U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) is continuing his efforts to increase production of American energy resources and create American jobs by voting for the Jobs and Energy Permitting Act that according to a study by Northern Economics and the University of Alaska could create and sustain over 54,000 jobs with offshore production in Alaska.

“The policies of the Obama administration are causing more job losses, more dependence on foreign oil and more pain at the gas pump,” Luetkemeyer said. “I will continue to support efforts that lower energy prices, create new American jobs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, strengthen our national security and raise revenue to help tackle our nation’s troubling national debt.”

The Jobs and Energy Permitting Act specifically seeks to eliminate red tape and expedite EPA’s permitting process to allow for increased oil and gas exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf. The administration’s bureaucratic permitting process under the Clean Air Act has held up oil exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf for years, keeping valuable energy supplies locked away.

The effect of this Act is to clarify the law to correct the permitting process and remove uncertainties creating these delays by ending the permit-approval, ping-pong process created by the EPA and its Environmental Appeals Board.  The legislation simplifies and expedites the procedures for obtaining air permits needed for energy exploration by ensuring the challenges are sent directly to federal court.

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