“After years of resistance to construction of nuclear-power plants, the British plan underscored how nations around the world are scrambling to find ways to generate more energy while slashing the emissions that cause climate change. To do that, nations including the United States are considering more reliance on nuclear power, which, while generating radioactive waste, produces almost no carbon emissions.”

While Republicans have put forward a plan for increased nuclear power, the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress continue to stand in the way. Just this morning, Keith Rogers of the Las Vegas Review Journal reported:

“The Obama administration intends to stop the pursuit of a license for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in December, according to internal budget documents from the Department of Energy. All license defense activities will be terminated in December 2009," said a draft Program Decision Memorandum that was attached to an Oct. 23 memo from DOE Chief Financial Officer Steve Isakowitz.”

As a reminder, the Republican American Energy Act establishes a national goal to bring 100 new nuclear reactors online over the next 20 years to strengthen America’s commitment to clean, reliable energy.

“President Barack Obama on Monday pushed his economic advisers to come up with job-generating ideas that can be hustled up to Capitol Hill.”

Well, it’s about time. Since January, Republicans have hustled job creation suggestions to the White House – but unfortunately, not many of us were invited into the West Wing.

In September, we released a list of specific ways the Administration and the White House Council of Economic Advisers could create a wide range of high-paying energy jobs in America, including:

Nuclear Jobs – The Republican American Energy Act (H.R. 2846) would bring 100 new nuclear reactors online over the next 20 years, creating tens of thousands of carbon free energy jobs.

Green Jobs – The American Energy Act (H.R. 2846) also creates a Renewable and Alternative Energy Trust Fund to provide directed funding for new renewable energy projects. Tens of thousands of new, skilled high paying jobs would be created in the hydropower, solar, wind, clean coal, biomass and geothermal energy industries.

Offshore Drilling Jobs – By issuing a defacto moratorium on new offshore drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), the Administration is passing up the opportunity to create millions of new, high-paying jobs. According to the American Energy Alliance, lifting the moratoria on energy development on the OCS would create 1.2 million jobs annually across the country and generate $70 billion in additional wages.

Manufacturing Jobs – The Democrats’ National Energy Tax would raise energy prices and eliminate over 2.5 million American jobs, including manufacturing jobs. These jobs would be saved if the Administration withdrew this job-killing legislation.

Unfortunately, we’ve received no word back. Instead, the Obama Administration has continued to work quietly work against all-of-the-above energy job creation. A few recent examples include:

October 8^th             The Department of Interior announcement that only 17 out of 77 parcels of land in Utah will be leased for oil and gas production.

September 17^th      Secretary Salazar signals he is in no hurry to move forward with offshore drilling and new job creation on the Outer Continental Shelf. 

Instead of more rhetoric, it’s time for the Administration to finally support all-of-the-above energy jobs and clearly fulfill the President’s promise to explore each and every avenue that will lead to job creation and economic growth.

When our nation is in the middle of a serious recession, Americans can’t afford to pay more at the pump. Especially the almost 10% of Americans who don’t have a job.

Instead of providing “energy security,” the Democrats’ National Energy Tax bill would increase energy costs here at home and make us more dependent on foreign sources of energy. This, on top of yesterday’s news of America’s declining support for a National Energy Tax, is just one more example that Democrats are out of touch with the American people.

What America needs is a bill like the Republican American Energy Act that develops all-of-the-above American energy, not one that makes energy more expensive. Our bill will help our economy and our environment.

Only 48% of the public would approve of a proposal that “would require companies to reduce greenhouse gas that cause global warming, even if it would mean higher utility bills for consumers to pay for the changes.” 43% of those surveyed said they disapprove of the plan, while 9% are undecided.

“That’s a noteworthy drop from 53% approval and 40% disapproval in April,” Johnson writes.

Click here to read yesterday’s NBC/WSJ poll in its entirety.

While the President regularly says he supports “comprehensive” energy development, the Florida branch of the Solar Energy Industries Association actually recently announced support for a concrete, common-sense way to develop a wide range of American energy resources.

As the New York Times reported on October 5^th:

“In a release last week, the Florida branch of the Solar Energy Industries Association announced its support for drilling off the state’s coast – in order to create a revenue stream to support solar energy.

If offshore drilling goes forward, ‘we want to be able to have a seat at the table, to direct those funds or at least a portion of those funds to a clean energy source,’ Bruce Kershner, executive director of the group, said in a telephone interview.”

If the proposal sounds familiar, that’s because it is.

In June, Republicans included this exact same concept in the American Energy Act. Specifically, our all-of-the-above energy bill takes a portion of the revenue raised from new offshore drilling and creates a Renewable and Alternative Energy Trust Fund to provide funding for renewable energy projects – including solar.

In comparison to the President’s job-killing National Energy Tax, the American Energy Act is a much better way to develop all types of energy and help the 11% of Floridians who are looking for a job.

One of the factors noted is that “decades of logging restrictions and a policy of fighting most fires rather than letting them burn have left the forests full of the century-old lodgepole pines that are the beetles' favorite nosh.” The article also says that “the aspen die-off comes on the heels of a pine-beetle invasion that has destroyed millions of acres of evergreens. Foresters expect to lose virtually every mature lodgepole pine in Colorado -- five million acres of them.”

So basically -- this article is another clear demonstration that some extreme environmentalists can’t see the forest for the trees. Since they’ve prevented land managers from effectively managing our forests, many of America’s forests are filled with dying trees.

