For those of you who don't know, Nancy Pelosi's book, Know Your Power, A Message to America's Daughters, reportedly sold 2,737 copies during its first week of sales. Now I'm not here to knock her for writing a book; in fact, I give her credit for undertaking such a task. The problem I have is with her promoting it when she should be not only working with Congress, but LEADING it to pass a substantive piece of energy legislation.

Explaining the book’s poor performance, a source close to her was quoted as saying:

"The speaker was pre-occupied with house business last week. She has now turned her focus to promoting this extraordinary book...doing local signings and speeches. I think we'll see an uptick."

WOW!

So, are we to take from that that before this summer recess she'd led Congress to accomplish so much, she now deserves time to promote her book to enhance sales??? Not only is the premise wrong – Congress has accomplished nothing – but the ensuing statement is, too.

Partisanship aside, I think we can all agree that Pelosi should get back to work in Washington to deal with our energy crisis.  Book sales are the last thing she should be concerned about. 

At least, we now see crystal clear the priorities of the Speaker of the House. No wonder she’s leading what is known as the "Do-Nothing Congress."

There's only so much you can say about Nancy Pelosi's failed leadership the past year and a half. But I think this visual sums it up best. Enjoy!

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The following letter was just delivered to Speaker Nancy Pelosi on behalf of the American people and the Republcan Conference requesting that she reconvene the House and allow a vote to provide relief to Americans suffering because of skyrocketing gas prices:

An Open Letter to Speaker Pelosi  

On Friday August 1, 2008, at 11:23 a.m., your Democrat majority in the House of Representatives adjourned the House for five full weeks.House Republicans believe that Congress should not go on vacation until we take action to lower gas and energy prices for struggling American families.

For the last two months we and our House Republican colleagues have used every tool at our disposal to try and get you and your Democrat majority to vote on legislation to lower gas and energy prices by expanding environmentally sound domestic production of oil and natural gas, improving energy efficiency, and encouraging the development of alternative energy technologies.

Many of the proposals we have asked you and your Democrat majority to allow us to vote on are bipartisan proposals that we believe would enjoy the support of a majority of the Members of the Congress. Yet because you and your Democrat Leadership personally oppose these proposals, you are not allowing them to come up for a vote. This past Sunday, you even told George Stephanopoulos that you will never allow this vote to occur (see transcript on the reverse).

In protest of you and your Democrat majority not allowing an up or down vote on producing more American energy, we and our House Republican colleagues were prepared to take to the floor on Friday, August 1, 2008, and speak to the nation. Rather than allowing that to happen you and your Democrat majority adjourned the House, turned off the television cameras, shut off the microphones and turned out the lights. Nearly 50 House Republicans remained on the floor of the House in defiance speaking to those citizens gathered in the galleries and to the media.

Today we have again returned to the Capitol to continue speaking to the thousands of Americans from all across our country who are visiting the Capitol. We would have preferred if instead we were joined by our colleagues to have a true debate on this issue that ended in an up or down vote. 

We think it is unconscionable that Congress has gone on vacation before we have addressed the high gas prices that are crippling our economy and hurting millions of families.  We are asking that you reconvene the House from your five-week vacation and schedule a vote on legislation to increase American energy production. Let us be clear, we are not asking for a guaranteed outcome, just the chance to vote.

Signed by: John Boehner, Republican Leader; Roy Blunt, Republican Whip; Adam Putnam, Republican Conference Chairman; Eric Cantor, Chief Deputy Whip; and Members of the House Republican Conference

STEPHANOPOULOS: … You've been getting a lot of heat on -- for not allowing a vote, a straight up-or-down vote on expanding drilling off the coasts of the United States. Why won't you permit a straight up- or-down vote?

PELOSI: … What these -- what our colleagues are talking about is something that won't have an effect for 10 years and it will be 2 cents at the time. If they want to present something as part of an energy package, we're talking about something. But to single shoot on something that won't work and mislead the American people as to thinking it's going to reduce the price at the pump, I'm just not going to be a party of it.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Except that it's not just Republicans calling for this. Members of your own caucus say we must have a vote. Congressman Jason Altmire, let me show our viewers right now, is saying there's going to be a vote. Here he says exactly, there's going to be a vote. September 30th will not come and go without a vote on opening the outer continental shelf. The message has been delivered. The issue can't be ignored any longer. He says he speaks for a lot of Democrats. He's talked to the leadership, and a vote must happen.

