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Wilson Applauds Passage of Comprehensive Energy Plan

April 21, 2005
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass The Energy Policy Act of 2005. After voting for this legislation, Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) made the following statement: "As gas prices continue to rise, American families and small businesses are feeling the effects of our nation's energy problems," said Wilson. "Without a comprehensive national energy policy, the cost of filling up your car and heating your home will only increase in the coming years. "For the fifth year in a row, the House voted on legislation that will provide a long term solution to our nation's energy problems. ‘The Energy Policy Act of 2005' will protect our jobs, our national security and our environment. I appreciate Chairman Barton's leadership on this issue and urge the Senate to act soon to finally provide our country with a comprehensive energy policy. To help meet the nation's energy needs, ‘The Energy Policy Act of 2005':• Improves our nation's electricity transmission, capacity, and reliability. • Promotes a cleaner environment with new innovations on alternative power sources, the Clean Cities authorization, and the hydrogen fuel cell cars. • Promotes clean coal technologies and provides incentives for renewable energies such as biomass, wind, solar, and hydroelectricity. • Provides leadership in energy conservation by establishing new, mandatory efficiency requirements for federal buildings, and expands the Energy Star program to tell American consumers what products save the most energy. • Provides an efficient approval process for siting of liquefied natural gas facilities, which should help reduce high utility bills for consumers and energy-intensive employers. • Decreases American's dangerous dependence on foreign oil by increasing domestic exploration and development on non-park federal lands and by authorizing expansion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to 1 billion barrels. • Extends daylight savings time two months to reduce energy consumption by the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil each day.###