U.S. CONGRESSMAN BILL JOHNSON Proudly Representing Eastern and Southeastern Ohio

Congressman Bill Johnson (R-Marietta) today announced that he has joined the House Energy Action Team (HEAT), which will promote measures by House Republicans to develop a national energy strategy that will help lower fuel costs, create jobs and strengthen national security by putting America on the path to energy independence.

“We are blessed with an abundance of natural resources both in Ohio and throughout our nation yet the Obama Administration is trying to keep them locked up,” said Congressman Johnson. “Every day, I hear from people in eastern and southeastern Ohio worried about the impact high gas prices are having on their family and small business budgets. It’s time to stop the job-destroying policies of the Obama Administration that are blocking us from developing our own natural resources so that we can be confident in our energy security.”

Through the American Energy Initiative, House Republicans are actively working to increase American energy production to:
• lower gasoline prices,
• create American jobs,
• generate revenue to help reduce the debt and deficit, and
• strengthen energy security by decreasing our dependence on foreign energy.

Congressman Johnson is a co-sponsor of three bills in the U.S. House of Representatives that will help lower gas prices, create good-paying American jobs, generate revenue to help reduce the debt and deficit, and strengthen energy security by reducing America’s dependence on foreign energy. Those bills are:

• Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act, which expands American energy production and creates jobs by requiring the Secretary of the Interior to conduct oil and natural gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and offshore Virginia that have been delayed or cancelled by the Obama Administration.  

• Putting the Gulf Back to Work Act, which will end the Obama Administration’s de facto drilling moratorium in a safe, responsible, transparent manner – putting thousands of Americans back to work and increasing American energy production to help address rising gasoline prices.  

• Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act, which will lift the President’s ban on new offshore drilling by requiring the Administration to move forward on American energy production in areas containing the most oil and natural gas resources.