OH-16: John Boccieri on "Gas Prices and Energy" an Editorial

Just in case you missed it!

We know that all of the readers of the John Boccieri for U.S. Congress don't all get "The Canton Repository". So, it is our great pleasure to bring you a Sunday, "Editorial" by the Senator Major John Boccieri(D) himself. This is "smart" OH-16 energy policy!

Make oil companies drill on land they already have

Sunday, July 20, 2008

BY STATE SEN. JOHN BOCCIERI

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE,

16TH OHIO DISTRICT, U.S. HOUSE

We need to bring gas prices down today and achieve energy independence as soon as possible. That means releasing fuel from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, making oil companies drill on the land they already have, and accelerating our transition to alternative energy sources. ANWR drilling wouldn't yield oil for 10-20 years and would do more for oil company profits than for the American middle class.

Right now, oil companies are sitting on 68 million U.S. acres, including coastal waters, that are approved for drilling today. They should stop prospecting and start drilling.

Under the Bush administration, oil companies have received huge tax breaks and quadrupled their profits, and all we have is $4-per-gallon gas. They've done nothing to demonstrate that giving them even more will get us out of this mess.

Reducing our fuel consumption is as important as developing alternative energy sources.

In the same time that big oil companies want to spend prospecting, we could completely transition to proven alternatives like wind and solar that would create "green-collar" jobs and free us from oil forever. We need to invest in serious research, like Stark State's fuel-cell facility, not game show gimmicks.

Nuclear should be a part of America's energy policy, but only if reliable and completely safe for local communities and the environment.

Park Farms in Canton is struggling to afford corn feed for chickens. We should develop diversified, next-generation biofuels that we can grow in the 16th District and refine at cutting-edge local refineries, boosting our entire economy. Utilities should be required to develop 25 percent of their production from "clean" energy sources by 2025. In the Ohio Legislature, I supported a similar measure.

Ohio sits on 250 years of coal reserves. A clean-coal refinery is being built in a neighboring county. Stark County could be the next location for a cutting-edge facility.