In June, after a Committee hearing on the Mountain Pine Beetle, Republicans called for Democrat Leaders in Congress to take immediate action to address the beetle epidemic that has left much of our Western forests dead and vulnerable to devastating forest fires. Specific republican solutions include:

• Ensuring our federal land managers have all the means to effectively manage our forests.
• Publicly denouncing excessive litigation against the U.S. Forest Service.
• Ending restrictions on harvesting biomass on Federal lands created by the Democrats’ 2007 energy bill.
• Ensuring that stimulus spending actually furthers forest management and creates new jobs.

We’ll continue to call on Democrats in Congress to provide our land managers with the tools necessary to protect and manage our forests.

Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee marked today’s anniversary by calling on the Obama Administration to end its defacto ban on offshore drilling and create new American energy jobs:

"As unemployment approaches ten percent, Republicans have regularly reminded President Obama and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar that expanded domestic energy development would deliver tremendous economic benefits to the American people…But, in light of the recent news that Iran has constructed a second nuclear facility, it’s critical that the Administration also view its current energy policy through the prism of national security…When our country has its own rich oil and natural gas resources, we should not have to even think about unpredictable threats from mad men, tyrants and dictators who control access to a significant portion of the world’s oil supply." – Ranking Member Doc Hastings (WA-04)

"While millions of Americans are out of work, the Obama Administration continues to block the creation of high paying jobs in the energy sector. According to a study by the American Energy Alliance, drilling in the OCS would generate $8 trillion in total economic output and create 1.2 million jobs annually across the country. We must take aggressive steps to end our dependence on foreign oil by tapping our domestic resources. I urge the administration to stop dragging their feet and move forward on energy production." – Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee Ranking Member Doug Lamborn (CO-05)

"Millions of Americans depend on OCS oil and gas production for their livelihood and every American depends on it for transportation. In my state, over 320,000 Louisianans work in the energy industry, generating around $12 billion a year in household income...Congress and the American people clearly expressed their support for more OCS energy production when the moratorium was lifted. Increasing domestic energy production will lead to economic growth, job creation, and greater energy security. It is essential that the U.S. move forward with OCS energy production as part of an all-of-the-above energy plan." – Congressman Bill Cassidy (LA-06)

"Today marks the one year anniversary of the expiration of the congressional moratoria on offshore and oil shale drilling. Unfortunately, it’s a year later, and we still haven’t made significant progress with domestic energy sources and continue to find ourselves just as reliant on foreign energy. The outer continental shelf contains the equivalent of nearly 130 years worth of imports from Saudi Arabia – yet America’s lawmakers irresponsibly refuse to open it up for exploration." – Congressman Paul Broun (GA-10)

This morning, Senator Coburn introduced an amendment to the 2010 fiscal year Interior Appropriations bill that would ensure no funds are used to prohibit or restrict Homeland Security from securing our nation’s borders on public lands.

40 percent of America's southern border is on Department of Interior land and Republicans in the House have raised concerns that it is currently serving as gateways for illegal aliens, smugglers, and possibly terrorists to enter the United States. In July, National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee Ranking Member Rob Bishop (R-UT) offered an almost identical amendment to the House Interior Appropriations bill.  Unfortunately, Democrats on the House Rules Committee blocked this amendment from being considered.

Both Rep. Bishop and House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Doc Hastings (R-WA) have repeatedly expressed concerns about the ability of U.S. Border Patrol to effectively monitor the border on public lands and sent a letter to Secretary Napolitano in July 2009 requesting information regarding coordination between the Department of Homeland Security, Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service on border security issues.  As of today, there has been no response to the letter.

Since Republicans in the House were blocked from offering an amendment to address border security concerns, we are pleased Senator Coburn raised the issue in the Senate

This week, the Grand Junction Sentinel published an editorial highlighting the negative impacts of the Democrats' Roadblock to Energy Bill H.R. 3534. The bill intended to streamline oil and gas leasing on federal lands creates a new level of bureaucracy and as the article says, "The legislation will make oil and gas leasing more costly to obtain and more difficult. That certainly won’t push this country toward energy independence, nor will it make the oversight and development of oil and gas more efficient." Clearly the Grand Junction Sentinel agrees that creating more bureaucracy is not the way to solve our Nation’s energy crisis. What America needs is a program like the Republican All-Of-The-Above Energy Plan that promotes American energy production, not one that makes energy more expensive.

Editorial: Rahall bill will not improve energy outlook
Grand Junction Sentinel
9/21/2009

The sex scandals within the federal office of Minerals Management Services last year — in which federal employees were reported cavorting with oil company executives whose royalties they were collecting for the government — deservedly caused outrage. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar announced last week that he plans to phase out the royalty-in-kind program that was at the heart of the scandal, a program that allowed oil and gas companies to pay their royalty fees in the products they produced rather than cash.

Some argue that Salazar went too far, that his department could clean up the misbehavior among employees within the system without dumping a program that brings in billions of dollars to the federal government in the form of oil and gas. But Salazar argues the program will run cleaner and more efficiently if royalties are paid in cash instead of product. And that argument is not without merit.

Far more worrisome than Salazar’s proposed phase-out is legislation introduced this month by Congressman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., which was heard in the Natural Resources Committee last week, but was not voted upon. Rahall is the chairman of that committee.

HR 3534, Rahall’s bill, would eliminate the royalty-in-kind program as Salazar intends to do. But it would do far more than that. It would create a new federal agency within the Department of Interior to oversee oil and gas leasing, and it would create regional planning councils to look at oil and gas development both on federal lands and offshore. That would add a new layer of bureaucracy to leasing. We were glad to see Salazar’s carefully worded statement about Rahall’s bill did not endorse that part of it.

The legislation will make oil and gas leasing more costly to obtain and more difficult. That certainly won’t push this country toward energy independence, nor will it make the oversight and development of oil and gas more efficient.

The bill is unlikely to die in Rahall’s committee, but we hope it will meet that fate when it reaches the House floor.