Press Release

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Alex Weintz (202) 225-2132
 

Fallin Says Energy Tour Makes Drilling Need Clear
July 21, 2008
Washington, DC -- Congresswoman Mary Fallin (OK-05) said today that a Sunday spent visiting oil production facilities in Alaska and flying over the bleak north shore of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge made it even more clear to her that America must develop its vast oil reserves there or continue to face rising energy prices and a looming crisis.

            “The myths that have been peddled about ANWR are just that – myths,” Fallin said, after completing her trip with a ten-member Congressional delegation that visited key energy production sites over the weekend.  

            “The ten-plus billion barrels of oil lying under the ANWR coastal plain are just waiting to be developed and pumped south into our gas tanks,” Fallin said. “It is irresponsible for liberals in Congress to continue their blind opposition to safe drilling there.”

            Fallin said the area slated for drilling in ANWR is tiny and lies in the flat coastal plain, not in mountains or other scenic regions. The Congressional delegation also visited the existing Prudhoe Bay oilfields 80 miles west of ANWR, where wildlife is thriving. 

            “The caribou herd there has increased significantly,” she said. “It’s simply nonsense to suggest that safe and responsible drilling threatens wildlife.”

            Fallin said the Congressional delegation was also told that the existing Trans-Alaska Pipeline can easily be adapted to carry ANWR production if drilling is approved there. Without that new production, federal officials told them, the pipeline will eventually become uneconomical and unusable. 

            The delegation also visited the Department of Energy’s Denver laboratory where research is underway to develop alternative forms of energy, including hybrid electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

            “Those are promising technologies, but they are still years away from widespread use,” she said. “I continue to support an ‘all of the above’ policy – conserve, develop new alternative energy sources and drill where the oil is.” 

            Fallin has been a leader in Congressional efforts to open known reserves in ANWR, offshore and in the oil shale deposits of the Rocky Mountain west to exploration.

            “Gasoline prices continue to hurt families and businesses, and winter is expected to add to the energy crisis as prices rise for natural gas and home heating oil,” Fallin said. “When are we going to act to bring relief to the American people?” 

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