PELOSI: Well, maybe it will, as it's part of a larger energy package.

Instead we're saying, free the oil. Use it, don't lose it. There's 68 million acres in lower 48 and 10 or 20 million more acres in Alaska, where they're permitted, where they could drill anytime. This is a diversionary tactic from a failed energy policy.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But if you feel you have the better arguments, why not give a straight up-or-down vote for drilling?  

PELOSI: Because the misrepresentation has been made that this is going to reduce the price at the pump. This is, again, a decoy, it's not a solution.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, if you're right, why not let it be debated out and have the vote?

PELOSI: We have a debate every single day on this subject. What you saw in the Congress this week was the war dance of the hand maidens of the oil companies. That's what you saw on the Republican side of the aisle.

Democrats and Republicans are not right down party lines on this issue. There are regional concerns, as well as some people concerned about what this means back home for them.

But we have a planet to save. We have an economy to grow. And we can do that if we keep our balance in all of this and not just say but for drilling in unprotected and these protected areas offshore, we would have lower gas prices. …

STEPHANOPOULOS: But why not allow votes on all that? When you came in as speaker, you promised in your commitment book, A New Direction for America, let me show our viewers, you said that bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that allows open, full, fair debate, consisting of a full amendment process that grants the minority the right to offer its alternatives.

If they want to offer a drilling proposal, why can't they have a vote?

PELOSI: They'll have to use their imagination as to how they can get a vote, and they may get a vote. But I have tried, you know, we have serious policy issues in our country. The president of the United States has presented this but for this, our economy would be booming. But for this, gas would be cheaper at the pump.

It's simply not true. And even the president himself in his statement yesterday and before then has said there is no quick fix for this by drilling.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you will not permit a vote. You may get beat, but you're not going to permit a vote on your own?

PELOSI: Well, again, we take this one step at a time. But why we're spending all this time on a parliamentary tactic when nothing less is at stake than the planet, the air we breathe, our children breathe? We have...

 

-30-

While the Democrats rushed home for a month long recess, Republicans stuck around to talk energy...despite the lights and microphones being turned off. It's too bad the Democrats didn't think it worthwhile to work with us to pass some much needed energy legislation. The President can and should call the House back immediately so we can debate and vote on the legislation that has been offered to deal with rising energy costs. Pelosi may not agree with the solution's being proposed, but the American people at least deserve a vote.

Today I introduced the Promoting New American Energy Act to accelerate tax depreciation for renewable energy investments and other energy technologies.

Specifically, this bill would accelerate tax depreciation to 3 years for investments in newer, cleaner, and more efficient energy technologies. By encouraging greater investment in solar, wind, geothermal and more, these alternatives become a bigger part of our arsenal of energy options more quickly. And a diverse arsenal of solutions will decrease our dependence on foreign oil and curb our gas costs.

According to a study by the nonprofit, nonpartisan American Council for Capital Formation, investments in alternative energy experience less favorable tax depreciation rules in the U.S. compared to many other countries. My legislation will put America on better footing globally and take us one step closer to increasing our domestic energy production.

The fact of the matter is that our nation is in an energy crisis and Congress needs to do everything in its power to increase domestic energy production and exploration. By establishing new tax incentives to encourage purchases of energy production equipment and technologies, this bill provides American businesses with the tools needed to increase production and lower our current sky-rocketing energy costs.

I also had the privilege today to attend and address the 11th Annual Congressional Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency EXPO Forum.

At the forum, I got to speak a little bit about this new piece of legislation, and I have a little clip here you can check out:

The event brought together nearly fifty businesses, sustainable energy industry trade associations, government agencies, and energy policy research organizations to showcase the status and potential of the broad cross-section of renewable energy (biofuels/biomass, geothermal, solar, water, wind) and energy efficiency technologies.

This bill is a vital piece of my All-of-the-Above energy strategy that calls for an increase in the production and exploration of America’s own energy resources, but improves conservation and energy efficiency and promotes new and ever-improving energy technologies to help bring gas costs down.

