IV 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. CON. RES. 401 

Expressing the support of Congress for enhancing energy independence 

through the usage of existing resources and technology. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 31, 2008 

Mr. ADERHOLT (for himself, Mr. CANTOR, Mr. THORNBERRY, Mr. PENCE, 

and Mr. PITTS) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 

referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the 

Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 

as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 

Expressing the support of Congress for enhancing energy 

independence through the usage of existing resources 

and technology. 

Whereas the price of oil has tripled in the past 6 years; 

Whereas the price of gasoline has almost tripled in the same 

time period; 

Whereas the United States currently imports over 60 percent 

of all crude oil consumed; 

Whereas the price of oil and gasoline today is determined by 

expectations of future market conditions; 


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Whereas 90 percent of the world’s oil reserves are controlled 

by governments, not private companies; 

Whereas Congress has restricted access to key energy supplies, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 

(ANWR), the Offshore Continental Shelf (OCS), oil 

shale, heavy oil, and oil sands; 

Whereas ANWR is believed to contain 10,400,000,000 barrels of oil, a figure which may be a very conservative estimate; 

Whereas the daily oil production from ANWR could be greater than the amount of oil the United States imports from 

Saudi Arabia; 

Whereas exploration of ANWR could create 500,000 American jobs; 

Whereas the exploration would be conducted on only 2,000 

acres of the 19,600,000 acres that constitute the refuge; 

Whereas the United States currently allows drilling in 11 

other national wildlife refuges; 

Whereas environmentally-friendly techniques can be used to 

minimize environmental impact; 

Whereas the portion of ANWR proposed for exploration is a 

barren tundra, devoid of trees and frozen most of the 

year; 

Whereas exploration in ANWR could create 

$150,000,000,000 in Federal tax revenue; 

Whereas exploration in ANWR could lower gas prices from 

$0.75 to $1.60 per gallon; 

Whereas production of the oil in ANWR would add about 

$1,400,000,000,000 to our Nation’s wealth, assuming a 

price of oil of $140 per barrel; 


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Whereas drilling is currently banned on 85 percent of the 

Offshore Continental Shelf (OCS); 

Whereas the United States is the only country in the world 

to restrict access to its OCS energy resources; 

Whereas Cuba is currently leasing land for oil exploration off 

the Florida coast; 

Whereas the parts of the OCS closed to exploration are estimated to contain 16,600,000,000 barrels of oil and 

59,310,000,000,000 cubic feet of natural gas; 

Whereas historically, estimates of reserves have been understated by about 50 percent; 

Whereas 63 percent of oil seepages in American waters are 

from natural causes, 32 percent are from cars and boats, 

only 4 percent are from oil tankers, and fewer than 1 

percent are from drilling; 

Whereas the OCS extends 200 miles from the coasts of the 

United States, and most energy proposals only propose 

exploration beyond 20 miles, the limit of what is visible 

with the human eye; 

Whereas modern offshore drilling rigs are so hurricane-resistant that even Hurricane Katrina failed to cause any significant spillage of oil from rigs in the Gulf of Mexico; 

Whereas exploration in the OCS could lower gas prices by 

$0.90 to $2.50 per gallon; 

Whereas production of the oil contained in the OCS would 

add about $2,300,000,000,000 to our Nation’s wealth, 

assuming a price of oil of $140 per barrel; 

Whereas the United States has an estimated 

2,000,000,000,000 barrels of oil in the form of shale oil, 

1,000,000,000,000 of which is recoverable; 


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Whereas by comparison, Saudi Arabia only has 

250,000,000,000 barrels of crude oil reserves; 

Whereas our shale oil reserves make the United States the 

country with the world’s largest oil reserves; 

Whereas America’s recoverable shale oil reserves are equivalent to the sum of the rest of the world’s crude oil reserves; 

Whereas most of the recoverable shale oil in the United 

States is located on Federal lands in Colorado and Utah; 

Whereas the land containing the most shale oil deposits in 

Colorado was specifically set aside for shale oil production by executive orders between 1912 and 1927; 

Whereas environmentally sustainable production methods 

that extract the oil without digging up the shale are in 

development; 

Whereas such environmentally-friendly production methods 

will preserve the ground water by freezing a wall of water 

around the drill site; 

Whereas commercial-level production will likely be possible by 

2015; 

Whereas oil prices will probably fall before 2015 in anticipation of the increased production; 

Whereas production of the oil contained in America’s recoverable shale oil deposits would add about 

$140,000,000,000,000 to our Nation’s wealth, assuming 

a price of oil of $140 per barrel; 

Whereas the Bureau of Land Management was blocked by 

Congress in 2007 from issuing shale oil production regulations; 


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Whereas the United States has the world’s largest reserves 

of coal, estimated at 275,000,000,000 recoverable tons 

and nearly 4,000,000,000,000 identified tons; 

Whereas America’s recoverable coal reserves could last an estimated 250 years; 

Whereas the process of converting coal to oil was invented by 

Germany during World War II and is currently profitably 

used by South Africa for a large percentage of its fuel 

needs; 

Whereas Americans are ready to begin building coal-to-liquid 

plants in the United States, but are held back by regulatory uncertainty and concern about global warming legislation; 

Whereas the fuel produced from coal burns much cleaner 

than fuel produced from oil; 

Whereas much of the carbon dioxide produced by coal-to-liquid plants could be stored underground and used to increase recovery from oil wells; 

Whereas the United States has not built a new oil refinery 

in over 30 years; 

Whereas America currently relies on imports for over 12 percent of our gasoline supply; 

Whereas our dependence on imported gasoline has been increasing each of the past 10 years; 

Whereas building more refineries could lower gas prices by 

$0.15 to $0.45 per gallon; 

Whereas more refineries have not been built in part due to 

the extreme difficulty in obtaining government permits; 

Whereas imported oil, gas, and other petroleum products are 

currently the largest part of the United States trade defVerDate Aug 31 2005 22:35 Aug 01, 2008 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HC401.IH HC401

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icit, accounting for $317,000,000,000 out of a total deficit of $815,000,000,000 in 2007; 

Whereas imported oil and gas are consuming an ever-increasing share of our trade deficit; 

Whereas the massive transfer of wealth from the United 

States to the Middle East for oil imports is harmful to 

our Nation’s security; 

Whereas our military uses 132,000,000 barrels of oil per year 

and supports the development of American sources of 

fuel; 

Whereas a provision was added at the last minute before passage of H.R. 6, the ironically-titled Energy Independence 

and Security Act of 2007, that would prohibit Federal 

agencies from purchasing fuel from American sources like 

shale oil and coal-to-liquid plants, and require more Middle Eastern oil to be purchased; 

Whereas America has the capability to become much more 

energy independent, using today’s technology without a 

huge taxpayer expenditure by simply using the resources 

available; and 

Whereas the provisions in this resolution could add over 

$143,000,000,000,000 to our Nation’s wealth over time 

and lower gas prices by $2.00 per gallon, not counting 

the impact of coal-to-liquid: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 

2 concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that a set 

3 of laws should be enacted that— 

4 (1) make more American energy available for 

5 exploration and production, including in the Arctic 


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1 National Wildlife Refuge, the Offshore Continental 

2 Shelf, and Federal lands onshore, including for shale 

3 oil and coal-to-liquid production; and 

4 (2) streamline the permitting process for build5 ing American refineries and allow the construction 

6 of refineries on Federal lands. 

Æ 


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