Pyle Releases Statement on Obama's SOTU Address

“Tonight, the President offered little hope to the American families concerned about the rising energy costs that continue to demand a greater portion of their household budgets. In one breath, he seemingly took credit for increased supplies of domestic oil and natural gas that owe their development to leasing activities on state and private lands. In the next, he suggested that his administration’s failed policies to underwrite expensive and unreliable ‘green’ energy sources is somehow helping the economy.

“From strong-arming U.S. auto companies into making smaller, lighter vehicles that pose greater safety risks to the driving public, to closing access to federal lands where affordable energy reserves lie untouched, to funneling billions of taxpayer dollars to fund reckless renewable energy ventures, the President’s energy policies have proven wrong where he claims they are right.

“In this evening’s address, the President once again raised the long-discredited claim that oil and gas industries are receiving ‘billions of dollars’ in tax breaks, as though the standard business deductions afforded to countless other job creators in our economy – including renewable energy companies – are somehow undeserved or fraudulently claimed by the U.S. companies who pay more taxes than any other industry.

“Similarly, the President once again promised to ‘cut red tape’ to help the American people and promote domestic energy development. Lost on the President — or perhaps, his speechwriters — is the harsh reality that the red tape he has stretched across the permitting process for vital energy infrastructure projects like the Keystone XL pipeline continues to slow job growth and postpone the day when we will finally achieve North American energy security.

“The United States is currently experiencing one of the coldest winters on record, and those Americans who cared to tune in tonight heard scarcely a word about the President’s plan to make sure they can continue to affordably heat their homes. Rather they heard more lecturing about an ‘all of the above energy plan’ that discounts the benefits of America’s vast coal reserves and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that coal-fired energy supplies.”