Hutchison calls for long-term energy policy
(CNN) – Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison struck a partisan tone while calling for the development of a comprehensive energy policy Saturday, just days after both Democrats and Republicans saw separate energy-related bills defeated in Congress.
“Republicans have consistently called for greater access to our domestic sources of energy to spur good American jobs, and to prepare for circumstances we can’t control, like natural disasters or unrest in the Middle East that creates instability and drives up the cost of a barrel of oil,” Hutchison said in the GOP weekly address.
“We have vast resources under our land and we need to safely explore and develop them to have a stable energy supply for our consumers and our economy,” she said.
In response to rising gas prices, Republicans proposed a measure this week to expand offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. coastal waters, but the bill was defeated in the Senate on Wednesday.
The Senate also rejected a measure proposed by Democrats to strip major oil companies of about $20 billion in tax subsidies over the next 10 years and use the savings to pay down the federal deficit. Democrats argued that record profits reported by the major oil companies were a sign that they no longer needed large government subsidies.
But in her address, Hutchison chastised the Obama administration for “seeking to impose more regulations and taxes on oil and gas companies.”
“This is placing our own valuable resources out of reach and stifling job creation – their proposals will actually increase pain at the pump,” Hutchison said.
The Texas Republican also singled out the six-month offshore drilling moratorium imposed by the Obama administration following the April 20 explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, lamenting that the drilling freeze continues to negatively affect the energy production industry.
“While companies were forced to stop operations, they had to continue paying to lease lands they were prohibited from using. Leaseholders sat idle for a year, losing valuable exploration time through no fault of their own,” Hutchison said.
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Can we please stop this we cant do anything because it might hurt jobs growth nonsense. the jobs created in the exploration and extraction of energy resources are a limited sector, a niche market of people that will not make any inroads where we are most hurting for jobs. In and around urban/suburban areas where the jobs lost are mostly white and some localized blue collar jobs. Drilling off shore, or extracting in-land in some remote area wont employ many people, nor will stripping the subsidies stop the oil companies from hiring or anything else they normally do. They have not stop doing anything in the last 10 years, especially make profits.
Just another greedy republican with her pockets full of big oil $$$ pathalogically convinced we can drill our way to oil independence...Nothing new here.
What is the real cost of a barrel of oil? It's not the Middle East that creates instability it's the G O P.
A Republican from Texas oil country blaming President Obama for price of gas?? Wonder how much money she gets from the oil companies to spread their lies for them?
Remember she is just one of all the Republican Senators who blocked the end of giving BILLIONS in taxpayer money to oil companies – oil companies who are the most profitable industry in the world. And why do they need government assistance again???? Republican logic – let's kill Medicare so we can give BILLIONS to rich oil companies.
And these Republicans are supposed to be working for the We the People? Lord, I'd hate to see if they if they were working against us! Oh wait – they are – they work for corporations.
Renewable resources please. The Dept. of Energy had a large program developing newables, until the money dried up under Bush, the oil tycoon and his pals. In fact, I drove an auto that ran on renewables, developed by Ford Motor, but when I retired it was under tarps in a storage bldg. Research is the answer, not relying on a product that will disappear one day.
There's a surprise, a Texan calling for greater domestic OIL production, along with tax payer subsidies for Texas of course.
Ditto Beverlync–with friends like KBH who needs enemies?
Pathetic – where is the compromise? Expand domestically AND end the subsidies. Exxon just made 10 billion in 3 months and also gets some of that 20 billion in subsidies – now is that their profit before or after they buy up Republican votes to continue the subsidies...ah what a luxurious cycle of the rich and infamous.
Also – wow, someone calling for long-term energy policies...that's only been done for the past half-century.
The global economy revolves around a limited resource.....oil. The GOP stance of 'drill baby drill' kicks the can down the road for future generations to deal with. But not one GOP talking head can offer us any ideas to replace this expendable resource with viable alternative energy ideas. What happens when the entire American landscape is torn up looking for something that is no longer there?
2 SUV's in every garage is the GOP's policy
why didn't this lady cry before...this is long overdue...doesn't this idiot know...?????energy, energy, and energy...strict immigration too....nation is under GOP attack, what a shame..
