Articles

Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05) today led the floor debate on H.R. 3408, the PIONEERS Act. The newly-expanded energy bill would open up access to energy reserves in the Western United States, Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, and off-shore. It also includes language requiring the  Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve the permit for the Keystone Pipeline projet within 30 days.

Originally, H.R. 3408 dealt only with oil shale development. The additional energy elements were combined with Lamborn's bill before today's debate.

The House is expected to vote on the bill tomorrow.

To view Congressman Lamborn's floor speech, click here.

Congressman Doug Lamborn leads Floor debate on bill to increase American energy production.

Text of Floor remarks:

I rise in support of H.R. 3408. This legislation does three vital things.

It will open up land in the West for oil shale development.

It will open up one of our most promising areas for energy development in the United States, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

And increase off-shore energy production, as well.

These provisions will create hundreds of thousands of American jobs and will ensure the production of new domestic energy resources to increase our energy security and decrease our reliance on foreign oil, a goal the administration has professed to support time and time again.

Oil shale is one of the most promising areas of new energy. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Western United States hold 1.6 trillion barrels of oil – six times Saudi Arabia’s resources – and enough to provide the United States with energy for the next 200 years. Opponents to this legislation will argue that this legislation attempts to promote technology that isn’t proven. However, while the American oil shale industry is forced overseas due to regulatory uncertainly and burdensome federal regulations here, other nations are profiting right now from this technology – countries like Jordan, China, and Estonia.

Just this morning, we heard from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar who expressed the Administration’s support for emerging technologies. You would think that would include oil shale, unfortunately, this administration’s ‘support’ amounts to offering leases with such restrictive terms that it attracts hardly any industry support at all. As a result, countries overseas which get almost 90 percent of their energy supplies from oil shale, like Estonia, have robust oil shale industries.

Asked how Secretary Salazar could say this Administration promotes new energy sources while stifling access to a source that holds tremendous energy potential like oil shale, he had no good answer.

This legislation also opens access to energy in Alaska, specifically, the less than 3 percent of ANWR tht the bill deals with. This area was set aside by President Carter in 1980 precisely for oil and gas development. The Arctic National Wildlife Reserve holds the single greatest potential for a new domestic energy source in the United States.

Offshore, this legislation would increase drilling in our federal waters while ensuring protection for our off-shore military operations and fair and equitable sharing for all coastal states.

This energy legislation will create consistent policies to move domestic energy policies forward and create good-paying American jobs for thousands of Americans.

People say all the time to me, why don’t we have a better energy policy in this country? This energy legislation does exactly that. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3408.