WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, released the following statement today in response to President Bush’s expected lifting of the executive ban on offshore drilling:
“A ban on drilling in the same Gulf that’s open to Venezuelans, Indians, Vietnamese and Cubans never made much sense except as a political barricade erected by anti-oil environmentalists in and out of Congress. Now that the president is voiding the old executive order, the issue lands with a plop on Nancy Pelosi’s and Harry Reid’s collective lap. I hope they can figure out a way not to automatically talk themselves into a frenzy of opposition that prevents real action to lower gasoline prices.
“This used to be the sort of Washington spat that made drivers shrug, but hardly anybody’s shrugging since gasoline got to $4 a gallon. A notable exception is Speaker Pelosi, who seems happy enough that people everywhere can now pay San Francisco prices. However, it begins to seem like even many congressional Democrats are no longer willing to be led off the cliff. Good for them, and good for America if enough Democrats and Republicans can do something to increase supplies and lower the price of a gallon of gas.
“The president’s decision offers an opportunity for the speaker to be part of the solution, and I hope she will not simply reject it again because she’s a Democrat and the president is not. What’s happened lately isn’t encouraging. Whenever the issue of gasoline prices comes up, the speaker calls offshore exploration a hoax and reflexively pretends that evil producers are sitting on an ocean of oil under leases they already hold. Smirking and sneering when producers aren’t willing to spend millions to drill dry holes is propaganda, and the only hoax is that the speaker wants them to drill where the oil is not instead of where it is.
“Energy policy needs to be less about blather and more about producing all the American-made energy that we can, including energy from oil, natural gas and all the viable alternatives. I’m glad the president thinks so, and I hope Mrs. Pelosi will change her mind.”
