The American Solutions campaign “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” has delivered over 350,000 signatures on their petition to Congress today.

Watch the video below and hear more about this.

Of course this is important to many Americans because with current plans we either have to live with the higher prices while we wait for ethanol to become “cheaper” or we can work towards producing more of our own energy supply and lower the prices much quicker while a better alternative fuel is produced.

In fact an article in Human Events.com, titled “A Conservative Energy Policy” by Dan Kish says:

When Ronald Reagan accepted his party’s nomination in 1980, he said… “Large amounts of oil and natural gas lay beneath our land and off our shores, untouched because the present administration seems to believe the American people would rather see more regulation, taxes and controls than more energy, he said.  “It must not be thwarted by a tiny minority opposed to economic growth which often finds friendly ears in regulatory agencies for its obstructionist campaigns.”

In fact, according to our own government there 19 BILLION barrels of oil available on-shore and 18.92 BILLION barrels of oil off-shore in areas that we can get easily get to and drill in the new and improved environmentally friendly ways. Included with these numbers is an estimated 180 TRILLION Cubic Feet of undeveloped natural gas resources.

This doesn’t take into account the Oil Shale resources of over ONE-TRILLION BARRELS of oil. We now have the environmentally friendly technology and capacity to convert into this resource into over 800 BILLION BARRELS of recoverable oil, which is over THREE TIMES the amount of oil in SAUDI ARABIA. (see the source info here) 

When Ronald Reagan spoke these words he was describing President Jimmy Carter’s disastrous policies that ransacked family budgets, cost jobs and robbed Americans of hope.  They could just as easily be spoken today about the Bush Administration, the Congress, and the candidates vying to become president this election year.  On the energy front, it seems, the classically successful principles of less government and more self-initiative been replaced by a myth of resource scarcity and helplessness. Government now, as then, has created a massive energy problem.  And now, as then, it wants people to believe it also has the solution.  Well, as Reagan put it, “government is not the solution to the problem; government is the problem.”  

According to the Rocky Mountain New article titled “Senate panel retains oil-shale moratorium” from May 15, 2008 (just a few weeks ago while we are experiencing the high fuel prices) the Senate Appropriations Committee:

“… today narrowly defeated Sen. Wayne Allard's attempt to end a moratorium related to oil shale development in Colorado.” and “Allard, a member of the committee, attempted to insert an amendment that would reverse the moratorium that lawmakers approved late last year.

The moratorium prevents the Department of Interior from issuing regulations so that oil companies can move forward on oil-shale projects in Colorado and Utah. Allard said the moratorium has left uncertainties at a time when companies need to move forward and in the long term make the United States more energy independent.

"If we are really serious about reducing pain at the pump, this is a vote that would make a difference in people's lives," Allard argued.”

Our elected representatives who are supposed to be looking out for us voted 14 – 15 (directly along party lines) to defeat the amendment. 

If we can gain enough support and signatures on this petition then maybe we will be taken seriously in our demands that Congress Acts Immediately to Relieve The Bleeding at the Pump!!!

See this post on my Campaign Website.