IER: Anti-Energy Senators Resurrect Bogus "Use-It-Or-Lose-It" Claim

Release:

WASHINGTON- Today, Senate Democrats are dusting off the 'use-it-or-lose-it" regulations that attempt to dictate how energy companies may do business in America. In response, Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute of Energy Research, issued the following statement:

"Anti-energy advocates are using the same debunked myths that they used when gas prices increased in 2008. Showing a complete lack of any elementary understanding of how energy production works, they want to dictate from Washington how companies do business in America. And then they wonder why businesses are fleeing to other countries."

"These senators are attempting to portray energy producers as hoarders of taxpayer-owned lands. The truth is that the federal government only makes 3 percent of these lands available for leasing, while the remaining 97 percent are off-limits for energy exploration and production."

"As long as the federal government continues to hoard these energy-rich, taxpayer-owned lands and keeps them off limits to the American people, the U.S. will continue to rely on foreign state-owned oil companies. No amount of rhetoric from Washington will change that fact."