Senate ENR Committee Hearing Highlights Weakness In American Energy Policy
Consumer Energy Alliance Calls for Access to More Domestic Energy Resources
Washington, D.C. — This morning, the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee heard testimony from four renowned energy research and advisory organizations on the current state of the world energy markets, with the backdrop of the Egyptian protests occurring in the heart of the world’s oil and gas supply. Among other topics, the four testifying organizations – the Energy Information Administration, the International Energy Agency, PFC Energy and Cambridge Energy Research Associates – indicated that a growing global middle class will raise world oil demand significantly through at least 2030, and that oil prices are expected to climb to $125 per barrel by 2025. Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) president David Holt, and vice president Michael Whatley released these statements on today’s testimony:
“An average price of $3.17 per gallon for gasoline in 2011 is a tough figure for the American people to hear,” said Holt. “While the statistics we learned today represent a grim reality of the price American consumers are paying for their everyday fuels, they only solidify what we already knew: our nation is too reliant on foreign energy supplies, rather than accessing safe and reliable supplies here at home – starting with energy waiting to be unleashed off our nation’s coasts. As Judge Martin Feldman’s contempt order against the Department of Interior (DOI) signaled loud and clear once again today, the tremendous resources, economic opportunity and jobs in the Gulf Coast region will continue to be locked away until DOI improves and begins to take action to issue federal offshore permits for the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. Combined with our growing wind and solar options throughout the country, among others, American oil and gas can work just as well as that which we receive from the Middle East, while keeping the jobs and revenue here at home.”
“The one great piece of news that we have seen this week is the report issued by the Department of Energy regarding the potential impacts of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline,” said Whatley. “The fact that we can ‘very substantially reduce’ imports of overseas oil without raising global greenhouse gases with the construction of this project is very exciting – particularly when considered in tandem with the uncertainty caused by the current unrest in Egypt. Together, the thousands of good-paying jobs and increased energy security that will be created by the project can provide a significant countermeasure to the concerns raised by current events in the Middle East.”
