Introduced on June 12, 2008, H.R. 6256 would direct the Secretary of the Interior to establish an annual production incentive fee applicable to federal onshore and offshore lands that are subject to a lease for production of oil or natural gas under which production is not occurring. It would prescribe a fee amount for each acre of land from which oil or natural gas is produced for less than 90 days in a calendar year.

H.R. 6256 would also establish an Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund to serve as depository for fees received under this Act. Energy programs that would be eligible for funding from this fund would include:

(1) low-income home energy assistance;
(2) advanced vehicles research, development, and demonstration;
(3) energy storage systems to support electric drive vehicles, stationary applications, and electricity transmission and distribution;
(4) next-generation wind turbines;
(5) weatherization assistance low income housing; and
(6) wind and solar energy research and development.

On July 1, it was referred to the House subcommittee on Energy and Environment. If it can even make it out of committee, it probably won’t take all that long for the Grand Oil Party to filibuster it or vote it down since it has similar provisions to H.R. 6251 (Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act) which they already voted down.

What a shame! Have Republicans (the Grand Oil Party) completely lost touch with reality throughout America today? Have they forgotten their promises to serve and protect their constituency bases? Enough is enough! They need to stop protecting the unrealistic profit margins of Big Oil companies’. Using profits for buying back billions of dollars of their outstanding stock so they don’t have to share their outrageous profits is not what any consumer would consider ‘reinvestment’ in their business infrastructure. Why aren’t they ‘reinvesting’ in their business to assure continued availability of gas and oil products? It’s because they’ve gotten so conservative in protecting their precious profits that they’re too averse to taking the risk to explore for oil on the leases they’ve had in their possession for decades. Republicans need to stop protecting Big Oil and start protecting their consumer constituencies instead.

Wake up people …. if the Republicans now in Congress can’t or won’t break their relationships with Big Oil and begin taking action that improves conditions for their constituencies, then we need to get them out of the Congress and elect people who will.