Republicans Introduce Job-Creating American Energy Initiative Legislation.  This week, Chairman Doc Hastings (NGP Photo) introduced three bills to expand American offshore energy production in order to create jobs, lower energy costs, pay down the national debt, and lessen our dependence on foreign energy.  Click on the bill titles for more information:
These are just the first three of an array of bills that will be introduced as part of the House Republicans’ American Energy Initiative.
 
At a press conference announcing the legislation, Chairman Hastings said that swift action must be taken to reverse course and increase U.S. energy production.  “These bills will directly reverse Obama Administration actions that have locked-up America’s vast offshore oil and natural gas resources.  The bills will end the de facto moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico and allow people to return to work, require lease sales to be held that were canceled or delayed by the Obama Administration, and lift the Obama Administration’s ban on new offshore drilling by directing production to occur in areas with the most oil and natural gas resources,” he said.  Watch the press conference here.

 

Yesterday the Alaska State House of Representatives passed major tax reform legislation encouraging new investment in North Slope oil fields to reverse production declines, keep trans-Alaska oil pipeline flows steady and halts the loss of oilfield and service company workers.  HB 110, sponsored by the House Rules Committee at the request of Governor Sean Parnell, R-Alaska, modifies key provisions of former Governor Sarah Palin’s Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share, or ACES, oil tax regime. The reform bill restores Alaska’s competitiveness in the pursuit of industry capital by lowering production taxes at high oil prices and boosting incentives for companies to bring new production online.  "We firmly believe that doing nothing is not an option," said House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski. "Even if we got it right back when we passed ACES, which I don’t think we did – the global oil industry has changed since then. It’s night and day. New technology has opened up more places for development and Alaska, with some of the highest production costs and highest oil taxes in the world, is simply no longer competitive."