WASHINGTON, D.C. - House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement regarding the Department of the Interior starting the public comment process for developing the next five-year (2017-2022) leasing program for the Outer Continental Shelf:
“Since President Obama’s first weeks in the office, this Administration has actively restricted new offshore energy production, canceled lease sales, and imposed a drilling ban on 85 percent of offshore areas. As a result, the Administration has sacrificed American jobs, threatened our energy security, and caused offshore production to fall by 15 percent per day. An America that works requires affordable gasoline and energy prices and a robust economy that utilizes the energy resources we have right here at home. We must focus now on policies that will ease the pain at the pump for American families and small businesses, and eliminate federal government hurdles that keep American energy locked-up. The start of this new five-year plan represents another opportunity for the Obama Administration to right this terrible wrong, correct their past failures, and finally put a robust plan in place that opens new areas and puts nearly a million more Americans back to work."
