House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings released the following statement after the Energy Information Administration, the non-partisan data collection branch of the Department of Energy, released updated data on federal energy production. The data shows President Obama’s anti-energy policies are starting to take effect as total fossil fuel production (oil, natural gas and coal) dropped by 7 percent since President Obama took office and is down 13 percent since 2003. From 2010 to 2011, total federal oil and natural gas production is down 14 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

The reported decline in federal energy production reveals America’s increasing reliance on oil and natural gas production from state and private lands. This increase can be attributed to regulations, red tape and President Obama’s policies that are driving production off of federal lands, which Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey recently admitted is happening.

“These non-partisan statistics show federal oil and natural gas productions are declining as President Obama’s anti-energy policies catch up with him. President Obama has been more than happy to take credit for his predecessors’ actions to advance energy production on federal lands, however, we know that while brining federal oil and natural gas production online can take the better part of a decade, slowing production can happen relatively quickly.

“House Republicans have passed a bipartisan all-of-the-above energy plan that opens federal waters with the most known oil and natural gas resources to increase American energy production, create jobs, lower gasoline prices and make America more energy secure. If President Obama is truly interested in an all-of-the-above energy plan, he should abandon his policies that are strangling American energy production and embrace this bipartisan plan to help ease the pain at the pump that more American families are feeling every day.”

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