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Congress Hell-Bent on Making Energy Expensive

by The National Association of Manufacturers - 01/22/07 3:02 PM ET

By now you probably know that the House of Representatives did the wrong thing last Thursday and passed H.R. 6, a bill that will make energy more expensive for all Americans and will drive energy production offshore, making us even more dependent on foreign sources of oil. Great, just what we needed–not.

The energy business is a capital-intensive industry. The cost to build an oil rig is in the $100 million range. A hundred million dollars. That’s before the first drop of oil or gas is pumped out. Yet Congress seems hell-bent on making it tougher for energy companies to look for and tap our own resources right here at home. In a statement soon after the vote, energy expert and manufacturers’ champion John Peterson (R-PA) had this to say:

“I don’t know anyone who thinks we ought to be buying more of our energy from Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Qatar, but an inconvenient consequence of this bill’s passage is that those are the guys to whom we will have to go begging for energy…”

Unfortunately, Rep. Peterson is dead-on right about this. NAM President John Engler also lamented the wrong-headed vote, saying:

“This legislation will not only create disincentives for domestic exploration and production, but it will also make us even more dependent on foreign sources of energy. Where is the energy independence in that?