Today, the Democrat majority in the House of Representatives got their wish. By a mere one vote (213 to 212), the Democrats will be able to sneak out of Washington for the entire month of August without doing anything to address our nation's sky-rocketing energy prices. Just 17 Democrats broke ranks with Speaker Pelosi and joined the 195 Republicans in voting against this measure, but we still fell one vote short.

With gas prices over $4 a gallon, the Democrats have voted to give themselves a vacation at the same time gas prices are preventing Americans from taking vacations of their own. And some around here wonder why Congress' approval rating is at 9%. 

The July 28th issue of Time Magazine showcased a rather scathing essay lambasting the inaction of the 110th Congress entitled, Throw the Bums Out.

"The 260 laws passed by the 110th Congress represent a 30-year low, and they include the naming of 74 post offices, not to mention the nonbinding resolutions designating July National Watermelon Month and recognizing dirt as an essential natural resource. Approval of Congress has sunk to a record low: 9% of people in a Rasmussen poll think lawmakers are doing a good or excellent job. The happiesth news in this for the Democrats running the place is that about 40% of voters think the Republicans are still in charge."

Let me tell you something:  If the Republicans were in charge, we’d be taking action to tap into American energy resources and cut the price of gas now. 

The Democrats are demonstrating politics at its worse. Rather than acting now on crucial issues like energy reform, they're simply going through the motions, pointing fingers and playing political games.  And, they’re skating by unscathed:  As this essay points out, most Americans wrongly believe that Republicans are still in charge.

We can act now to bring energy costs down, but sadly the Democrats have chosen political posturing over political action.

Yesterday, I wrapped up the second leg of my American Energy Tour. It started with a heated debate against four of my Democrat colleagues in regards to American energy policy at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. On the Democrat side were Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR), Rep. Jay Inslee (WA),  Rep. Hilda Solis (CA), and Rep. Bart Stupak (MI). Joining me on the Republican side were Rep. Denny Rehberg (MT), Rep. Fred Upton (MI) and Rep. Zach Wamp (TN).

Here are a couple of articles that provide good accounts of the event:

• Congressional debate in N.O. focuses on U.S. energy policy

• Lawmakers clash at energy debate

In sum, Republicans advocated an All-of-the-Above strategy that not only pushes for increased oil and gas production here domestically, but improves conservation and energy efficiency and promotes new and ever-improving energy technologies to help bring gas costs down. Democrats, on the other hand, were still talking about the 68 million acres that oil companies have leased and are "selfishly sitting on," ignoring the reality that companies are not yet able to tap these lands because of the bureaucratic mess of a permitting process Congress has created.  The Democrats offered nothing.

If Democrats were really concerned with our energy costs, they would advance legislation to fast track the permitting process like my Emergency Energy Cut the Red Tape Now Act (H.R. 6463), and open up those areas like 10-02 of ANWR, which contains at least 10 billion barrels of recoverable oil and is located within 75 miles of the Trans-Alaskan pipeline already in place.

After the debate, I visited a deep sea oil rig with officials from the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS).  The MMS, which manages our nation’s natural gas and oil resources on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), estimates that there could be about 3.6 billion barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico and even more natural gas.

What was most impressive was how much more advanced our technology has gotten since we first banned offshore drilling almost three decades ago.  Just as technology has made big advances in the way we communicate (from cell phones to blackberries to text messaging) and the way we care for ourselves (from in utero heart surgeries to liquid bandages), it has made vast improvements in how environmentally safe offshore drilling can be.

This week, I plan to offer a discharge petition to force action on legislation that will open up the energy reserves in ANWR to exploration and production.  And, I am working on legislation to provide tax incentives for renewable energy sources.

Here is the video of my appearance on Fox Business this morning discussing the fall-out sure to come if the Senate passes and the President does not veto H.R. 3221, the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008.



I was extremely disappointed that the House passed the housing bail-out bill. This legislation misses the mark and does nothing to address the foreclosure problems our nation is currently facing. Instead of making it easier for America’s hard working taxpayers to make their monthly mortgage, this bill forces them to pay more to fund a misguided, massive housing program.

At a time when so many families are struggling to pay skyrocketing food and gas costs, the last thing they need is another bill from Washington.

