By Del. Ron Villanueva
Just one year ago I attended a ceremony in Richmond, and witnessed Governor Bob McDonnell sign into law legislation I sponsored giving Virginia the green light to explore oil and natural gas resources off our coast. The bill had strong bi-partisan support, in large part because of its potential to create jobs, increase state revenue, and make our nation
less dependent on foreign energy.
Governor McDonnell openly praised Energy Secretary Salazar and the Obama Administration for approving the lease sale off Virginia’s coast, which some estimates say could create as many as 2,000 jobs in Virginia, and $19 billion in additional state revenue by 2030.
Unfortunately, the President reversed this decision, and in December put Virginia’s resources– along with other potential drilling sites across the nation — off limits for at least six years. And today Americans are paying twice as much at the pump than they were when Obama took office, a fact my constituents remind me of on a daily basis.
Yes, energy prices have been greatly affected by rising conflict and military actions in the Middle East, but this only heightens the urgency for America to fuel our economy with domestic energy. The President certainly has no objections to offshore drilling in general; he recently granted Brazil’s state-run oil company nearly $3 billion in U.S. taxpayer money to explore and extract offshore energy in Brazil’s newly-discovered reserves, telling them “we want to be one of your best customers.”
Let me suggest something different, instead of exporting our money to other nation’s to help them create jobs and add to our deficit, we stop the madness and go to work here at home.
As it happens, the U.S. Department of Interior estimates that there are currently 85.9 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas available in the U.S. outer continental shelf (OCS) – enough oil to produce gasoline to run 192 million cars and heat 78 million homes for 15 years. And the Atlantic OCS — which has never been leased for
exploration or production of oil and natural gas — is estimated to contain anywhere from 1.12 billion to 7.57 billion barrels of oil and from 14.30 trillion to 66.46 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
With such a large capacity of resources available to the U.S., it doesn’t make sense for Americans to continue depending on foreign fuel imports, sending our dollars overseas to nations that are often hostile to our economic and national security interests.
Closer to home, the Southeast Energy Alliance estimates that offshore energy development in Virginia could produce over a half of a billion barrels of oil and 2.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, creating jobs we need and state revenue to help finance improvements in transportation, education, infrastructure, and fund the many necessities of cash-strapped
localities.
With such ample resources within arm’s reach, one would think that our leaders would line up in support of the thoughtful utilization of our nation’s abundance resources by exploring innovative ways to leverage America’s vast and diverse energy supplies. Unfortunately, this reality could not be further from the truth.
Instead the federal government has been restricting access to our domestic energy supply in the Outer Continental Shelf and holding up viable permits to its leaseholders to drill in areas offshore that have already been leased for that purpose. Meanwhile, Cuba has been selling offshore leases to foreign nations and companies so that they may one day drill in the very Gulf that the Administration has restricted here at home. To all of us concerned about protecting our environment, our hands will be tied to regulate and ensure environmentally sound practices when non-U.S. companies slant-drill and siphon away America’s resources.
The bottom line is obvious to the vast majority of Virginians, who overwhelmingly support developing our own resources and keeping dollars and jobs at home. Until the Obama Administration changes course, this tremendous economic opportunity will remain under lock and key — even as skyrocketing gas pump prices continue to rattle American consumers and businesses. It’s time for our leaders to get serious about U.S. energy
independence and to seize on the opportunities available to us, right now — here in America.
