145 Who Get It

Earlier today, I wrote a rather long post on Energy policy and how a 4 pronged approach to energy cost relief is an absolute necessity. It seems like every politician out there (with the exception of Senators Coleman and McCain) gets one part of the prong. One of the more important prongs is that we absolutely must increase domestic oil production. Well today, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland challenged all 435 of his colleagues to sign a pledge to increase domestic oil production. Almost immediately 145 of his colleagues signed the pledge. This bi-partisan list (some Democrats DO GET the need) includes Minnesota's own Rep. John Kline and Michelle Bachmann!

If you look at the body of the petition, you see that Rep. Westmoreland (as well as Reps. Bachmann and Kline) gets the fact that a multiple pronged approach is necessary.

“Hundreds of thousands of Americans have signed petitions calling on Congress to increase U.S. oil supply to bring down prices. When constituents started calling me to say they had signed, I wanted a way for all Americans to know where their member of Congress stands on this issue. I created a ‘no-wiggle-room pledge’ that reads ‘I will vote to increase to U.S. oil production to lower gas prices for Americans.’ It’s simple and it gets to the heart of the real solution. Yes, we need to conserve; yes, we need to develop alternative energy sources. But right now, we still need traditional energy and I want to put members of the House on record: Are you for helping American businesses and American families with their energy costs or not?

“More than 65 percent of Americans support more traditional energy exploration in this country. I’m saying: Explore offshore, open up U.S. lands and build more refineries. I encourage people all over this country will call their member of the House and encourage them to sign the Westmoreland petition to increase oil production. The petition is on the floor of the House during votes. Every congressional district is listed and we update our web site, www.house.gov/westmoreland regularly with everyone who has signed it.”

So to those of you in the remaining Minnesota districts - call your representatives and ask them to sign the Westmoreland petition. While you are at it, if you have not already signed a petition to add more domestic production, I would suggest that you sign here to let Congress and the President know how you feel about the energy issue.

UPDATE AND BUMP: Welcome all of you new readers who got here via Google searching the petition. Poke around and come back as often as you can! There are now 183 Congresspeople who are listening to We The People on energy.

UPDATE #2 - Attention voters in Minnesota's 3rd Congressional District. Congressman Jim Ramsted (RINO - retiring) has refused to sign the petition. You should call his office and express your displeasure with his actions. Then take a few minutes to donate your time and money to his replacement, Erik Paulsen.