Kay's a Bush cronie, what else could you expect to hear from her as well as the rest of them here in Texas..
Don't know what is worse – GOP Oil apologists still crying "Drill baby drill" along with defending welfare for billionaires or the inevitable bleating of approval from the Teabagging sheep.
Lynn , your right on !
Texas Sen. Kay Bailey" Bimbo" Hutchison sounds like she's working as a big oil lobbyist. Where was she during the Bush / Cheney years of Sloth Vision , thinking ,action , policy in regards to LONG-TERM ENERGY !
The Tax subsidies for big Oil company need to be stop. that Billions of dollar that can be Use to help with the Deficit. and the Bush tax cuts need to be stop ,because they never work from day one and will never work. So the Bush tax cuts for the Rich need to be stop. All you Republican do Is lie to the American People, Is there Isn't much more you can take from the Middle Class,the POOR , the Old and the Disabled. And the Paul Ryan Plan will not make the American People Happy. But It your Jobs that you will lose In 2012.
Of course a good little GOBPbagger from Texas believes more domestic production is the equivalent of a comprehensive energy program. Sane people, however, know that any plan that features coal, oil and gas as long term solutions is ridiculous. The GOBP simply hates renewable energy because that's what their corporate masters in Big Energy tell them to oppose.
Kay Bay is just trying to get a job with the oil lobbying. That girl is a prize...she and her partner John useless Connelly AND Guv Goodhair have led this state to ruin.
KBH-the Palin of a previous generation. She has done absolutely nothing except pander to the oil industry and provide votes for her party. Now she is criticizing increased government regulation following the biggest oil spill in history even though the oil industry is obviously incapable of regulating itself. And she favors continued subsidy of an industry that is gouging all of us, including gas station owners, at the gas pump. She and her like-minded Congressional colleagues need to be booted out of office asap.
I am surprised that we could hear Ms. Hutchison blather on, considering that she and the rest of the Republican leadership are soo deep in the pocket of the oil industry.
What this country really needs is a policy/program to free us from the need for oil period. Quite frankly I don't see much difference between the way domestic oil companies treat the average American consummer vs the way foreign companies treat the average American. The bottom line is we get screwed either way.
We do need to be careful about drilling in America for oil. We have to be absolutely certain that this is the right thing to do and what to do if our land does not hold as much oil as we think it does. President Obama was correct to be cautious. 8 years of Bush should have taught us to go in to any situation with our eyes wide open and all our options considered.
didn't you retire or is that great gift still pending?
Oh please Kay...spare us the bogus bait and switch sales pitch. We all know you are 100% sold-out to the Big Oil lobbyist agenda. What else do you expect Americans to do? Give even more tax write-offs to the "job creators" so they can sock it the middle-class even more?
To sum up the brilliant people who read nothing but CNN and post here:
1 Its Republicans fault for high oil prices.
– not even worth rebutting
2 The Republicans are in the pockets of "Big Oil"
-"Big Oil" gives more money to Democrats LOOK IT UP.
3 The energy sector jobs are scarce so not worth protecting
– This sector employs hundreds of thousands of people directly or indirectly from their operations, many of whom are
idle from this administrations drilling moritorium.
4 Republicans want to "Kill" Medicare to give Oil companies tax breaks.
– Medicare is already dying, quickly. Instead of trying to reform it so it can stay solvant and providing for the seniors in
the future like the Republicans have proposed, the Dems will do nothing. They will try to scare seniors into voting for
them with promise of "Making the RICH pay more". The "Rich" dont have enough money to pay for one years worth of
DEFICTS. THE DEMS WILL COME AFTER EVERYONE FOR MONEY IN THE FORM OF A VAT TAX.
Repub "policy" is the rape and pillage of our public owned resources for corporate wealth at all costs.
More phony baloney from the Repubs. Oil extracted in this country–or from offshore drilling–doesn't belong to the U.S. It goes on the world markets just like every other drop of petroleum, thereby enriching the big oil companies (who fund Hutchison's political career). But with pols like her it's "damn the environment; drill, baby, drill."