While rewarding irresponsible lenders and borrowers, and propping up the overextended, financially unstable Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it does absolutely nothing to ensure that we don’t get into this situation again sometime down the road.

Washington should be concerned about helping families that can’t pay their mortgages, but increasing government and taxes doesn’t help them – it hurts them. Congress should truly consider the consequences of this action before it makes matters worse.

Energy has clearly been the focus of this blog for the past several weeks, and with gas prices where they are, for good reason. People want to know what America has for energy resources and how we can access them to lower the cost of gas.

Recently, I did my best to debunk the sham "Use it or Lose it" legislation that failed in Congress with a bi-partisan majority.

I'd like to once again set the record straight about some claims that have been cited in a few recent newspaper articles. More specifically, claims made by Philip Budzik of the Energy Information Administration (EIA) that can mislead many readers against the benefits of drilling in ANWR and the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), and of accessing our enormous oil shale supplies to help lower the cost of gas.

For instance, here's an exert from Sunday's Star Tribune:

"Bachmann was expected to visit ANWR today to underscore her desire to drill there. But opening the refuge to drilling 'is not projected to have a large impact on world oil prices' or the price of gasoline, said [Philip] Budzik of the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Tapping the refuge could cut the cost of a barrel of oil by perhaps 2 percent and shave 1 cent to 3 cents off the pump price of a gallon of gas, he said. As for the Outer Continental Shelf, the EIA said it 'would not have a significant impact" on oil prices before 2030.'

Here's what false assumptions Budzik makes in order to justify saying this:

Assumption #1: Current bans that have prevented American consumers from accessing American energy will remain in place until at least 2012 (exactly what Republicans are working to reverse – right now, not 4 years from now): “Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production would not be expected to start before 2017.”

Assumption #2:  Once we finally get to the OCS, we’ll only be able to find a fraction of the oil and gas that the Minerals Management Service (MMS) – like EIA, also an agency of the Dept. of Energy – believes is out there.

• What Budzik says: “With these assumptions, technically recoverable undiscovered resources in the lower 48 OCS increase to 59 billion barrels of oil and 288 trillion cubic feet of natural gas."

• What MMS says: “The mean estimate for undiscovered technically recoverable resources (along our nation’s Outer Continental Shelf) totals 85.9 billion barrels of oil and 419.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.” (http://www.mms.gov/PDFs/2005EPAct/InventoryRTC.pdf)                            
  

Budzik should be distributing accurate energy information, not just using whatever numbers he feels.

Here's what actual economists have to say about the positive impact an increase in energy supplies will have on the cost of gasoline. This is from last week’s Financial Services Committee hearing:

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA): Is there any way to give a numerical answer? Would half a million barrels [of oil] a day affect the price, a quarter million?

Fed. Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke: The short-term elasticity is … that a 1 percent increase in supply could lower prices by 10 percent.

Here are the facts:

• A one-percent increase in world oil supply represents 870,000 barrels of oil a day.

• Area 10-02 of the coastal plain of Alaska, constituted as an energy reserve by Jimmy Carter three decades ago, holds the capacity to yield more than 1,000,000 barrels of American oil a day.

• Shale reserves in America’s Mountain West region may hold as many as 2 trillion barrels of American oil.
  
  

We have the resources to bring down the cost of gasoline. Those are the facts.

On Sunday, my colleagues and I got to see firsthand the remote North Slope of Alaska where America needs to be increasing our production of oil to help bring gas costs down. It was quite an educational experience for all of as we got to take an in-depth look at current and emerging gas and oil technologies in the region.


The day began north of the Arctic Circle at Prudhoe Bay where we got to view the oil production processes at the Endicott Production Facility located in the Arctic Ocean. We also visited Mile Marker Zero at Pump Station #1, the starting point of the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline.

From Prudhoe Bay we took an aerial tour of Alpine Field, where oil and gas production is underway, and parts of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) currently being explored for potential oil production. We also took a flyover of offshore oil production facilities operating in the Arctic Ocean.



Heading into the trip, I was most excited to see and learn about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), but more specifically, the “10-02 area” of ANWR. Officials in the North Slope confirmed for us that this area could provide an incredible amount of petroleum (10.4 billion barrels) with a minimal environmental footprint. ANWR in its entirety measures 19 million acres, but this one oil-rich location where we are interested in drilling is a mere 2,000 acres. To give you a better picture of what that means, the area for drilling is the size of a postage stamp on a football field.  



