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It's Energy Week at NAM Blog

By Eric McErlain
Here's our friend Pat Cleary:
With energy prices soaring and everyone starting to realize what 30 years of poor decisions on energy (and being held hostage by a small band of radical environmentalists) have wrought, the time has finally come for some common-sense (and environmentally responsible) exploration of heretofore off-limits sites. The Wall Street Journal editorial we cite below noted that the recent energy bill that passed was aimed at what it called, "the real problem: government barriers to supply." As was evident from the "Blog Row" on Capitol Hill last week, Members of Congress are realizing that they need to speed the permitting process and streamline the regulatory process if we have any hope of increasing the supply of energy. We need efficiency, sure, but we need more supply.

So watch this space in the days ahead for some action steps, when you can weigh in with your Senators and Members of Congress and urge them to do something about the supply side on energy so we can hope to begin to see energy prices level off in our lifetime.
And a belated "Happy Birthday," to Pat. His reasoning sounds a lot like what our CEO, Skip Bowman, had to say last April at a speech in San Antonio, and it's a note he's been hitting regularly ever since then:
The U.S. electricity business is paying the price today for our inability to strike that balance between what was expedient and easy in the short-term, and what was prudent and more difficult in the long-term. We are paying the price today for 10 to 15 years of neglect of longer-term imperatives.
Here's hoping Congress continues to make progress in this area.

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