Concerns About Our Latest Economic Indicators and Energy Costs

Increased Domestic Energy Production Needed to Sustain Economic Growth


For immediate release
January 10, 2008

(Rochester, MN) - Today, Brian Davis, Republican candidate and physician in Minnesota's First Congressional District, released a five point plan to put America on the path towards a sound energy policy. Citing the price of oil as leading our nation towards recession, Davis unveiled the plan on the eve of Republican debate in Rochester on Thursday.

Davis stated, "The current energy bill that passed Congress is inadequate, especially since the price of oil is pushing our economy towards recession. We need people in Congress with backgrounds in energy and those that have more faith in the free market system, than a system of government mandates. The politicians need to move away from rhetoric and take a level-headed look at the numbers and facts to achieve sustained economic growth and increased domestic energy production."

Added Davis, "There is a real possibility of a recession developing, because the cost of energy factors so much into our economy and contributes so heavily to our trade deficit, in fact, up to one-half of it."

The former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, remarked recently that the likelihood of recession is clearly rising, and that the unemployment rate for December increased from 4.7% to 5.0%.

Davis outlined the following proposals for us to move towards eventual energy independence:

• Open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Outer Continental Shelf for immediate exploration for oil and natural gas recovery.
• Continue developing alternative energy sources including ethanol, wind, solar power, and bio-diesel, but move away from mandates.
• Provide a stable regulatory environment that permits the development of nuclear power, an underutilized clean and safe source of electric energy.
• Remove automobile mileage standards and government imposed production mandates because they often work against the free market and have failed in the past. Let individuals decide what is best for them.
• Continue with laws to safeguard our air and environment from the known pollutants of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury, lead and particulate matter.

"The bottom line: our government should be promoting policies which remove obstacles to increased production of the major sources of energy that fuel our economy: oil, natural gas, coal and uranium while still protecting the environment," said Davis.

Davis continued, "Our nation's energy policy and economic well-being should not be based on the deeply flawed theory that carbon dioxide produced from fossil fuel combustion will lead to catastrophic climate change. Eighty-six percent of our energy consumption is from fossil fuels."

"Congressman Walz is against opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration. He and others are just simply wrong about this," concluded Davis.

Dr. Davis, a physician in Rochester, was trained in nuclear engineering and mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He worked for several years in the electric power industry before entering the field of medicine. He and his wife, Lori, also a physician, live in Rochester with their four children.

For more detail, a letter to First District Republicans related to this topic is posted here.

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