Marathon Pundit: Roskam remarks at House Energy Action Team (HEAT) press conference on energy bills

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Roskam remarks at House Energy Action Team (HEAT) press conference on energy bills

Drivers in the Chicago area, of which Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Wheaton), the House Chief Deputy Whip, are paying more than $4.50 a gallon for regular gasoline. Earlier today, the lower chamber passed H.R. 1229, the Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act, and H.R. 1231, Reversing President Obama's Offshore Moratorium Act.

Roskam is a member of HEAT, the House Energy Action Team. Standing with the DuPage County Republican is Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the Majority Whip, and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), who are also members of the group.

Here are Roskam's remarks:

I'm pleased to serve as the co-chairman of HEAT, the House Energy Action Team.

I think there's one thing that's very clear and that is the status quo is a complete failure. It is completely unacceptable to have gas in Chicagoland at four and half dollars a gallon with really no end in sight. And so the question becomes what do you do about that?

Morton Grove, IL, May 1, 2011

The administration has demonstrated a passive aggressive way – the slow walking of permits [and] these moratoriums that are in place that are simply stifling American energy production – at a time that without question we need more energy. We need more energy from a job creation point of view, we need more energy from a revenue point of view, and ultimately we need more energy from a national security point of view. As we're watching television, we're getting briefings about nations that are becoming more and more tumultuous. Ironically, those very nations we count on for energy production.

The administration's energy proposals are so disjointed that they actually say to a country like Brazil, "we will support and encourage your offshore oil production, at the same time putting a lid on our own." It makes no sense. And what House Republicans are about is increasing energy, increasing energy for job creation and economic security.