Rahall Says ‘Use It or Lose It’ in Challenge to Big Oil
By Mannix Porterfield, The Register-Herald, Beckley, W.Va.
Jun. 14–Using the old saw of “use it or lose it,” Rep. Nick Rahall threw down the gauntlet Friday for Big Oil to either use on- and off-shore drilling leases to produce or see such privileges yanked away from them.
Rahall, D-W.Va., chairs the House Committee on Natural Resources and through that panel offered the Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act of 2008.
His proposal would compel oil and gas firms to either produce or give up federal onshore and offshore leases they are stockpiling by barring them from getting any more until they prove oil and gas are being produced by developing current leases.
“Big Oil, as many Americans already suspect, is perfectly fine with high gasoline prices at the pump, while they hold back domestic production on federal leases and enjoy world-record profits,” he said.
“I am calling them on the carpet. I am calling their bluff. We are not going to continue to allow them to speculate and profiteer with public resources to the detriment of the American people.”
Rahall said his bill is an outgrowth of a committee report titled “The Truth About America’s Energy: Big Oil Stockpiles Supplies and Pockets Profits.”
It shows how major oil producers aren’t taking advantage of federal lands and waters open to them for drilling.
Combined, the congressman pointed out, the 68 million acres of leased but inactive land are capable of producing another 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily, or nearly doubling domestic oil production and raising natural gas production by 75 percent.
Moreover, it would trim the oil imports by more than one-third, lessening the nation’s reliance on foreign oil.
Rahall reasoned other companies might have an opportunity to explore and possibly find new sources of oil and gas if existing leases were surrendered by non-producing firms.
— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com
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