Couple that fact with the convenient proximity of the 10-02 area to the Trans-Alaskan pipeline, and this area would provide us with the most convenient and efficient route to get more petroleum to the continental United States.

We were also warned by local officials that at its current rate of declining oil supplies, in 10 years the pipeline would be processing less than 300,000 barrels of oil per day, a sharp decline from the 720,000 being produced today. Without adding new supplies of oil to the pipeline, it would stop operating in just over 10 years because there aren’t enough supplies in the areas we’ve already tapped into to maintain its viability.



Although many have been skeptical about the relationship between oil production and the surrounding wildlife and environment, we were given evidence that the two can co-exist. The best piece of evidence was the documented increase in size of a herd of native caribou near the Prudhoe Bay facilities. Since the facilities began its operations in the 1970s, the heard has increased its size from 5,000 to around 30,000 today.

This trip validated for all of us America’s urgent need to increase its supplies of oil to help drive costs down. This needs to happen not only in the areas we are currently exploring and operating in, like Prudhoe Bay and the NPR-A, but also in the 10-02 area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. ANWR was set aside by President Carter for future oil development, so to keep it locked up makes no sense whatsoever.

If we couple increased oil production with the emerging technologies we witnessed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, then our nation will be the world’s leader in energy innovation and no longer left to the whim of foreign exporters who often wish us harm. This is the All-of-the-Above strategy that Republicans have put forth to the American people. The only thing we’ve heard from the Democrats is “Drive Less, Pay More.”

We have two weeks left until our August recess and the Democratic leadership continues to play games while gas costs rise throughout the nation. If we move to increase supplies here domestically, prices will begin to come down on that fact alone. If we have it, we better use it, and the majority of Americans agree.  

This afternoon my House colleagues and I toured the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. Essentially, we got to take a stroll through our nation’s energy future and I’ve got to say, the lab is doing absolutely incredible work.



The lab’s purpose is to find fresh renewable ways to power our homes, businesses, and cars, a key component of the Republicans’ All-of-the-Above energy plan. They are developing cutting edge methods to use wind, solar, biomass, and fuel cell technologies more efficiently.

What I was most impressed with was the work that the lab is doing with a variety of vehicles run by renewable energy including: Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles, Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles, and Solar Hybrid Electric Vehicles. We also investigated the programs of Wind to Hydrogren Technologies and received an overview of the Lab’s Biomass Technologies.

America's priority must be to lessen its dependence on foreign sources of oil. They only way we will achieve true energy independence is to combine the latest technologies from NREL and similar government and private sector labs throughout the country with increased domestic exploration of our own natural resources.

We’ve got a long plane ride ahead to Alaska. I’ll be sure to check in again to share with you what I learn in ANWR.

Today my House colleagues and I are starting our trip to ANWR. On the way, we’ll be stopping in Golden, Colorado to tour the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The lab’s purpose is to find fresh renewable ways to power our homes, businesses, and cars, a key component of the Republicans’ All-of-the-Above energy plan.

Hopefully we’re able to take some pictures there so I can share them with everyone. After that, we’ll be off to Alaska. I’ve got my video camera with me so I’ll be sure to take some good footage to share with everyone when I return next week. In the mean time, here are some facts from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) about the estimated amount of recoverable oil we have in ANWR.

According to the USGS, the mean estimate of technically recoverable oil in the Coastal Plain of ANWR is 10.4 billion barrels – all of which is now economically recoverable.

•    That’s more than twice the proven oil reserves in all of Texas.
•    That’s almost half of the total U.S. proven reserve of 21 million barrels.
•    That represents a possible 50 percent increase in total U.S. proven reserves.

