come together right now over energy

Now is definitely the time to figure out and implement a sustainable energy program.  Congressman Dan Burton took the afternoon to hold an energy hearing to address this issue.  He is currently working with a group of congressman from both parties to work on a bill that will address our currently energy problem.

Congressman Burton said that this new bill could help within the next few years to move towards energy independence.   They are trying to get the bill through by September 31^st before Congress finishes session. 

The first panel included Michael Brairton, from the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs of the U.S. Department of Energy, Dr. William Ellingson a former Principal Scientist of the Argonne National Laboratory, and Maggie McShane from American Petroleum Institute.  They all gave great points about using clean, efficient, and sustainable energy programs.

Maggie McShane made a great point about people who are against drilling in ANWR for the sole fact that there is only a limited supply of oil there.  “That’s like telling a farmer he shouldn’t plant his 40 acre farm because he can’t meet the demand of the entire country.”  She made the point that any and all domestic oil or other energy solutions will help.  The panel also stressed that we need to use all energy sources available to us, which includes oil but also wind-energy, solar-energy, and natural gasses.

The second panel was made up of media personnel including Abdul Hakim-Shabazz host of “Abdul in the Mornings,” Jim Shella host of “Indiana Week in Review,” and Joshua Gillespie blogger and founder of “Hoosier Access.”  After they all spoke, Congressman Burton asked them to tell him what they had been hearing from people they had spoken to through their radio shows and blogs.  The Congressman was really interested in hearing what people thought about gas prices and on current energy issues.

People had been telling Hakin-Shabazz, Shella, and Gillespie that they didn’t think the government was doing enough on the energy issue.  Maggie McShane brought up an interesting point to this that the consumer has an extremely important role in the energy situation as well.  In fact Americans have been responding to this issue. Brairton said that our demand has actually decreased over the past few years while developing nations like China and India have seen a demand increase of 1.3 billion!

Congressman Burton also stressed the idea of bipartisan cooperation on the bill.  Congressman Abercrombie (D) from Hawaii is working on the bill and has said he will go to Nancy Pelosi and push cooperation from Democrats on the bill.  He mentioned that it was difficult to gain support from the Democrats because of Pelosi’s opposition to the bill.  He said that the Democrats could be afraid to anger their party leader and perhaps lose their positions on committees if they supported it.

 I would sincerely hope that they would rather do what is right for their country than keep a chairmanship on a committee.  If not, I think they are in the wrong line of work and that as Americans we have the responsibility to put people into office that will work for the good of our country not their personal political ambitions.