WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 24, 2012 - House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement regarding President Obama’s State of the Union address:
“With the vast majority of Americans supporting increased oil and natural gas production, it’s no surprise that President Obama chose to mention it in his election-year State of the Union address. However, the lofty rhetoric and selectively chosen statistics heard tonight come nowhere close to adequately reflecting the Obama Administration’s true record on energy - a record of fewer jobs, less access, more regulations and higher taxes.
“An accurate description of President Obama’s energy policies would include: reinstating an offshore drilling ban off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, inflicting an economically disastrous de facto moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico, attempting to impose a job-destroying cap-and-trade national energy tax, withdrawing onshore oil and natural gas leases, canceling offshore oil and natural gas leases, abandoning Yucca Mountain, banning uranium mining in parts of Arizona, delaying the development of oil shale, retroactively pulling mining permits, blocking the Keystone XL pipeline, and imposing ocean zoning regulations that could limit all types of energy production - including renewable.
“President Obama can cling to statistics that show increased oil and natural gas production due to the work of past Administrations and production on private and state lands where his regulatory fist doesn’t extend, but he will never be able to escape the specific list of actions that clearly illustrates his Administration’s hostility towards U.S. energy production. The President’s trying to take credit for work he had nothing to do with, while simultaneously trying to avoid blame for his own anti-energy policies. He can’t have it both ways.
“Our country needs more American jobs and more American energy. We will not achieve either through President Obama’s policies that lock-up our own natural resources. Only through a plan that embraces all types of energy - including wind, solar, hydropower, nuclear, geothermal, oil and natural gas - will we be able to strengthen our economy and improve our national security."
