Washington, D.C. -— As North Carolina’s average gas price remains just over four dollars per gallon, U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) today voted for legislation to promote responsible domestic production of oil and natural gas.
The House failed to garner the two-thirds required to pass H.R. 6515 on a party-line vote of 244 – 173.
“North Carolinians are struggling to make ends meet as gas prices continue to sky rocket, while oil companies continue to rake in record profits,” said Etheridge. “Today’s bill will tell the oil companies that they must invest in increasing our domestic oil supply or they will lose their right to own the land they are sitting on.”
The Drill Responsibly in Leased Lands (DRILL) Act would take steps to increase domestic oil supply. It would require oil companies to drill on the 68 million acres of land they already have leases for or relinquish their leases so other companies can drill there. It would speed the development of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and it would call on the President to facilitate completion of oil pipelines into the NPR-A and to facilitate construction of an Alaska natural gas pipeline to the continental United States to move the product to market. The bill would also reinstate a ban on the foreign export of Alaskan oil, keeping more oil here in America.
The NPR-A has an estimated 10.6 billion barrels, more than the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is estimated to have. Along with the 68 million acres of already-leased land, U.S. oil production could nearly double. The DRILL Act will also increase supply sooner than opening up new unleased areas to drilling because there is existing pipeline that reaches within 5 miles of NPR-A and the area is already partially leased.
Etheridge has also introduced his own legislation, H.R. 6334, The Increasing Transparency and Accountability in Oil Prices Act of 2008, that would give the CFTC additional authority and resources to prevent manipulation and excessive speculation in energy markets. Etheridge is the Chair of the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management of the House Agriculture Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the government agency that is responsible for protecting the public from fraudulent practices in commodity futures trading, including oil and gasoline. The House Agriculture Committee will hold hearings in July to examine other legislation aimed at cracking down on speculators.