Congressman Walberg pumped gas for constituents in Battle Creek on Monday.

The Congressman was at the Riverside C-Store, 240 E. Columbia Avenue, at the corner of Columbia and Riverside Drive.

Read more about the event.

READ MORE | Permalink | RSS Feed | No Comments | Trackback

On July 28, the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs held an event in Battle Creek honoring slave turned abolitionist Sojourner Truth, who moved to Battle Creek and is also buried in the city. Congressman Walberg and Battle Creek Mayor Mark Behnke are pictured with Donna Turner-Rickman, local Chairwoman of the event, at the Sojourner Truth monument in Battle Creek. Congressman Walberg presented a tribute honoring Sojourner Truth at the event.

READ MORE | Permalink | RSS Feed | No Comments | Trackback

Congressman Walberg spoke on the House floor this morning about an “All of the Above” Energy Plan.

READ MORE | Permalink | RSS Feed | No Comments | Trackback

Congressman Walberg discussed energy policy on the Frank Beckmann and Live With Renk shows Monday.

Click below to listen:

Frank Beckmann Show

Live With Renk

READ MORE | Permalink | RSS Feed | No Comments | Trackback

For the past several months, Congressman Walberg has been calling for an open debate on how to best expand American energy production and break America’s dependence on foreign oil to bring down gas prices. Despite an overwhelming majority of Republicans and many Democrats in Congress ready to discuss what America’s new energy plan should look like, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to allow even a single hour of debate on energy policy on the House floor.

Today the Washington Post, generally not considered a media outlet sympathetic to the Republican Party, published a very important editorial calling for a full energy debate on the House floor. The full editorial is below:

No Drilling, No Vote
Speaker Pelosi won’t let the House debate the merits of offshore drilling.
Friday, July 25, 2008; A20

WHY NOT have a vote on offshore drilling? There’s a serious debate to be had over whether Congress should lift the ban on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf that has been in place since 1981. Unfortunately, you won’t be hearing it in the House of Representatives — certainly, you won’t find lawmakers voting on it — anytime soon.

Instead of dealing with the issue on the merits, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a staunch opponent of offshore drilling, has simply decreed that she will not allow a drilling vote to take place on the House floor.

Why not? “What the president would like to do is to have validation for his failed policy,” she said yesterday when asked that very question. “What we’re saying is, ‘Exhaust other remedies, Mr. President.’ . . . It is the economic life of America’s families, and to suggest that drilling offshore is going to make a difference to them paycheck to paycheck now is a frivolous contention. The president has even admitted that. So what we’re saying is, ‘What can we do that is constructive?’ “

If there is an explanation buried in there about why that makes offshore drilling off-limits for a vote, we missed it. Ms. Pelosi is correct that drilling is no panacea for the nation’s energy woes. The short-term effect of lifting the moratorium, if there were any, would be minimal. That doesn’t mean the country shouldn’t consider expanded drilling as one of many alternatives. There are legitimate concerns about the environmental impact of such drilling — environmental concerns that, we would note, exist in other regions whose oil Americans are perfectly happy to consume. But have technological improvements made such drilling less risky? Why not have that debate?

When they took the majority, House Democrats proclaimed that “bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that allows open, full and fair debate consisting of a full amendment process that grants the Minority the right to offer its alternatives.” Why not on drilling?

Meanwhile, the dispute has snarled progress on spending bills for fear of having drilling amendments attached. Citing “the uncertainty in how the oil and gas drilling issue is currently playing out on the Senate floor,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) called off committee consideration of spending bills on which Republicans were threatening to offer drilling amendments. The result threatens to be the first time since at least 1950 that lawmakers will go home for the August recess without either chamber having passed a single appropriations bill.

If drilling opponents really have the better of this argument, why are they so worried about letting it come to a vote.

READ MORE | Permalink | RSS Feed | 6 Comments | Trackback

Congressman Walberg delivered this speech today on the House floor:

READ MORE | Permalink | RSS Feed | 1 Comment | Trackback

From today’s Cit Pat:

Imagine having a four-hour dialysis appointment, then waiting up to three hours in the lobby, nauseated, for your ride home.

It can get tiring, especially for someone like Josephine Young of Summit Township, who has done it three times a week for nearly six years.

Young, 69, was one of a handful of patients at Jackson Dialysis, 234 W. Louis Glick Highway, who talked to U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, on Tuesday about public transportation issues and the soaring price of gasoline.
Young, who uses either a wheelchair or walker, relies on Jackson Transportation Authority’s Reserve-A-Ride.

Walberg also visited the American Red Cross, 3425 Francis St., where he heard from Executive Director Karen Randall and board members about the effects high gasoline prices have on the agency.

Randall said emergency services volunteers — the people trained to immediately respond to help people in a fire, accident or other disaster — have started using their own money to pay for gasoline to get there and back.

Walberg supports legislation that would seek more drilling for oil in the United States — including Alaska — and encourages investment in new nuclear power plants.

READ MORE | Permalink | RSS Feed | No Comments | Trackback

From Saturday’s Jackson Citizen Patriot:
About 180 people attended a federal grant-writing workshop sponsored Friday morning by U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton.