What does 10.4 Billion Barrels of Oil Mean?
10.4 Billion Barrels produces:

•    436.8 Billion Gallons of Gasoline
      o    12.6 Billion Tanks of Gasoline (based on a 16 gallon tank)
      o    93 tanks of gas for EVERY registered passenger vehicle
•    10.4 Trillion Gallons of Diesel
      o    320 Million Tanks of Diesel (with Two 150 gallon tanks on a semi)
•    4.3 Trillion Gallons of Jet Fuel
      o    5.7 Million Tanks of Jet Fuel (on fully fueled 737-600s with 6,875 gallon tanks)

Let’s be clear about this. The Coastal Plain of ANWR, also known as the 1002 Area, is neither wilderness nor refuge. It was set aside by Congress and President Carter in 1980 for future oil development. Development would be limited to 2000 acres of the Coastal Plain or 0.01% of the entire 19.6 million-acre refuge. These lands were set aside for America to produce its own energy resources. What are we waiting for?

Today, the Democrats are bringing to the floor their supposed “drilling” bill. The Drill Responsibly in Leased Land (DRILL) bill was pushed through committee yesterday where Democrats voted down every pro-production amendment offered by Republicans.

This bill essentially does 3 things that the Democrats want to use to mislead the American people into thinking they support increasing domestic energy production.

SHAM 1
It once again brings back the “Use it or Lose it” idea that was defeated a few weeks back by a bipartisan coalition because of its worthlessness. The 68 million acres that the Democrats say are in need of “use” are, in fact, being used. They are in some stage of exploration right now but are caught up in a bureaucratic maze of approval. As far as the “lose it” portion of the proposal, energy companies are already required to utilize acquired leases within a five to ten year period or the Interior Department Secretary has the right to revoke the lease.

SHAM 2
It says we can’t export oil from Alaska. Not a bad idea, but the problem is we haven’t
done that for the past 10 years.

SHAM 3
It “opens up” land to drilling in Alaska. While they’re on the right track, if they really
cared about opening up land for drilling, they’d do so in ANWR and not in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA) that has (1) already been open for 25 years, (2) is 250 miles away from the nearest pipeline, and (3) isn’t all that serviceable in that it only has 53 workable days a year of thaw.

Conversely, ANWR is close to the Trans-Alaskan pipeline that is already in service. More importantly, ANWR has more production potential on a much smaller piece of land. If the Democrats’ key fear about drilling is the damage it causes to the environment, what sense does it make to use a much bigger piece of land for a substantially smaller return?

Democrats know the vast majority of the American people want to drill here, drill now, and pay less – but this bill will not hide 30 years of shutting off access.  

This bill is more of the Democrats’ same failed policies. It’s simply cover for doing nothing to produce energy and it’s the Democrat Leadership’s excuse for blocking votes on real oil and gas production.

Just yesterday, at a Financial Services Committee hearing, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stated “…a 1 percent increase in supply could lower prices by 10 percent.”

Enough smoke and mirrors. If the Democrats want to drill in Alaska, ANWR is sitting there waiting. 

To give you an idea about what tough issues Congress is tackling this week, here’s one resolution we’re discussing that sums it up:

H.Res. 984 - Expressing support for the designation of July 26, 2008 as "National Day of the Cowboy" (Sponsored by Rep. Giffords / Oversight and Government Reform Committee)

Another week, and the Democrats still aren't addressing the nation’s energy concerns by bringing any legislation to the floor to help struggling Americans - unless you consider H.R. 415 an energy policy:

H.R. 415 - To amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate segments of the Taunton River in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a component of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers (Structured Rule) (Sponsored by Rep. Frank / Natural Resources Committee)

Take a look at this picture at let me know if this looks wild and scenic to you:



The Democrats are designating this simply to block the construction of a Liquified Natural Gas Facility. Never mind that right across the river is a Coal Power Plant already in use. Once again, the Democrats are doing everything in their power to stop production of American Energy.

Today, as a Member of the House Financial Services Committee, I'm hearing testimony from the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson regarding the U.S. economy and the potential government bail-out of mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

While the mortgage market is already precariously balanced and this added instability is cause for concern, it is imperative that Congress wait and examine all the facts before jumping in to assist Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Far too often, the government over-reacts and involves itself in market matters, preventing the free market from correcting itself and making things much worse.

It is important that before legislation is considered, Washington carefully looks into the financial situation of Fannie and Freddie. We must ensure that our nation’s taxpayers, who are already struggling because of skyrocketing food and gas costs, are not left shouldering an increased burden due to a massive bail-out bill. We must balance that with care that these taxpayers are protected in case this situation leads our economy to take a tumble for the worst.