OIL/ENERGY POLICY
Obama Says He Will Seek to Lift U.S. Oil Output
"President Obama, in his weekly radio address, said his administration would expand drilling opportunities in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve, speed up continuing evaluation of oil resources in the Atlantic and provide incentives to oil companies to develop energy on the leases they currently own."
Obama announces steps to speed oil drilling
"The Obama administration will speed up the leasing process for the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve, give oil companies better financial incentives to use their leases and extend all drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico so oil companies have more time to implement safety measures after the devastating BP oil spill.
He will also fast-forward the testing of areas off the east coast of the United States to see what oil resources are there and if it would be safe and commercially viable to drill."
"Exxon's Rex Tillerson called the proposal "misinformed and discriminatory." ConocoPhillips's James Mulva, in a letter, called the idea "un-American" because it would supposedly cost American jobs, raise consumer prices and discourage investment — a position he reasserted during the hearings.
The other three companies at the witness table, BP America, Shell and Chevron, raised similar complaints. How absurd are their claims? Utterly absurd. "
Garrett Says 'Drill Baby, Drill' Off Jersey Shore, Other State Reps Opposed
Answer to cheap power is blowing in offshore wind
"The Atlantic Wind Connection could provide an entirely new model for connecting seaborne energy with land users. The Maryland-based transmission-line company Trans-Elect proposes to do just that with a $5 billion undersea power grid that would stretch some 350 miles from northern New Jersey to southern Virginia. The Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC) would provide multiple transmission hubs for future wind farms, making the waters off the mid-Atlantic coast an attractive and economical place for developers to set up turbines. The AWC's lines could transmit as much as six gigawatts of low-carbon power from turbines back to the coast — the equivalent capacity of 10 average coal-fired power plants."
