Responsible Ownership of Public Lands Act

Madam Speaker, rapidly rising gas prices are a serious concern in my home district of southern Arizona. It's a serious concern across the Nation, but I think it's important that we recognize that today's prices are the result of policies that have been put in place for many years and, in fact, for many decades. There are responsible actions that we can take now to address the problem. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, also known as ANWR, is not one of them. In recent weeks, some of my colleagues have called for opening up the areas off of coastlines and in ANWR to drilling.

Current Federal law prevents drilling in these specific areas. Claims that opening these areas would increase drilling, would increase supplies, would bring down the prices have been made all across the House here. They would have us believe that there is nowhere else to drill in the United States except in the areas that are currently off limits to drilling. They claim that we need to increase domestic supply, and if we want to do that, our only option is to open up these incredibly sensitive environmental areas.

This information, Madam Speaker, is blatantly wrong. The oil industry has not tapped all of its drilling options. It holds leases for drilling on lands that have not yet been utilized. In the last 4 years, the Bureau of Land Management has issued over 28,000 permits to drill on public land. However, at the same time, they have only opened up or have actually drilled on fewer than 19,000. So that means that companies are effectively stockpiling 10,000 drilling permits not currently being used to increase domestic oil production for our Nation.

Of the over 47 million acres of onshore Federal lands currently leased by oil and gas companies, only about 13 million acres are currently in production. Now, the trend offshore is similar where 44 million acres are currently leased but where only 10.5 million acres are actually currently in production. Counting onshore and offshore leases, oil and gas companies hold drilling rights to almost 68 million acres of Federal land and waters that the oil companies are not drilling on.

Based on today's production rates on Federal lands and waters, we can estimate the result if oil and gas companies were to tap all 68 million leased but currently unused acres. Our country could produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas every single day. That would nearly double the total U.S. oil production and increase natural gas production by 75 percent. It would also cut U.S. oil imports by more than a third.

Finally, that amount is more than six times the estimated maximum daily production from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Six times. Calling for drilling in ANWR, I believe, is an attempt to hide years of poor energy policies that showed more support and more sympathy for the big oil and gas companies than for hardworking Americans.

We do have serious energy challenges in our country, and I agree that increasing domestic supply should be part of the solution. We do not, however, have to drill in some of the most pristine and environmentally sensitive areas in America to solve this challenge.

We have millions of acres of resources available to us right now, and we must insist that they get used. That's why I am joining with many of my colleagues to promote practical policies to solve the gas crisis.

Two responsible and reasonable bills that have been introduced offer some solutions. The first is H.R. 6251, the Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act. It's a bill that would force the oil and gas companies to either produce on their Federal leases or give them up.

The second bill is H.R. 6256, the Responsible Ownership of Public Lands Act. This is a bill which will help lower gas prices by compelling the oil companies to begin producing oil and gas on public lands that they are currently holding but not using. It will also use an escalating fee on land that oil companies have leased but are not using for production. Both of these bills would provide some strong incentives for the oil companies to stop stockpiling these leases and begin using them.

We would also help reduce the demand of oil and gas by investing in a new energy economy, revenue raised by these fees will be invested in renewable energy and energy efficiency programs to help reduce our dependency on oil. So while we continue to develop renewable energy solutions like solar energy, we have to continue to power our economy today.

That means yes, we will need gas, we will need oil, but we will need them at an affordable price. We must require that the oil and gas companies use the Federal resources that have already been given to them. By increasing domestic production on leases they already hold, they can lower prices at the pump.

That's why I support H.R. 6251, H.R. 6256, and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in backing these intelligent proposals.