Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) today made the following statement in response to President Bush’s remarks to urging Congress to lift the ban on offshore drilling.

“For the President to call for new drilling on new and fragile lands when oil companies already do not use more than 75 percent of the acreage they currently have under lease is ludicrous. The time has come for Congress to tell these companies they can either ‘use it or lose it’ when it comes to their current leases. I call on my colleagues in the Senate, and indeed all Americans, to reject the President’s misleading statements.” 

Senator Dodd is the sponsor of The Responsible Ownership of Public Land Act, a bill introduced last week to penalize oil companies for failing to utilize available energy resources by charging a fee for every acre of land they lease but do not use for production. This fee will escalate if the land remains unused over a period of several years. The revenue from these fees would be devoted to the development of wind and solar energy, energy efficient buildings, advanced electric vehicles, and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).