(Louisville, KY) Today, Anne Northup announced that she will continue to champion President Bush's oil policies. Congressman John Yarmuth issued the following statement:

"Anne Northup needs to come clean on her energy position. Today, she announced that she will continue to support the Bush policies that got us into this mess in the first place," Congressman Yarmuth said. "She has over a half a million dollars in gas, oil and energy company stocks and continues to make a fortune off the high gas prices Louisville families are paying at the pump. She has funded her campaigns with over $300,000 from big oil. I answer only to the people of Louisville, not the oil companies, and I will continue to put the needs of our families first. We have already enacted the most comprehensive energy reform policy in 30 years, and we will continue to advance innovative legislation that combats high energy costs and shifts to a more energy efficient economy."

THE FACTS

ANWR

• Drilling ANWR would not yield usable oil for nearly a decade.
• The Bush Administration estimates that drilling ANWR would lower gas prices by a maximum of $0.03 per gallon. [link [1]]

‘Use it or Lose it'

• Big oil already has leases and permits to drill 68 million acres, which they are not using. The total area is more than triple ANWR.
• Congressman Yarmuth and his colleagues believe that before we consider giving the oil companies more land to drill they should produce on the properties they already control.
• If oil companies tapped the 68 million federal acres of leased land it would generate an estimated 4.8 million barrels of oil a day - six times what ANWR would produce at its peak.
• 80 percent of the oil available on the Outer Continental Shelf is already open for leasing-but the oil companies have yet to drill there.