Markey Statement on Obama Energy Speech

WASHINGTON (March 30, 2011) - Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) issued the following statement in response to President Barack Obama's speech on energy policy. Rep. Markey is the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, and authored the House fuel economy legislation in 2007, co-authored the Waxman-Markey clean energy and climate bill in 2009, and is author of the USE IT legislation of this year that would compel oil and gas companies to use the leases they already own:

"President Obama knows that the best formula for America's energy security is to subtract foreign oil from our energy mix and add better alternatives like fuel efficiency and clean energy technologies.

"In contrast to the know-nothing attitudes permeating Congress on climate change and clean energy, the president believes in American know-how to move our country away from dangerous and expensive sources of energy.

"Oil companies shouldn't be allowed to sit on drilling rights without producing, while drooling over the public land they don't yet lease. That's why the president is right to push the oil industry to drill on the tens of millions of acres they already possess, but aren't using, just as legislation I have introduced would do.

"I look forward to working with the Obama administration and my colleagues in Congress to enact the president's forward-looking energy policies."

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