Representative John Boehner (R-Ohio) believes that the solutions to our nation’s energy crisis can be found right here at home.
The House Republican Leader addressed this and other energy issues before a group of reporters and bloggers during a meeting Tuesday. The event was hosted by Americans for Tax Reform and The American Spectator.
Boehner said that the use of “American-made energy” and further exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) will help to resolve the current state of affairs in the energy sector. He also described an energy-focused strategy toward potential GOP successes in the fall, a four-fold plan that also includes issues of national security, economic security, and healthcare.
Boehner recently returned from the American Energy Tour, an initiative he led to encourage reduced dependency upon foreign sources of energy.
“Today 70% of our energy needs are imported oil,” Boehner said. “I think this jeopardizes our national security and it certainly jeopardizes our economy.”
As part of the American Energy Tour, Boehner and a group of ten other House Republicans visited regions in Alaska where he says “wildlife and environmentally-safe energy production can coexist.” When asked about the impact of energy exploration in these Alaskan lands, Boehner noted the difference in the size of affected land used now as opposed to when drilling was initiated there.
“The amount of land necessary to produce oil today is much smaller than it was some 35 years ago when they began developing this field,” Boehner said. “The technology is advanced to the point where they can use about one-sixth of the land mass than they did 35 years ago.”
Several people, according to Boehner, are especially unsupportive of increased drilling in these proposed areas.
“The only thing standing in the way of what the American people want are Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama, who do not believe that increased energy production is what’s necessary to fix the current crisis,” Boehner said.
Audra Taylor is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
