"We have before us a bill that squanders what could have been a bold stroke for American energy independence. Instead, the Republican majority chooses to be preservationists of the status quo, continuing to address 21st-century energy challenges with last century's energy policies. Their definition of tapping into new energy sources is to dig deeper and deeper for oil and gas, not searching farther and wider for cutting-edge technologies, all the while padding the profits of their oil and gas industry cohorts," said Rahall.

     Contributing to the multi-billion dollar price tag of this legislation are financial breaks for deepwater wells and shallow water/deep wells in the Gulf of Mexico, and onshore marginal wells, in addition to taxpayer-financed kick-backs to help the oil and gas industry pay the costs of their own environmental compliance.

     "To put it bluntly, if the taxpayer is feeling the pain of an energy crisis, it is coming from the derrick sticking out of his back pocket and this measure does nothing to ease it," said Rahall.

     Even President Bush, a former oilman, recently said, "I will tell you with $55 oil, we don't need incentives to oil and gas companies to explore. There are plenty of incentives."

     Since January 2001, the price of a barrel of oil has more than doubled, from $25, to $58 in recent weeks. Today, a barrel costs $52. Meanwhile, varied media outlets have reported record-breaking fourth-quarter profits of the top oil and gas companies, resulting in a 30% increase in profits for 2004 for the top ten companies ("Big Oil’s Burden of Too Much Cash", New York Times, February 12, 2005).

     "It is outrageous that the Congress would hand over taxpayers’ money to these loot-laden international conglomerates, while the people are rewarded with skyrocketing energy bills," declared Rahall.

     The bill also allows environmental rollbacks that give Federal agencies greater power to make decisions with less accountability to the public by fundamentally rewriting the National Environmental Policy Act for some energy projects. And the bill also makes it easier for oil and gas companies to drill for what few resources located under Federal lands are closed off to them.

     Currently 88% of the technically recoverable natural gas resources underlying Federal lands in Colorado, New Mexico, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming are available for leasing and development. And 85% of the technically recoverable oil resources in the same region are also available for extraction.

     Natural gas production on Federal lands has nearly doubled since 1992, leaping 42% between 2003 and 2004. Despite the availability of resources and increases in production, the price of gas continues to rise.

     "In reality, our public lands are largely available to oil and gas production, but those resources are not infinite. The Nation needs to reevaluate our use, not our access. And this bill does nothing to accomplish that task; instead, it offers an extremist solution that only diverts our attention from the real problem," said Rahall

     He concluded, "I have long worked for a comprehensive national energy policy, but one that continues to spoon feed our appetite for oil at any expense is not in the best interest of America. The people are paying more than enough for their energy needs without Congress padding the profits through the federal treasury."