Members Should Reconsider Energy Bill

Statement of Myron Ebell, Director of Energy & Global Warming Policy:

 

<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, D.C., June 6, 2007 – When the House Natural Resources Committee meets today to markup chairman Nick Rahall’s energy bill, members should seriously consider the impact of some of the costly and damaging provisions being offered.

 

The bill would have the effect of reducing access to domestic energy sources at a time of high international prices and increasing demand. Restricting sources of new oil and gas supplies means higher costs for both consumers and business, which will raise prices throughout the economy and amount to a stealth tax on energy use.

 

Elements of the bill will also interfere with revenue sharing agreements between States and the federal government over drilling and mining royalties, and delay the construction of vital new energy infrastructure nationwide. Even alternative energy sources like wind and solar facilities would suffer delays.

 

Chairman Rahall may have put the word “reform” in the title, but his bill displays little to justify the term. Real reform would consist of opening domestic resources to exploration, giving producers more freedom to build and upgrade their facilities and eliminating taxpayer subsidies across the board.

 

 

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy organization dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.