Democrats Are Trying To Block Domestic Oil Production Again

Yesterday Sec. of the Interior Ken Salazar decided to delay opening up areas off the East and West coasts and in the Gulf that President Bush had opened up. With Obama and the Democrats trying to push their non-stimulus job creation bill this effectively removes a potential 160,000 new high paying jobs from the equation along with enough potential government revenue stream to pay for their bloated porkulus, 1.7 trillion in leases and royalty payments. The American Petroleum Institute sent out this press statement yesterday.

WASHINGTON – American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard today issued the following statement on Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s announcement that he would extend the Outer Continental Shelf Five-Year Plan comment period by 180 days:

“Congress made the American people wait nearly 30 years to address our immediate energy challenges. Secretary Salazar today told the American people they must continue to wait – even though more than two-thirds of them want to tap our vast domestic resources for the benefit of all Americans.

“The accelerated Outer Continental Shelf five-year plan process, which the secretary placed on hold today, was designed to address the critical energy concerns facing Americans. The draft plan already received a record 120,000 comments from states, environmental groups, industry, labor groups and members of the public – with 87,000 of those comments supporting expanded and expeditious development.

Secretary Salazar’s announcement means that development of our offshore resources could be stalled indefinitely. That would delay Americans’ access to nearly 160,000 new, well-paying jobs, $1.7 trillion in revenues to federal, state and local governments and greater energy security.

We share Secretary Salazar’s view that America needs a comprehensive energy policy that includes alternatives. In these tough economic times, Salazar’s delay does a disservice to all Americans. We should be moving as quickly as possible to develop more of our own oil and natural gas to benefit all Americans.”

Granted Salazar just extended the comment period for the five year plan so if you favor tapping our domestic resources of oil and natural gas make sure you make your voice heard. You can comment at the Mineral Management Service website so take a few minutes and make your feelings known.

This comes on the heels of the Democrats shutting down lease sales on over 100,000 acres of land in Utah along with efforts to permanently lock up ANWR and even more land in the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act,s22. Americans for Tax Relief sent me this last night.

While many of you have probably been focusing on the passage of the Pelosi-Obama-Reid Spending Package, Congress is also actively trying to restrict your property rights by passing the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009.

This bill is being pushed by left-wing environmentalists to purposely block public lands to prevent fossil fuel extraction and exploration. This bill will undercut current progress toward affordable domestic energy by essentially "stealing" 300 million barrels of proven oil and 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from any future use.
Tell your member of Congress to Vote against the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009!

So much for all those promises they made to get off foreign oil this will only exacerbate the problem while we continue to remove hundreds of billions of dollars from our economy to send over seas, not to mention the losses in potential jobs and government revenue. We are nowhere near having any viable alternatives to oil and natural gas for at least a couple decades so we desperately need access to those vast resources untill then.

I guess a bankrupt energy less America is the change we can believe in.