Texas Congressman Bill Flores and other House GOP members just finished a week away from Washington that included tours of off shore oil rigs, fracking facilities, and pipeline manufacturing plants.
“Most Americans, I think, realize how important energy security is. If we don’t have energy security we can’t have economic growth opportunities. If we don’t have economic growth opportunities, than we can’t pay for robust national security,” Flores told Newsmax.TV during an exclusive interview.
Flores, a former oil and natural gas company executive, toured a hydraulic fracturing site in his district to showcase how the natural gas industry can decrease American dependence on foreign energy and create jobs.
See exclusive video below.
“The Barnet shale area makes my district the second largest producer of natural gas in the nation.
“It was done by drilling, not by investing in things like Solyndra.
“There are many people in the Obama administration who want to find a way to regulate or ban the use of hydraulic fracturing. They see that as the key to getting this country off fossil fuel.”
When asked to clarify which administration officials he was talking about, Flores said: “Look at the EPA administrator that just resigned from Region 6 in Texas that tried to make an example of an oil and gas company.
“They [the EPA] are always trying to find the Achilles heal, if you will, for the robust supplies of fossil fuels that we are beginning to generate in this country.”
Al Armendariz stepped down as the EPA’s Region 6 administrator last month after he appeared on video comparing his enforcement efforts to crucifixion and other Roman army tactics meant to entice cooperation.
Flores added that President Barack Obama’s refusal to approve the Keystone XL pipeline is another sign that he is more interested in alternative energy than energy independence.
“That runs afoul of what the president wants to do when he coddles his environmental left.”
But the freshman congressman predicted that Obama would eventually approve the Keystone pipeline for political reasons by November.
“My guess is, if you look at the polling on Keystone, that he will approve it before the election because . . . over two thirds of American’s approve of the Keystone pipeline is a key to our energy story.”
When he and his House GOP colleagues return to Washington, Flores said they plan to use what they’ve learned this week on the House Energy Action Team, or H.E.A.T tour, to paint a stark contrast between a Republican energy strategy and the president’s.
“It’s pretty clear. You can sum it up in two words, Keystone or Solyndra,” Flores said.
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