Boehner Column: American Energy Act Will Promote Use of Alternative & Renewable Fuels

We’re almost through the summer driving season – with no relief in sight since the Democratic Majority in Congress left Washington, DC for a five-week break. Still, as gas prices remain high and home heating costs expected to soar this fall and winter, I remain hopeful that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will finally allow a vote on the American Energy Act, which is the House Republicans’ plan to lower gas prices by increasing production of American energy, promoting more conservation and efficiency, and encouraging more use of alternative and renewable fuels.

Along with the vast majority of Americans, I want to unlock our natural resources and start producing more American oil and natural gas. It’s also important that we increase our investment in alternative and renewable fuels, and the American Energy Act includes several provisions to do that. I recently visited the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado, which is an Energy Department facility operated by private-sector scientists dedicated to perfecting cutting-edge solar, wind, fuel cell, biomass, and other emerging energy technologies. The work being done at NREL is a critical component of our strategy to reduce our nation’s dangerous and costly dependence on foreign oil through a comprehensive “all of the above” strategy.

To encourage the use of renewable and alternative fuels, the American Energy Act would:

Award a monetary prize to the first entrepreneur to develop an economically feasible, super-fuel-efficient vehicle (reaching 100 miles-per-gallon);

Establish a renewable energy trust fund using revenues generated by exploration in the deep ocean and on the Arctic coastal plain;

Eliminate barriers to the expansion of emission-free nuclear power production;

Permanently extend the tax credit for alternative energy production, including wind, solar and hydrogen;

Repeal the prohibition on government purchasing of alternative energy; and

Promote coal-to-liquids technology.

Since Speaker Pelosi shut down the U.S. House on Aug. 1 for a five-week break, House Republicans have taken our plan for more American-made energy directly to the American people – from the House floor, where we are talking with thousands of American citizens touring our nation’s Capitol to explain how we’re being denied a vote on the American Energy Act, to communities across the country, where we are promoting our “all of the above” energy strategy in our own neighborhoods.

But instead of joining us in our “American Energy Call to Arms,” Speaker Pelosi is telling her Democratic Caucus – many of whom support the same goals the American Energy Act would achieve – to try to have it both ways. She is on the record telling lawmakers that they should support a drilling plan while at home while assuring them she would never allow such a bill to come for a vote.

Instead, the Democratic leadership of the “Drill Nothing” Congress continues to peddle legislation that will not produce a single drop or watt of new American energy. Is that the type of leadership the American people expect from their leaders in Washington?

I’ve seen the American system work, and when the American people speak up and demand something, there is no way the Congress can defy them forever. Families and small businesses across America want more production of American energy to help lower gas prices, and that is just what Republicans are fighting for in our nationwide gas prices protest. Congress should get back to work, have a real debate on the American Energy Act, and put our “all of the above” energy strategy to work for families here in Ohio and across the country.