Oil and gas drilling in Alaska, Gulf of Mexico, could generate more cash to build roads, members of Congress say

HURST -- Allowing oil and gas companies to expand domestic drilling could generate the money needed to fix the nation's crumbling roads and bridges and build new infrastructure to cope with growth, members of Congress say.

The idea would be to lift a ban on offshore drilling, allow exploration in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and promote additional shale drilling. Lease payments for these drilling rights would then be used to help pay for billions of dollars in new highway, transit and other mobility projects across the U.S. -- providing elected leaders with an alternative to raising motor fuels taxes.

"It makes a linkage between gas production and a method to pay for infrastructure improvements," U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville, said after explaining the proposal to constituents during a transportation summit in Hurst.

U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., speaking to summit attendees at the Hurst Conference Center in a videotaped message, expressed optimism that the measure could have sufficient support to be passed in the House before the end of the year. Current highway funding expires in March.

Mica, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, has been a vocal critic of Congress' habit of authorizing more highway and transit projects than tax revenues can cover, a practice that has depleted the highway trust fund.

However, the proposal -- dubbed the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act -- already has drawn criticism. Some Democrats have pointed out the danger of linking the fate of a long-term transportation bill with a controversial subject such as expanded drilling, which is opposed by some groups in Washington on environmental grounds. In the Senate, a different transportation bill would provide for two years worth of projects nationwide, primarily using existing funding sources.

Monday's meeting marked the ninth annual transportation summit held in Burgess' 26th congressional district. Each year, Burgess said his goal is mainly to ensure that local, state and federal officials understand each other's priorities and work together to pay for roads, rail and other infrastructure.

@gdickson

Here's a photo of the pretty, spacey roof at the Hurst Conference Center, where the summit is being held.

Comments

[Louis McBee]

Perhaps first they should answer the question about what they have done with the tax money we have given them to fix our streets and bridges. Ruining our environment (air or water) should not be the price for bad management of our taxes.

[Shannon Pennington]

The answer to everything these days is,drill,drill,drill.Unfortunately the outcome of all the drilling is never good for anyone other than the drilling companies.Cities and towns across the nation are dead or dieing from the drilling aftermath.Property values plummeted,businesses closed and people forced to move because of health problems. So yeah,lets keep it up. drill,drill,drill until were all dead or so poor we wish we were dead.

[Lance]

Shannon I suppose you walk to work?..never use a car or truck? how bout a plane trip?...get real we need oil..until someone builds a better engine,gas and diesel powered vehicles are the best...and dont give me that electric car crap, they still have to be plugged into an electrical socket that gets its power from oil or coal...check out north dekota's oil boom tons of jobs there ,even mcdonalds is paying 15 bucks an hour!

[Mark]

Louis,
How do you know you taxes collected for Highways and briges have been wasted, and not the fact that 1 mile of highway costs 1 million dollars to build, or a brige 10 times that amount? The taxes collected at the pump dont nearly cover the costs of maintaining all the briges and roads in America. Based on a per gallon tax, and more cars getting more mpg, more wear is imposed on roads than before.
Shannon, I live 1500 ft from a gas compression plant, and I'm still alive. Since I'm out of the city limits, there are no laws regulating their location, noise output, or hours of operation. I'm not happy about it, but this country, ruined by our current President and his free spending followers have spent our childrens childrens future these past years, and we need the revenue.
Do you drive, cook, use a/c or heat, use water, buy groceries, eat???? Everyone of these activities requires energy to be created or provided for your convenience. Have you ever drilled for oil, know how much it costs, how much research and risk there is, costs for pipelines, refineries, transporation, materials, leases? Yes, they make big profits, but they invest billions per year into the enconomy, and provide the lights and power to run your little computer. Without it, go live under a tree in the forest, and see how long you make it. Dont take anything made with energy, including your clothes. Wake Up!

[Dennis]

Oil companies will just sell our oil to China and keep the prices high.Look into it a lot of the natural gas is being sold to other countries.Didn't Exxon just sell some of the oilstill in the ground to China?