WASHINGTON -- The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) today criticized House hearings on oil company profits as a theatrical exercise devoid of meaningful constructive steps toward easing high prices and supply shortages.
“Demagoguery and demonization will not reduce energy prices or solve supply problems in the long run,” said NAM president and CEO John Engler. “Our energy supply and infrastructure have suffered from 25 years of increasingly restrictive government policies that have made it almost impossible to access and refine the resources we have. The House should dispense with the theatrics and get serious about increasing America’s energy supply.”
Engler noted that the U.S. faces increasing competition from industrializing economies such as China and India, whose demand for oil and gas is rising sharply.
“While our competitors have been building energy infrastructure, the U.S. has neglected it,” Engler said. He noted that Japan has 23 Liquefied Natural Gas terminals while the U.S. has four. The U.S. has not built an oil refinery since 1976. While France built 58 nuclear power plants that generate 80 percent of the country’s electricity -- the U.S. built one. Meanwhile, China will spend $50 billion in the next 15 years to build 30 nuclear power plants.
“Imposing new taxes is a dead-end strategy that will reduce energy supply and investment -- resulting in increased prices,” Engler said.
“While investing in renewable and alternative energy sources and continuing to boost efficiency gains will play critical roles in meeting our country’s future energy demands, America needs a more secure and affordable energy supply, starting with allowing access to our vast reserves in the Artic Natural Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the Outer Continental Shelf, ” he added.
“If Congress wants to ease energy prices, it can start by unlocking the 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves in the Outer Continental Shelf, enough energy to heat 100 million homes for 60 years, and fuel 85 million cars for 35 years,” Engler concluded.
