Earlier this year, Democrats from New York shut off oil shale development in the west.   The time may have come to reverse that course.  There is between three and five times the amount of oil in Saudi Arabia in western oil shale.  I will introduce legislation that will allow the President to bypass the years and years of regulatory waste and start extracting oil now.  The message sent to OPEC and the world oil speculators will be that America no longer needs your energy and will no longer beg.As I said today, “It is unconscionable that American presidents have to go to Saudi Arabia and beg for more oil. We have been blessed with abundant resources, and we can extract them and use them wisely and safely.”  I firmly believe that.We had an antitrust task force hearing today on gas prices.  Democrats continue to insist that we can conserve our way to low gas prices and that alternative fuels will fuel our cars.  We should get to creating alternative fuels today, but we should do that from a position of energy independence.    

“Democrats have interfered continuously against our efforts to bring down gas prices,” said Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah. “The availability of oil is vast,” he said. Congress should “get out of the way of industry and let them get on with producing oil.” (CNN Today)

The government can offer tax incentives and X-prizes for fuel development.  It is time we use the market and not artificial subsidies like ethanol, to determine our energy future.