Natural Resources Dem Staff Release Analysis of Romney-Ryan “Oil Above All” Plan

WASHINGTON (August 23, 2012) – The “oil above all” energy plan released today by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney would reduce the safety of drilling operations, hand over control of  taxpayer-owned land to oil companies, and protect $4 billion in tax subsidies for oil companies while allowing 40,000 American wind energy jobs to disappear in the next year. These impacts and others are detailed in an analysis of the Romney-Ryan energy scheme that was released today by the Democratic staff of the Natural Resources Committee, at the direction of its Ranking Member, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.).

The Romney-Ryan energy plan comes two days after a Romney campaign event in Texas with oil industry titans like the CEO of ExxonMobil. There, Mitt Romney was reported as saying that he wanted the oil industry’s input before his campaign would “cross the t’s and dot the i’s” on his energy plan ahead of a public release.

“This is an ‘oil above all’ plan that was written by big oil before it was ever read by the American people,” said Rep. Markey. “This isn’t a serious energy plan. It’s a serious threat to our coasts and to America’s competitive role in a 21st century energy economy.”

The full analysis can be found on the Natural Resources Democratic website HERE.

Many of the proposals contained in the Romney-Ryan plan have previously passed the House, but have not been enacted into law due to opposition in the Senate and veto threats from the Obama administration. In July, the Natural Resources Committee Democratic Staff did an analysis of these proposals, which can be found HERE, which also summarized votes in Congress on these and other related proposals.