Right energy policies would make a difference at the gas pump

This Memorial Day season, as Utahns fill up their tanks to hit the road, the reality of our nation's high gas prices will hit home.

Unfortunately, many in Congress and the Obama administration are unwilling to allow domestic energy initiatives to flourish, which is the only way to increase our domestic oil supply and eventually make a lasting difference in the price at the pump. Instead, President Obama and his Capitol Hill cohorts would prefer to focus their efforts on raising taxes on energy production. This does nothing to address our domestic energy needs and everything to help increase government spending.

Earlier this year we joined in support of legislation that is currently making its way through both the House and the Senate that would increase domestic energy production, job creation and reduction of the $14 trillion deficit.

The Three-D: Domestic Jobs, Domestic Energy and Deficit Reduction Act of 2011 would overturn the Obama administration's restrictions against domestic oil and gas production, reverse its bans on key offshore federal leases off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and open ANWR in Alaska to oil production, directing some of the resulting revenues toward renewable energy production.

Finally, it would reverse the Administration's recent efforts to curtail oil shale production in Utah and other western states.

If this administration and the liberals in Congress were truly interested in bringing down gas prices they would seriously consider the merits of this bill and the goals it seeks to implement. Regrettably, the president's actions speak louder than his words and Utahns, like so many other Americans, continue to shoulder the burden of rising energy costs and high gas prices.

Since taking office, President Obama has cut federal energy lease offerings by 67 percent in the Rockies and a whopping 87 percent in Utah. That translates into an 87 percent cut in high-paying energy jobs in Utah, higher gas prices at the pump and less revenue for the state and federal government.

In addition, the U. S. Chamber of Commerce has listed 351 actual energy projects that have been artificially slowed down or stopped by this administration, and 140 of those are renewable energy projects.

The 351 energy projects destroyed by this administration translate into $1 trillion of lost gross domestic product and about 2 million lost construction jobs. Let's not forget these are not 351 theoretical projects, these are real energy projects the private sector would have underway right now, if it weren't for government obstacles.