Today, Congressman Michael C. Burgess (TX-26), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, began work on the mark-up of The Energy Policy Act of 2005. Since 2001, the House of Representatives and its committee have spent a total of 179 hours of floor debate and mark-up debate on a national energy policy. There were 80 hearings, 12 mark-up sessions, and 279 amendments considered. This does not include 72 hours of House-Senate conference committee meetings. A comprehensive energy bill has previously passed the House four separate times. Highlights of the legislation include:

• Increased oil and gas production here at home.

• Mandatory electricity-transmission reliability standards to prevent blackouts.

• Clean-coal technology and money for wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric power, and funding to develop hydrogen-fueled vehicles.

• New efficiency benchmarks for a host of household appliances.

Congressman Burgess released the following statement regarding pending Congressional action on energy legislation: “During the last six years, there has been a lot of debate about how to achieve energy independence. Some believe we can conserve our way into energy independence and others think that we must simply increase the supply of conventional energy sources. I believe, however, that energy supply and demand are two sides of the same coin. We can only achieve energy independence if we encourage conservation and production as well as technological innovation which can lead to the development of alternative resources. We must also ensure that we are maximizing production of our current resources even as we look to develop unconventional resources, like shale natural gas formations, like the Barnett Shale located in my North Texas District, and renewable resources like biodiesel. In fact, the world’s first renewable-energy powered biodiesel facility is located in my district at the City of Denton Landfill in Denton, Texas. In addition to these novel ideas, we should look to include oil and gas exploration on federal lands, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I look forward to debating these important issues that have a profound daily impact on my constituents and indeed the nation as a whole. I believe that Congress is positioned to take monumental steps to create a truly energy independent America.”