While Democrats continue to offer very little in the way of solutions to our energy concerns, unless you count RAISING the price of oil (such as removing subsidies for energy companies, increasing the gas tax, etc.), some responsible legislators, including Virginia’s own State Sen. Frank Wagner and U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, are actually trying to move the debate in a direction that helps America preserve its energy security.
Today, while President Bush was calling on Congress to lift the ban on off-shore drilling, Sen. Wagner was also calling on Gov. Kaine to use his “considerable influence in national Democratic politics” to do the same with his Democratic colleagues.
For next week’s special session, Wagner will introduce a bill which will establish the Offshore Energy Revenue Fund. Should the bill pass and the moratorium on offshore drilling be lifted, revenues from taxes collected from offshore drilling will be distributed to the following state budget items:
- 40% to the Transportation Trust Fund
- 40% for Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts
- 10% to the Renewable Electricity Production Grant Fund
- 10% to the Virginia Costal Energy Research Consortium.
“Literally millions upon millions of dollars may be lying out of eyesight off our Virginia shores,” said Wagner. “Tapping these potential natural resources could improve our lot in three ways: Virginia motorists would be eventually pay less at the pump, vital government programs would be better financed, and our economy would receive a boost from the business activity generated by the exploration and drilling.”
Cantor also joined with Wagner, the President, and Sen. John McCain at urging congressional Democrats to get off their hands and lift the moratorium on drilling in the outer continental shelf.
This proposal does a number of things, but most importantly, if it were signed into law, it would signal to the world that we are serious about producing American energy. With that, upward pressure on prices in the spot markets and at the pump would likely diminish. In Virginia, deep water energy exploration would mean approximately $250 million/year for 40 years.
Bush, McCain, Cantor and Wagner all advocated drilling be done responsibly and with great concern to protecting the environment; but all also acknowledged that we can no longer wait and be held hostage by a Cartel.
I caught up with Sen. Wagner as he traveled home from Richmond:
[display_podcast]
To listen to any of the previous podcasts, click here.
To automatically download and sync VPOD with your MP3 player, use this feed.
Update: Rep. Randy Forbes just got into the act too with HR6260, the “New Manhattan Project”. According to Forbes’ release, the bill calls for the United States to achieve 50% energy independence in ten years and 100% energy independence in 20 years and will award competitive prizes to the first individual or group who can reach any of seven established energy goals.
“The challenges we face in energy as a nation are far greater than one simple solution can fix. We need a bold initiative that challenges the United States to get to the core of our energy problems,” said Forbes. “I’ve introduced the New Manhattan Project for Energy Independence to bring together a new generation of scientists and researchers to overcome a unified national challenge just as we did with the original Manhattan Project in World War II. Like the first Manhattan Project, which was launched to ensure the security of our nation, today our national security depends on our ability to produce reliable sources of energy to fuel our economy and our vital defense efforts. We succeeded then by hard work and dedication to a unified mission, and I believe we can do it again to achieve 100% energy independence.”
To achieve these goals, the New Manhattan Project will bring together the scientists and researchers in the U.S. in a competitive format to reach one of seven energy goals. The project will award significant prizes to the first group, school, team, or company that reaches each goal as determined by a New Manhattan Project commission of scientists. Cash prizes to be awarded to the first person or entity to achieve each of the following goals:
- Double CAFE standards to 70 MPG while keeping vehicles affordable
- Cut home and business energy usage in half
- Make solar power work at the same cost as coal
- Make the production of biofuels cost-competitive with gasoline
- Safely and cheaply store carbon emissions from coal-powered plants
- Safely store or neutralize nuclear waste
- Produce usable electricity from a nuclear fusion reaction
In addition, the bill sets aside funding for grants to individual researchers, groups, educational institutions or businesses to help share the cost of work toward achieving the goals.
“These goals are not easy. The processes to reach them are not simple. But if we reach even one of these goals, we will move significantly closer to achieving energy independence in the U.S.,” said Forbes. “I believe in the greatness of the American people, and I believe that coming together with a unified goal to succeed in this national challenge will lead to scientific breakthroughs that will reverse our dependency on foreign oil. While others in Congress are just talking about this issue, the New Manhattan Project takes substantial steps at solving the issue. I encourage the current Majority leadership to move quickly on this legislation to bring it to the House floor for consideration.”
The New Manhattan Project for Energy Independence has been referred to the Committee on Science and Technology and is awaiting action.
Additionally, Jim Bacon has posted some thoughts on this subject.
