This just in...
WASHINGTON, DC – House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today highlighted a discharge petition filed by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) to force House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) to schedule a vote on H.R. 2208, the Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Act. The bipartisan bill, authored by Reps. John Shimkus (R-IL) and Rick Boucher (D-VA), would help reduce the price of gasoline by encouraging the use of clean coal-to-liquid technology to produce alternative transportation fuels. Boehner issued the following statement:
“Rep. Roskam’s petition gives Members of both parties the opportunity to support a common sense, bipartisan plan to promote clean alternative fuels technology that will help bring down the price of gasoline on behalf of American families and small businesses. Forcing a vote on the Shimkus-Boucher clean coal-to-liquid bill will send a clear signal that Congress is committed to utilizing clean American energy in an environmentally-safe way while reducing our nation’s costly dependence on unstable foreign sources of energy.
“This measure is a key part of the House Republicans’ ‘all of the above’ energy strategy. Our plan calls for more of everything: more production of American energy, more conservation and efficiency, and more alternative fuels and innovative technologies like coal-to-liquids. With a House floor schedule this week that does not include a single bill to help bring down the price at the pump, there is no reason the Democratic leadership should not schedule this bipartisan bill and other pro-American energy legislation for an immediate vote. I thank Reps. Roskam and Shimkus for their efforts to lower gas prices on behalf of American consumers, and I urge all of my colleagues to sign the Roskam coal-to-liquids petition.”
NOTE: H.R. 2208 would authorize the Secretary of Energy to enter into loan agreements with coal-to-liquid projects that produce innovative transportation fuel, increasing production of clean American energy and helping to reduce the price of gasoline.
Approval of this bill would be a step in the right direction for a Democratic Congress, but I think Pelosi and Reid want to see their approval numbers hit the basement before they will actually take appropriate action. Will Nancy Pelosi take a page from Harry Reid and say that coal makes us sick? We shall see...
