From the offices of U.S. Rep Andy Harris:
Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Andy Harris, M.D., will propose an amendment to the Department of Energy appropriations bill that would cut $6 million from a Department of Energy program which spends the money making factories in China more energy efficient and building windmills in Mexico. The savings from the proposed cut would all be directed to reduce the federal deficit, now over $1.5 trillion dollars.
“We need to create jobs in America, not China and Mexico,” said Rep. Harris. “Borrowing money from China to pay for Chinese and Mexican jobs is outrageous and that’s why I’m proposing this pro-American jobs amendment. We need to protect American workers and American taxpayers.”
The Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) International Program would help create programs to make Chinese factories more energy efficient and create wind energy projects in Mexico. In addition, the program would spend money in other countries such as India.
Wow! 6 million dollars. I wonder if that represents the sum total of the foreign allocations or is it just a piece of the pie. We should not be subsidizing any foreign energy interests…PERIOD. the following tirade might be a bit off track, but our present government has put a moritorium on offshore drilling and has effectively handcuffed the industry, yet at the same time Spain, Norway, India, Malaysia, Venezuela, Vietnam and Brazil and Mexico are drilling or have contracts to drill in the Guld of Mexico. Cuba is presently negotiating a lease with China for offshore oil exploration. It’s time to drill and it’s time for our refineries to refine US produced oil, not foreign drilled and purchased oil.
The Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) International Program . . . What the heck is that? What idiot came up with this program? Granted, it is a very small slice of the federal budget, but when we start adding up all these little “slices of pie” it becomes a big pie (that comes right out of our pockets). Unless there is someyhing more to the program that benefits the US (bigtime), STOP the spending. In fact, it may be time to get rid of the Department of Energy.
Wow – $6 Million in cuts. My bet you paid that much in lawyer and staff fees to write the proposal and subsequent press release.
How about you save us all some real money by agreeing to $4 TRILLION in spending cuts in cuts currently on the table rather than standing with the rest of the Freshmen House Republicans to protect wall street bankers while bringing the US to it’s knees in the process.
Forget the Chinese – You are the biggest threat to the US way of life and well being that we have today.
We Need GREEN Renewable Energy Here in Maryland….Not our hard working money going to China and Mexico….think Green…think Viridian!
So are you going to disclose your connection to Viridian? Should this site be used for free advertising?
The only green renewable power source that can be considered reliable seems to be wood. For every wind mill (1890s technology) and solar source you have to have a 1 for 1 back up with coal, oil or nuclear just in case the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine. Saying we need a source is just not quite good enough!
@ROBERT B. MCARTOR Great idea we can do like Spain did and for every stupid “Green” job they destroyed two real jobs. Green energy is subsidized and represents a minuscule amount of US consumption. Green energy is inefficient, expensive and wasteful, it is a fantasy at the present time.
The Facts. Green Renewable Energy such as Wind Power is here to stay. It is being developed all around us (Western Maryland, Western PA.) Energy Deregulation in Maryland has allowed US to choose who we use for our energy supplier. Fact: Viridian’s Rate in April 9.79 cents vs. BGE 10.23 cents. May the same with an average savings for the year of 6%. I am not here to promote Viridian but be informed of the various energy company’s now offering GREEN energy in Maryland. BGE makes money off of the service..NOT the energy. They even state this on there own website…they encourage you to make the switch to cleaner, cheaper electric. So, my point? I try and help families save money every month on their electric bill. This is not an ad…please do not sign up…just be informed. Click on my name below and read for yourself.
And every frikking elec electron is backed up by coal power. Wow, what an advance!
Way to get at that $1.5 trillion debt. This will get us $0.000006 trillion closer. Seems like a great use of time. Why don’t they just do a straight % cut across the board. I’m sure every office could tighten their belts, but eliminating programs seems like this would open a whole new bag of worms. Or an even better idea if you’re looking for a way to save $6 million, get rid of 35 congressman. There’s already 485 members in the House at $173k a pop in salary alone. Pretty sure we could go to 450 reps and not miss a beat…they may actually be able to get something done that way. Maybe they’d get to doing real work and stop spending all day talking about light bulbs and baseball.
If hemp were legalized we would have a much better renewable resource that would be able to produce the same energy output as coal, would be able to be refined into a MUCH cheaper and cleaner burning fuel source, could be manufactured into products like textiles, fabrics and building material that would out perform and outlast anything currently on the market. Just sayin’
The Energy Department was created after the 70’s oil embargo to make the US energy independent. After all these years it has millions of employees and costs the taxpayers billions of dollars, and we have nothing to show for it. This is what the federal government does. It creates bureaucracies that create regulations that make it difficult for anything to get done. Our current president seems to be indebted to the environmentalists and refuses to allow the drilling for gas and oil that we desperately need to get away from the dependence of the foreigners who hate us.
Canada wants to bring a pipeline down to us, but the Obama administration is stalling because the environmentalists don’t want it. Think California in the bread basket drying up over a 3-inch fish. Canada is in much better shape than we are economically, and they plan to utilize all their sources of energy.
This country is being held back by the president and his czars while running up an enormous debt from which we may never recover. Any Harris isn’t my congressman, but I say go for big spending cuts. Many of the states are making dramatic cuts because they have to balance their budgets. If we don’t downsize the Federal Government, it will devour us. Telling us what kind of light bulbs we must use will seem like small potatoes if we allow this to continue.
We have had the capability of being energy independent for at least 20 years. We only lack the political will to make it happen. The Energy Dept is hamstrung by politicians who primarily want to win elections.
The United States is already the world’s third largest oil producer behind Saudi Arabia and Russia, and as many are quick to note, we have massive untapped reserves. So who and why are we dependent on foreign oil? Only two reasons, because politicians are only concerned about winning elections, and because we’ve delicately managed our relationship with the Middle East to continue any such “reliance” in exchange for national security and other international interests. Their kings stay in power and sell oil, we buy it and win elections. Everybody’s happy.
I’d really just like to know why we should make major investments in an energy source that is finite and will run out, intead of investing research in alternative resources? There is no way mathematically possible for the planet to creat more oil, gas, or coal, faster than we can use it, so why keep investing in it?