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This Speakout has not been edited

By Marc W. Smith, Executive Director Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States

As Americans struggle to cope with rising transportation and energy costs, some members of Congress seem determined to make matters even worse.

Representative Nick Rahall (D-WV), Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, recently introduced the “Energy Policy Reform and Revitalization Act of 2007” (H.R. 2337), which would repeal key provisions of the bipartisan Energy Policy Act of 2005 that have helped to increase domestic energy supplies in recent years. The legislation is a wish list of the environmental lobby and if passed would reduce domestic energy supplies, making America more dependent on foreign sources of oil and natural gas, and further increasing what we pay to drive our cars, power our factories, and heat and cool our homes.

Energy is no different from every other commodity—its price is dictated by the law of supply and demand. Much of Mr. Rahall’s bill is focused on reducing oil and natural gas supplies by limiting energy development on public lands in the Intermountain West, which is now the largest supply region for domestic natural gas and a significant source of the nation’s crude oil.

The Intermountain West is vital to our nation’s energy supply, and continued access to non-park, non-wilderness public lands is essential to a sustainable energy future. Marketed production in the Intermountain West has increased by nearly 70% since 1996, and proved gas reserves in the region grew from 46 trillion cubic feet (tcf) to 61 tcf between 2000 and 2006 – an increase of over 32%. As of last year, the Intermountain West’s proved crude oil accounted for nearly 12% of total U.S. lower-48 reserves.

High natural gas prices not only increase what families pay to heat their homes, they also increase the prices of electricity and biofuels. According to the Energy Information Administration, electrical generation from natural gas grew 6.9 percent from 2004 to 2005, reaching 758 billion kilowatthours, the highest rate of growth of the three major generation sources (coal, natural gas, and nuclear). Of the 200,000 megawatts of new powerplant capacity to be placed in operation over the next few years, well over 90% will be fueled by natural gas.

Natural gas also tops out the three major generation sources in net summer capacity, accounting for 39.2% of the nation’s electricity generation capacity at the time of peak summer demand. Additionally, natural gas is also a significant cost factor in the price of biofuels such as ethanol since it is used both to produce fertilizer and provide the energy to convert plants into biofuels.

If Congress further restricts domestic oil and natural gas production, we will not only see record prices at the pump and on our utility bills, we’ll also make the United States of America more dependent on unfriendly foreign sources of energy. The more reliant we become on foreign sources for our energy, the more likely it is that a U.S. military presence will be needed to protect supply, and the more we’ll be forced to deal with dictators like Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

While oil and natural gas development occur on less than one percent of public land, we share Congress’s interest in ensuring that energy development on public lands is done in an environmentally sound manner. Energy producers understand the awesome responsibility with which they are trusted when producing oil and natural gas on public lands, and are committed to good stewardship. Oil and natural gas development creates only a small and temporary impact to the land, and while development is occurring, impacted public land is still open for multiple uses such as hunting, fishing, camping, and hiking. There are countless examples of industry’s environmental stewardship, including an historic partnership with conservation groups to ensure that while development occurs, corresponding efforts are made to improve and protect wildlife habitat.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 was a huge victory for American consumers and for our national security. It passed Congress with support from both Democrats and Republicans, including Congressman Rahall. We’re not sure why Congress would attempt to roll back the progress we’ve made, but we are sure that H.R. 2337 would reduce domestic energy supplies, make America more dependent on foreign sources of oil and natural gas, and increase energy costs for consumers.

Marc W. Smith is the Executive Director of the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States (IPAMS). Marc earned his Masters of Environmental Policy and Management/Natural Resource Management from the University of Denver and a B.S. from Northern Arizona University. Marc has worked in the public, private and non-profit sectors in research, strategic planning, public relations and government affairs positions.IPAMS, founded in 1974, is a non-profit trade association representing more than 400 independent oil and gas producers, service and supply companies, banking and financial institutions and industry consultants committed to environmentally responsible oil and gas development in the Intermountain West. More information on IPAMS and its members is available at www.ipams.org.

READER COMMENTS

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As a freshman student at the Colorado School of Mines in 1969 I often saw a bumper sticker that applies today in the face of those terrified by the high priests of global warming and full of hatred for all energy producers.
"Ban mining and let the B@$t%$s freeze in the dark."

Obviously someone from the funny school in the People's Republic of Bouder thought it was serious when he looked over his 45th college reunion pictures.

Oliver, in your world I guess we could stop "exporting" the oil and gas produced locally, but what would be the point? See, we don't make cars or trucks here. We "import" them from far away Detroit. So if we don't "export" and they don't "export" then gas will be cheap here and cars will be cheap there. Because there won't be any need for either.

I don't expect you to have an economics degree, but I would hope your world view would be somewhat broader than this. BTW, I doubt anyone is "forced" to work in the energy industry. Trains, planes, and automobiles can take them somewhere else....jeez......

Costs of Energy Policy Act 2005 to American taxpayers...

The Congressional Budget Office review of the conference version of the bill estimated the Act will increase direct spending by $1.6 billion, and reduce revenue by $12.3 billion between 2006 and 2015

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 was a huge victory for oil and gas companies--U.S. and foreign-owned (through 'subsidiaries')--which reap billions in federal tax-payer subsidies as they bank record profits and Americans pay record prices. As Colorado's nat. gas can now be piped to the Midwest (heating Corporate suites in Chicago) or Calif. (heating swimming pools in Malibu), we now pay twice what we pay per cf than what we paid just 7 years ago. That's how supply and demand works--get the supply to the demand and make fat cash, sure everyone pays more when a (previously locally abundant) commodity is shipped off to the highest bidder--public minerals from public lands, enriching Mr. Smith and his overlords--but that's OK, because its all about making money.

Life in an energy colony 1.many people face no choice but to work in the industry 2.other uses and values are degraded, impacts increase from well-fires (Check out parachute well fire on YouTube, here www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGbUyo32InE ) and loss of wildlife, water contamination, health impacts, increased traffic, dust, noise... and, 3. Locals have to pay more as a previously abundant (locally) commodity is shipped off for export.

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