Sen. Barrasso on Energy Independence

“Energy independence is talked about a lot in Wyoming, and we know that energy security is a part of our own national security. We need all the different sources of energy. The needs worldwide for energy are going to continue to increase. You know the cheapest energy is the energy you don’t use. So energy efficiency helps. But the needs continue to grow and in Wyoming we have it all. We have the coal, the oil, the gas the uranium for nuclear power, we have the wind. So we have the renewables, we have other sources as well as I think the people of Wyoming are good at conserving energy and using it more efficiently. Demands are going up; we are sending energy from Wyoming overseas to China. We are sending trainloads of coal to China. So I think the more we can do and focus on American energy the better it is. And that’s why I was opposed to what the President did when he released the oil from the strategic petroleum reserve and at the same time he asked countries around the world to produce more energy. And I said ‘Mr. President we ought to be exploring for more energy you know off shore and on federal lands and in Alaska.’ He is releasing a million barrels a day from the strategic petroleum reserve at the same time that we have over a million barrels a day of oil we could be bringing in from Alaska if we had the opportunity to explore for energy there, but his policies are blocking that. 100% is a number that is absolutely a goal worth shooting for and I think about American energy, we bring in a lot of energy in to the United States from Canada. To me that’s much more secure energy and a better source than the energy coming in from Saudi Arabia. The president went down to Brazil where they had a big find of offshore oil and said, ‘I want to be your best customer’, that’s what he told Dilma Rousseff, the new president of Brazil. I’d rather be exploring for energy offshore, on federal land, and in Alaska.”