[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 401 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 401

 Expressing the support of Congress for enhancing energy independence 
        through the usage of existing resources and technology.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 31, 2008

 Mr. Aderholt (for himself, Mr. Cantor, Mr. Thornberry, Mr. Pence, and 
  Mr. Pitts) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the 
   Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the support of Congress for enhancing energy independence 
        through the usage of existing resources and technology.

Whereas the price of oil has tripled in the past 6 years;
Whereas the price of gasoline has almost tripled in the same time period;
Whereas the United States currently imports over 60 percent of all crude oil 
        consumed;
Whereas the price of oil and gasoline today is determined by expectations of 
        future market conditions;
Whereas 90 percent of the world's oil reserves are controlled by governments, 
        not private companies;
Whereas Congress has restricted access to key energy supplies, including the 
        Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the Offshore Continental Shelf 
        (OCS), oil shale, heavy oil, and oil sands;
Whereas ANWR is believed to contain 10,400,000,000 barrels of oil, a figure 
        which may be a very conservative estimate;
Whereas the daily oil production from ANWR could be greater than the amount of 
        oil the United States imports from Saudi Arabia;
Whereas exploration of ANWR could create 500,000 American jobs;
Whereas the exploration would be conducted on only 2,000 acres of the 19,600,000 
        acres that constitute the refuge;
Whereas the United States currently allows drilling in 11 other national 
        wildlife refuges;
Whereas environmentally-friendly techniques can be used to minimize 
        environmental impact;
Whereas the portion of ANWR proposed for exploration is a barren tundra, devoid 
        of trees and frozen most of the year;
Whereas exploration in ANWR could create $150,000,000,000 in Federal tax 
        revenue;
Whereas exploration in ANWR could lower gas prices from $0.75 to $1.60 per 
        gallon;
Whereas production of the oil in ANWR would add about $1,400,000,000,000 to our 
        Nation's wealth, assuming a price of oil of $140 per barrel;
Whereas drilling is currently banned on 85 percent of the Offshore Continental 
        Shelf (OCS);
Whereas the United States is the only country in the world to restrict access to 
        its OCS energy resources;
Whereas Cuba is currently leasing land for oil exploration off the Florida 
        coast;
Whereas the parts of the OCS closed to exploration are estimated to contain 
        16,600,000,000 barrels of oil and 59,310,000,000,000 cubic feet of 
        natural gas;
Whereas historically, estimates of reserves have been understated by about 50 
        percent;
Whereas 63 percent of oil seepages in American waters are from natural causes, 
        32 percent are from cars and boats, only 4 percent are from oil tankers, 
        and fewer than 1 percent are from drilling;
Whereas the OCS extends 200 miles from the coasts of the United States, and most 
        energy proposals only propose exploration beyond 20 miles, the limit of 
        what is visible with the human eye;
Whereas modern offshore drilling rigs are so hurricane-resistant that even 
        Hurricane Katrina failed to cause any significant spillage of oil from 
        rigs in the Gulf of Mexico;
Whereas exploration in the OCS could lower gas prices by $0.90 to $2.50 per 
        gallon;
Whereas production of the oil contained in the OCS would add about 
        $2,300,000,000,000 to our Nation's wealth, assuming a price of oil of 
        $140 per barrel;
Whereas the United States has an estimated 2,000,000,000,000 barrels of oil in 
        the form of shale oil, 1,000,000,000,000 of which is recoverable;
Whereas by comparison, Saudi Arabia only has 250,000,000,000 barrels of crude 
        oil reserves;
Whereas our shale oil reserves make the United States the country with the 
        world's largest oil reserves;
Whereas America's recoverable shale oil reserves are equivalent to the sum of 
        the rest of the world's crude oil reserves;
Whereas most of the recoverable shale oil in the United States is located on 
        Federal lands in Colorado and Utah;
Whereas the land containing the most shale oil deposits in Colorado was 
        specifically set aside for shale oil production by executive orders 
        between 1912 and 1927;
Whereas environmentally sustainable production methods that extract the oil 
        without digging up the shale are in development;
Whereas such environmentally-friendly production methods will preserve the 
        ground water by freezing a wall of water around the drill site;
Whereas commercial-level production will likely be possible by 2015;
Whereas oil prices will probably fall before 2015 in anticipation of the 
        increased production;
Whereas production of the oil contained in America's recoverable shale oil 
        deposits would add about $140,000,000,000,000 to our Nation's wealth, 
        assuming a price of oil of $140 per barrel;
Whereas the Bureau of Land Management was blocked by Congress in 2007 from 
        issuing shale oil production regulations;
Whereas the United States has the world's largest reserves of coal, estimated at 
        275,000,000,000 recoverable tons and nearly 4,000,000,000,000 identified 
        tons;
Whereas America's recoverable coal reserves could last an estimated 250 years;
Whereas the process of converting coal to oil was invented by Germany during 
        World War II and is currently profitably used by South Africa for a 
        large percentage of its fuel needs;
Whereas Americans are ready to begin building coal-to-liquid plants in the 
        United States, but are held back by regulatory uncertainty and concern 
        about global warming legislation;
Whereas the fuel produced from coal burns much cleaner than fuel produced from 
        oil;
Whereas much of the carbon dioxide produced by coal-to-liquid plants could be 
        stored underground and used to increase recovery from oil wells;
Whereas the United States has not built a new oil refinery in over 30 years;
Whereas America currently relies on imports for over 12 percent of our gasoline 
        supply;
Whereas our dependence on imported gasoline has been increasing each of the past 
        10 years;
Whereas building more refineries could lower gas prices by $0.15 to $0.45 per 
        gallon;
Whereas more refineries have not been built in part due to the extreme 
        difficulty in obtaining government permits;
Whereas imported oil, gas, and other petroleum products are currently the 
        largest part of the United States trade deficit, accounting for 
        $317,000,000,000 out of a total deficit of $815,000,000,000 in 2007;
Whereas imported oil and gas are consuming an ever-increasing share of our trade 
        deficit;
Whereas the massive transfer of wealth from the United States to the Middle East 
        for oil imports is harmful to our Nation's security;
Whereas our military uses 132,000,000 barrels of oil per year and supports the 
        development of American sources of fuel;
Whereas a provision was added at the last minute before passage of H.R. 6, the 
        ironically-titled Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, that 
        would prohibit Federal agencies from purchasing fuel from American 
        sources like shale oil and coal-to-liquid plants, and require more 
        Middle Eastern oil to be purchased;
Whereas America has the capability to become much more energy independent, using 
        today's technology without a huge taxpayer expenditure by simply using 
        the resources available; and
Whereas the provisions in this resolution could add over $143,000,000,000,000 to 
        our Nation's wealth over time and lower gas prices by $2.00 per gallon, 
        not counting the impact of coal-to-liquid: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of Congress that a set of laws should be enacted 
that--
            (1) make more American energy available for exploration and 
        production, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 
        the Offshore Continental Shelf, and Federal lands onshore, 
        including for shale oil and coal-to-liquid production; and
            (2) streamline the permitting process for building American 
        refineries and allow the construction of refineries on Federal 
        lands.
                                 <all>