HOMEPAGE > NEWSROOM

Press Release

For Immediate Release
June 30, 2008
Contact: Sean C. Bonyun
(202) 225-3761

***PRESS CONFERENCES TUESDAY***
Upton & Law Enforcement to Discuss Record Fuel Costs – Highlight Desperate Need for American-made Energy
China has been given license to drill off the Florida Keys in Cuban waters, yet our own resources, including 2.1 trillion barrels in Western oil shale, are locked away

ST. JOSEPH – On Tuesday, July 1st, Congressman Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph) will visit with local law enforcement officials to discuss the impact of skyrocketing fuel costs and the need for long term solutions.  Upton believes that we are clearly at a crossroads as the U.S. currently imports nearly 70 percent of our oil demand and is estimated to be importing as much as 85 percent of our petroleum needs by 2012.  While global oil production fell by 126,000 barrels a day in 2007, consumption grew by a million barrels a day.  

As India’s and China’s energy consumption continue to grow by more than 10 percent a year, the House one year ago inexplicably approved an amendment blocking all commercial exploration for oil shale on public lands.  Six votes were all it took to lock away an estimated 2.1 trillion barrels in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming — resources well above the capacity of Saudi, Iranian, Russian and Venezuelan oil reserves combined. Upton is confounded that China has been given license to drill off the Florida Keys in Cuban waters, and yet our own resources in the West, ANWR and the Outer Continental Shelf are locked away.

TUESDAY, July 1st
1:30pm-2:00pm

Upton, Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey, Benton Harbor Police Chief Al Mingo & St. Joe Police Chief Mark Clapp

St. Joseph Fire Department
923 Broad Street
St. Joseph

Backdrop will be St. Joe fire engine

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