More Energy Now Tells Obama Administration to Reduce Dependence on Foreign Oil
Consumer Energy Alliance launches online campaign giving consumers direct line to the White House
HOUSTON – America’s dependence on foreign oil threatens our country’s economic and national security and has continued to grow over the past decade. What’s the problem? In short, our county lacks a national energy strategy that is committed to producing more energy here in the United States. The escalating price of fuel underscores this fact while squeezing budgets tighter and tighter. Still, most American consumers don’t know exactly how much we shell out to foreign countries every day to acquire the energy resources we need, or what they can do to begin reducing this dependence once and for all.
Thanks to a new effort by Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA), consumers now have a way to tell policymakers that we need more American energy, and we need it now. Accessible at moreenergynow.org, CEA’s petition to President Obama urges the government to ensure access to American resources and support increased energy production – all as a means to lower our dependence on foreign energy and improve our economy. With the economy just beginning to climb out of a recession, high fuel prices threaten to pull us right back down again. MoreEnergyNow allows consumers to engage – as opposed to standing aside and waiting for $5 gas – and create a drumbeat all the way to the White House.
As part of moreenergynow.org, a new digital “imported oil counter” provides consumers and policymakers with the best available data on the growing impact that our reliance on imports continues to have on our economy, on the creation of jobs, and on the price at the pump. The counter draws on federal data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), and barely four months into 2011, it already shows that we’ve imported more than 1.09 billion barrels of oil, costing Americans more than $116 billion and counting. The counter may be uploaded to any website and can be seen on several CEA affiliated member pages.
“At a time when families, businesses, and governments at all levels are tightening their belts and trying to find ways to do more with less, it’s shocking to see how much money our country continues to send overseas for its energy,” said Ryan Scott, director of CEA Midwest. “But beyond the billions of dollars we continue to send out of this country, it’s important to note that our federal government has made a conscious decision to limit domestic oil production. What this decision amounts to is fewer jobs for Americans, less revenue for state, local and federal governments, and higher costs at the pump for every single one of us.”
Added Scott: “The idea that our government would promote production in Brazil, but won’t allow hard-working Americans to produce right here at home is difficult to reconcile in any environment – but particularly tough to understand given the current economic conditions facing our country right now. That’s why we’re using this launch to call on our government to allow More Energy Now in America.”
“The country’s growing reliance on imported oil shown by CEA’s Imported Oil Counter is alarming,” said Rich Moskowitz, vice president and regulatory affairs counsel for the American Trucking Associations and chairman of the board for CEA. “At a time of rising diesel and gasoline prices, it’s now clearer than ever that our lack of a balanced energy policy, which should include access to our nation’s own abundant sources of oil and natural gas, is draining our economy and jeopardizing our national security.”
