OH-16: John Boccieri "Schuring Will Cost Ohio $5 Billion at the Pump"

We've got a little food for thought, today. The Senator Major John Boccieri(D-Alliance) issued a statement on the ongoing battle over energy indepence. This more "smart policy" for Ohio's 16th Congressional District!

Schuring Will Cost Ohio $5 Billion at the Pump before “Energy Plan” Takes Effect

Canton, OH – Rather than providing bold solutions to begin immediately easing pain at the pump, Kirk Schuring has endorsed George W. Bush’s energy stance, which calls for Americans to sit back and wait 20 years while big oil companies prospect for new sources of oil.

In Sunday’s edition of the Canton Repository, Schuring said that opening new areas in ANWR and the Outer Continental Shelf to drilling was a “short-term” solution that would “dramatically increase domestic energy production” and “have an immediate impact at the pump.”

Even George W. Bush’s Department of Energy projects that this approach “would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030,” and that expanded drilling in both ANWR and offshore would boost domestic oil production by at most 4% twenty years from now. Experts predict that even that increase would be largely cancelled out by declining global supply.

“Middle class families can’t wait 20 years for lower gas prices, especially when Kirk Schuring’s gas tax hike is going to cost them an extra $5 billion at the pump between now and then,” Congressional Candidate John Boccieri (D-Alliance) said today.

“Instead of giving voters a serious plan to bring down oil prices and lower gas prices immediately, my opponent offers nothing but failed gimmicks straight from George W. Bush’s playbook.”

Without a single serious proposal for short-term relief, the Schuring/Bush energy “plan” is nothing more than a continuation of the last seven years of failed Washington policies that provide giveaways to the oil industry while Americans’ gas prices double. This comes as no surprise, given that Schuring has taken over $20,000 from oil companies and chaired George Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign in Stark County .

“We need swift, serious, far-reaching energy solutions,” Boccieri said. “To start relieving pain at the pump today, we should open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, drill on the 68 million acres of U.S. land and coastal waters that are already approved for drilling, and transition to alternative energy sources as soon as possible.”

We don't need George W. Bush's failed policy and Kirk Schuring's Tax Increase strangling OH-16 from The U.S. House of Representatives! We need real solutions that benefit the citizens of our district instead of big oil, special interest groups, and Washington lobbyists!