Florida GOP Rep. Allen West says that, although he is happy to see President Barack Obama following the lead of House Republicans in his call for additional domestic offshore drilling, it is not enough, and the United States should drill wherever it has the resource available. West was out on the road Monday pumping gas for his West Palm Beach constituents to drive home his point.
“Well, I’m pretty happy to see that the president will follow the lead of the House Republicans that brought forth several pieces of legislation in the past week that talked about opening up some of these offshore and also on-land leasing areas, as well as getting rid of a lot of these permit moratoriums that we have,” West said Monday on Fox News.
“But the thing that I look at is a president who went down to Brazil and gave them $2 billion of American taxpayer money so that they could do oil exploration and also told them that we would be one of their best customers,” he said. “I think we need to be producing, consuming, and maybe even exporting our own full spectrum of energy resources right here in the United States of America.”
West said constituents told him they are readjusting the way they drive and their daily routines.
“The major thing that you’re hearing from people is that they have had to adjust their way of life and certain routines — you know, people are paying attention to where they’re driving, the routes that they’re taking,” he said. “People are, you know, trying to just top off, at least take a tank down to half-a-tank, then fill it back up.
“And it’s really affecting how people — the American people down here in Congressional District 22 are going about their everyday way of business.”
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