Bennett Urges Senate to Consider GOP's Gas Price Reduction Act

Jul 31, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) U.S. Senator Bob Bennett urged his colleagues yesterday to consider the GOP's answer to the energy crisis, the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008. Bennett says the act gives the nation the materials needed to build the bridge to a future powered by alternative energy sources.

"America has fossil fuel that is abundant, that is available, and that is affordable, and that can be used as the source for building the bridge to a world of less dependence on fossil fuel," Bennett says.

The bill lifts a ban on off-shore drilling along the outer continental shelf and oil shale development on federal lands. While most experts believe commercial oil shale operations are still 10 to 15 years away, Bennett says viable alternative energy sources are even further in the future.

"If the one is 20 years or 30 years away and the other is only 10 years away," Bennett says, "we should be working on the one that is only 10 years away at the same time as the one that's 30 or 40 years away."

Bennett says it is hypocritical for proponents of alternative energy technologies to say oil shale is unproven. He says it's being produced in other countries, and the timeline for commercial operations here could be accelerated if the Gas Price Reduction Act is approved by Congress. Click here to read the bill.

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