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Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has issued the following statement in support of President Bush's energy speech today in which the president touted the potential of developing oil from oil shale in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.
"In talking about oil shale reserves in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado today, President Bush rightfully recognized what Democrats and the elitist environmentalist lobby that controls them wrongfully ignore: We simply must boost our domestic production of oil.
I've been a leading proponent of incentives for solar, wind, and geothermal electricity.¬ But the fact is that planes, trains, vehicles, and ships run on liquid fuels.¬ The only real alternative to liquid fuels is ethanol, but I recognize that ethanol is very limited in terms of available land and water to produce it.
We have as much oil in oil shale in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado as the rest of the world combined. Yet the liberals in Congress have slapped a one-year moratorium on the release of commercial leasing regulations, effectively tying the hands of U.S. oil companies from developing this resource.
It is criminal to have our nation held hostage by foreign powers due to our reliance on oil from the Middle East, Russia and Venezuela. It is fiscally irresponsible to send more than $600 billion each year to countries that are a lot smarter about energy than we, because they are willing to develop their own oil resources and we are not. That's $600 billion that we'll never get back - and it makes up a substantial portion of our trade imbalance or deficit.
The poorest Americans are spending roughly 50 percent of their income on energy. The poor often look to liberals for legislative relief, but in this case they are being sold out by liberals.
These high gas prices should serve as a wakeup call for every American. Yes, we need to pursue alternate forms of energy. I've been at the forefront of that effort in Congress. But it is foolish to exclude oil from our nation's energy policy."
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