now the Obama administration is standing in the way and is, in the process, destroying thousands of jobs.   It’s past time we got serious about domestic energy production and pursued an all-of-the-above energy policy that creates jobs, rather than a some-of-the-above energy policy that destroys them.

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VIDEO: It's time for an "all-of-the-above" energy policy