Scalise: American Energy Tour

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Washington, DC -- Congressman Steve Scalise (R-LA) today made the following comments at a press conference after returning from the American Energy Tour. For audio of the press conference please click here.

“The American Energy Tour was very important because we were able to look at both short term and the long term solutions to the national energy crisis.

We were able to research a lot of proposed solutions to the crisis at both the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and in Alaska. At NREL we saw what the future will be of energy in this country. Although we are continuing to explore renewable sources of energy, frankly the alternatives are not commercially viable right now.

That is why we need to adopt an “all of the above” policy. While we look at the long term solutions with renewable and alternative sources of energy, we must immediately address the short term national crisis. That is a supply and demand problem. We have policies that are prohibiting us from exploring our own natural resources.

We are in this predicament because the liberal leadership in Congress has their heads in the sand and continues to block legislation that will lower gas prices.

Gov. Palin of Alaska said that about 80 percent of the people in Alaska want to drill because they understand that it’s done in an environmentally safe way. In Louisiana we know that the best place to go fishing is next to an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The fish actually thrive in the environment. When we visited mile marker zero of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, three caribou came within 40 yards of us. It’s clear that oil and gas exploration can safely co-exist with nature.

I’ve seen first hand that we have the technology to drill safely, and increase the supply of American oil to bring down the price of gas. The time for Congress to act is now.”

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Contact: Luke Bolar
202-226-4309