Call to action: President Bush, former Speaker, industry groups say time is now for energy exploration
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 6/19/2008 6:00:00 AM
Yesterday (June 18) President Bush called for lifting federal bans against offshore oil drilling and other measures to boost oil production, citing Americans' pressing concern about the price of gasoline.
U.S. businesses and families truly are looking to Washington for a response. Meanwhile, the president faces opposition in Congress for his proposals to drill offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but maintains it's time to move swiftly.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich concurs, citing what he calls America's huge untapped energy reserves. Recently on the radio program America’s Business with Mike Hambrick, and an associated vodcast, Gingrich—current chairman of the nonpartisan group called American Solutions for Winning the Future—pointed to the group’s petition drive calling for more domestic oil exploration. The former Republican Georgia congressman says America has huge, untapped reserves of oil as well as coal. As of today, about 800,000 people signed the online “Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.” petition.
Said Gingrich, "Today we have 27 percent of the world’s coal reserves—more than any other country by a big margin. We have in the Rocky Mountains three times the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia in shale oil. We have an unknown potential offshore in the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, where it’s been illegal to look for oil. The fact is there are a lot of American sources we could be using.”
To watch the energy vodcast online, visit www.americasbusiness.org, or access the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/namvideo.
