Gas Price Reduction Act

By U.S. Senator Jon Kyl In May, when many Americans were making plans for their summer vacations, Senate Republicans offered a plan to lower gas prices. We offered an amendment that would lift restrictions on domestic energy production, thereby allowing the U.S. to tap its own resources on federal lands and off our shores. As I have noted in a previous column, close to 600 million acres of federal coastal waters are off-limits to exploration. According to the Interior Department, these waters are believed to hold at least 18 billion barrels of undiscovered, recoverable oil; and this estimate is likely low because there has been no exploration allowed in those restricted waters for over 30 years. Federal lands with oil shale may yield more impressive amounts. Unfortunately, our amendment failed. But, gas prices have continued to rise, and Americans families are still waiting for a solution. The Democrats response to high prices has been to oppose every proposal for more American energy development, thus increasing our dependence on unstable regions of the world at a time of record high prices. Republicans, on the other hand, want to take a balanced use less, find more approach. That approach is reflected in a new bill we introduced, the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008, which is a comprehensive plan to meet the nations long-term energy needs. Like the amendment I mentioned above, the Gas Price Reduction Act would promote domestic development, increasing supply by safely producing oil off U.S. shores and from oil shale on federal lands. It also promotes technological innovations to reduce our energy consumption, as well as transparency in commodity markets to prevent improper speculation. The Democrats, however, have offered no solutions to high prices, and instead shut off every avenue to allow the United States to increase its own energy supply. They continue to resist increasing domestic production and have thwarted production in our own waters, on our public lands, of our own coal, and of nuclear power. More than 60 percent of every dollar Americans spend at the pump goes to a foreign country, so saying no to U.S. production means saying yes to higher prices, and yes to oil from Venezuela, Iran, Russia, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia. The Gas Price Reduction Act would reduce our dependency on these foreign sources of oil. It includes four mainstream proposals: It would allow deep sea exploration for oil and natural gas 50 miles or further off the coasts in U.S. waters. The oil companies that lease these areas would make payments to the federal government, to the participating states, and for wildlife conservation. The bill would also allow the safe production of oil shale on public lands in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado this production could result in an estimated six trillion barrels of oil. In addition, the Republican bill would support the development of plug-in hybrid technology that will dramatically decrease transportation costs to consumers by reducing the amount of gasoline they use; and it would provide the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission with the resources necessary to ensure transparency in all trading activities. Senate Republicans have offered yet another proposal to bring relief to Americans struggling with high gas prices. Our unified energy policy would reduce our dependence on foreign nations by finding more of our own domestic resources while relying on less energy from overseas.