Congressman Zach Wamp released the following statement on the decision by President Bush to lift the 18-year-old executive ban on off-shore drilling along the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf:
“President Bush has made the right decision to lift the executive ban on off-shore energy exploration on the OCS, but now Congress needs to act to remove its moratorium that has been in place for more than a quarter of a century.
"The Institute for Energy Research says that with 97 percent of America’s offshore OCS lands not leased for energy exploration or production, the United States is the only developed nation that restricts access to its offshore energy resources.
"Other countries explore their OCS for energy because they view it as an asset, whereas the Democrats in Congress view ours as an environmental hazard.
“We can only help lower the cost of energy by implementing an ‘all of the above’ approach that increases American-made energy, decreases our dependence on foreign oil and creates jobs here at home in the process. While additional energy sources from renewables are coming online, new production of oil and gas from the OCS will also provide relief to millions of Americans feeling the crunch of soaring gas prices.
“The only obstacle remaining to producing billions of barrels of American oil and trillions of cubic feet of American natural gas is Congress. Republicans continue to push for energy solutions in Congress, but the Democrat leadership will not consider legislation to increase domestic sources of energy, such as the National Environment and Energy Development Act, which I have co-sponsored to lift the Congressional moratorium.”