Everyone understands supply and demand. In the past year Congress has passed a bill, which I opposed, to raise taxes on energy and to make production of domestic energy resources more expensive. Just this week another Member of Congress announced a plan to make drilling in parts of the Gulf of Mexico off limits. Saudi Arabia has announced a hold on plans to further increase long-term production capacity from its vast oil fields, and unrest in Nigeria and other oil producing countries has shown how vulnerable supplies from those areas can be. In short, our own government and world politics are making supplies tight and artificially more expensive.

Between price and the use of alternative fuels U.S. oil consumption is projected to fall by as much as 2% over the next year, but world demand during the next five years is projected to rise about 30%. Meaning that while supplies are going down or suffering from artificial inflation through new taxes, demand due to the growing energy consumption of such nations as China and India is increasing, despite our efforts to reduce consumption here in America.

The result is a "perfect storm" of falling world supply, rising world demand, and rising taxes driving prices up for average Americans. What’s worse there are some who appear to be quietly happy with this situation believing that rising prices in America will discourage fossil fuel consumption and reduce global warming.

My approach to solving our energy supply problem is to increase production of ALL types of energy here in America. Until we produce more energy of all kinds here at home we will be at the mercy of unstable overseas producers and in daily competition with the emerging economies of China and India. I’ve written to you before about the "No Excuses Energy Act" and I’m honored to report that slowly, but surely, this approach is gaining support. To-date 23 Members of Congress have signed on as cosponsors of the bill and there continues to be media attention as more and more people recognize that conservation has its place, but until we increase domestic supply of ALL types of energy we are only dealing with half the answer to our energy crisis.