The event was at Lifeways and drew representatives from area schools, churches, non-profit organizations and small business owners.

The workshop included a tutorial from a proposal-writing specialist from the University of Michigan on how to write a federal grant.

READ MORE | Permalink | RSS Feed | No Comments | Trackback

Over the past few weekends, I’ve held multiple events in the Seventh District to hear firsthand how high gas prices are affecting my constituents. One single mother offered remarks which I found particularly memorable.

She shared how she drives an hour, from Adrian to Ann Arbor, each way to the hospital where she works. Because of high gas prices, she recently requested and received permission to begin working back to back 8 hour shifts, two days per week, so she doesn’t have to make the hour long commute each day.

This remarkable woman then shared something that really struck me. She said that in a couple years, when her daughter turns 16, handing her daughter the keys to the family car will be an extremely stressful experience. But unlike when she was a teenager and her father was worried about her driving abilities and the car’s safety, this mother is worried she won’t be able to afford to pay for the gas her daughter will use to take the family car and go out with friends.

This is just one example of how real Americans outside the D.C. beltway are struggling to pay for gas. All across our great country and especially in rural areas, Americans can barely afford prices over $4 a gallon. With wheat harvesting just beginning, high gas prices will mean higher costs for our family farmers as they harvest and transport this year’s crop to market.

Meanwhile, leaders in Congress will not allow any legislative action to increase American energy production. Instead they continue to push for tax increases on energy and offer silly proposals like having trial lawyers sue OPEC and requiring oil companies to drill on land where oil likely does not exist. This plan to tax, sue and mandate the Jed Clampett oil exploration method (no scientific research, just drill on the ground you have) will surely fail. In fact, these proposals will likely produce less American energy.

Along with many of my colleagues, I am working daily to push for more American energy production. We have introduced, fought for and demanded votes on legislation to immediately drill in places like the Gulf of Mexico, ANWR and the Outer Continental Shelf and to increase our refinery capacity. We are also pushing bills to expand the development of alternative energies and build new nuclear power plants.

By passing these reasonable energy proposals, we could bring more American-produced gasoline to the market and lower our energy bills. Yet, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to even allow a vote on these common sense solutions.

This week I sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi urging Congressional action to bring down high gas prices before Congress goes on summer recess. The full letter is available here. In the letter, I state, “To solve America’s energy crisis, the House of Representatives needs to act now.” I believe the longer we wait to address energy prices, the greater the national security risk high prices become. America simply cannot continue to rely on large amounts of imported Middle East oil and Americans should not have to send hundreds of billions of dollars overseas because Congress has failed to allow American energy production.

In the coming weeks, I am going to continue fighting to at least hold a vote on the House floor to increase American energy production. As I do this, I need your help.

Just as with the woman I referenced above, I need examples and stories of how my constituents are struggling to pay for gas. If you have the time, please send me your personal experience. You can either leave a comment on my blog or email me.

With your help, we can continue building momentum for increased American energy production. It’s time for a forthright debate on the House floor that will give the American people a chance to have their voices heard.

READ MORE | Permalink | RSS Feed | 15 Comments | Trackback

Congressman Walberg today sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging Congressional action to bring down gas prices.

July 17, 2008

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House of Representatives
H-232, U.S. Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Madam Speaker:

I respectfully urge you to allow the House of Representatives to vote on legislation to increase American energy production, so America can become energy independent and to bring down prices at the pump. Energy prices have skyrocketed, the economy has slowed, and hundreds of billions of dollars are flowing from the pockets of American families into the treasuries of nations who wish America ill. Yet you have still not allowed a vote in the House of Representatives to increase American energy production.

To solve America’s energy crisis, the House of Representatives needs to act now. A number of pieces of legislation have been introduced to increase American energy production by immediately allowing more oil and natural gas exploration, building new refineries and nuclear power plants, encouraging renewable energy development, and advancing technological innovations. I have listed a few for your consideration. As you are probably aware, some of them have had discharge petitions filed so they can immediately be brought up for debate.

• H.R. 3089 The No More Excuses Energy Act (Thornberry - TX)
• H.R. 6107 The American Energy Independence and Price Reduction Act (Young - AK)
• H.R. 2784 The National Environment and Energy Development Act (Peterson - PA)
• H.R. 2208 The Coal Liquid Fuel Act (Boucher - WV)
• H.R. 6138 Repeals the ban on using funds to issue oil shale regulations (Upton - MI)

Each of these bills contains innovative solutions to not only increase our production capacity, but also to embrace new technologies.

Gas prices are incredibly high and are affecting families, businesses, and our communities. I urge you to allow votes to increase American energy production and move our nation on a path toward energy independence before Congress leaves for a month long break. Families that want to take a vacation will not experience a break, businesses fighting to make it in a tough economy will not experience a break, and police departments forced to cut back patrols will not experience a break.

I implore you to bring these reasonable proposals to the House floor in the next week to move America towards energy independence and to create more American jobs. I look forward to working together and engaging in a forthright debate that will give the American people a chance to have their voices heard, and most importantly, to act immediately to solve America’s energy crisis. Thank you for consideration of my request.

Sincerely,

Tim Walberg
Member of Congress

READ MORE | Permalink | RSS Feed | 4 Comments | Trackback