Bipartisan Group of Nine Congressman Tell Obama to Get Fracking – Now

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Five Democrat and four Republican Congressman have written a joint, bipartisan letter to President Obama encouraging him to move forward with developing natural gas in the United States, particularly by using “unconventional” hydraulic fracturing. Yes, you read that right. Democrats and Republicans together, agreeing on something—and that something is fracking.

The letter states in part:

As members of both political parties and as citizens in support of your call to get serious about a long-term policy for secure and affordable energy, we urge you and members of your administration to take a leadership role in encouraging the continued development and utilization of our nation’s vast natural gas resources by any means necessary, but most specifically, by unconventional shale gas recovery.

In referring to the State Department’s Global Shale Gas Initiative, a project that seeks to export American technology to other countries to help them develop their own shale gas resources, the Congressman say:

While we are doing this important work abroad, it would be the height of contradiction to place unwarranted restrictions on both the locations and methods by which we attempt to recover our own 2,552 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the United States.

The committees the Congressman are members of include: the House Armed Services Committee, Select Intelligence Committee, Judiciary Committee, and Homeland Security Committee. The Congressman are:

  • Texas: Michael Conaway (R), Mac Thornberry (R), Henry Cuellar (D)
  • Pennsylvania: Mark Critz (D), Jason Altmire (D), Bill Shuster (R)
  • Ohio: Tim Ryan (D)
  • New York: Tom Reed (R)
  • Oklahoma: Dan Boren (D)

Embedded below is a copy of the full letter.

Letter to President Obama from Congressman Encouraging Fracking

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8 Comments

  2. You can want it all day long Pierre, but wanting it doesn’t mean that “green” sources can even come close for many years to supplying the world’s (and the US’s) energy needs. We still need oil and gas and nuclear and will for at least the next two generations. And of those, gas is the best alternative in my humble opinion.

    Thanks for reading & commenting.

  3.  Obama is pro Nat Gas ..Why hasn’t the Congress or Senate come up with a Bill that supports Nat Gas to place on his desk.. Whats with the letter? 

  4. “our own 2,552 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the United States.”
    That’s nothing but BS, as the NY Times has shown in a series of blockbuster articles, one on the front page yesterday, two more today, with more to come tomorrow, exposing the O&G industry for vastly over-estimating natural gas reserves and the productivity of existing domestic gas wells all over the country. 

    In fact, it’s all just another over-inflated bubble, a Ponzi scheme, a scam being perpetrated by the O&G lobby. And all of it is minutely documented in dozens of internal industry communications, available for download at the Times website.

    Are you going to report any of this? No. Instead, you report a letter from a bunch of bought-and-paid-for Congressman, trying to inflate the PR bubble even more.

  5. Tom Critz would sell his own mother for a nickel. A Dave Coder, no greater a weasel ever walked Greene County, works for him. If this initiative gains the force of law, his constituents, once, again, will be royally screwed!

  6. Bob, come on now.  You want to talk PR bubble, talk to the environmental lobbyists.  Will read the articles you mentioned to gain a fair prospective of both sides, but I ask you do the same.  In a country that is struggling to put people back to work and such an opportunity in front of us, seems like with all the BS bickering we might miss the boat.  I would like to know your idea of how we fix our energy and job problem with one decision.  Our should we rely on OPEC, and one day when they say, “oh well, price per barrel just doubled” we will be up a creek real quick.  Get it through your heads wind and solar are generations away, but I agree to working it into the bigger pie of our energy.  Check my numbers but PA taxes for 1st quarter beat all of last year, can we not use some of that to invest in other forms of energy for later?  I wish people would offer solutions and not stand on one side of the fence or other and just say how bad the other side sucks, bring a solution.  

  7. This MS gas industry is surging ahead without anything in place to protect those that are forced to live with the aftermath.  By this I mean polluted wells, ground and air problems.  Our big shot reps live in ivory houses and don’t live anywhere near a drilling site so its o.k. with them if others are affected.  What a joke!  Remember we had the same oil problems, shortages and increased prices in the 70’s and nothing was done.  Cars continued to be oversized and gas guzzling.  And don’t knock the environmentalists.  We all benefit from their fights.  Could you imagine what “would be” without current laws being in place?  You like to boat, swim, and fish?  Just imagine all the pollution that has been cleaned from out waterways enabling you to partake.  How about your drinking water?  You want it pure, right?  Think deep and look at more than just jobs and revenue.