Issue Position: Energy

Issue Position

Bill Johnson believes Ohio is a leader in America's drive toward energy independence. He believes we have a tremendous opportunity here in Ohio to create thousands of jobs, and lead America on a path toward energy dominance with our massive coal reserves and the Utica and Marcellus shale deposits with their huge reserves of natural gas and oil. The abundant natural gas liquids within these shale deposits present tremendous new job and manufacturing opportunities for our region, as ethane crackers are built, and the necessary supporting infrastructure is created. Johnson, a member of the powerful House Energy & Commerce Committee, is a leading voice in support of the environmentally responsible development and use of coal, oil, and natural gas. For too long, we've relied on unstable Middle Eastern nations for our energy. Those days are gone!

Bill Johnson has consistently stood up against unelected Washington bureaucrats who seek to kill Ohio coal jobs. That is why he authored H.J. Res., 38, which stopped the Obama Administration's massive federal-overreaching, anti-coal regulations from going into effect, and helped maintain state and local control over our natural energy resources.

Johnson will also continue to fight for America's coal miners, as he helped lead the effort to ensure our miners' healthcare remains funded and protected. He is also supportive of legislation designed to shore up the pension fund for our hardworking coal miners -- H.R. 3913, American Miners Pension Act of 2017.

Bill is also leading the effort to remove Washington barriers that will enable us to responsibly develop our oil and natural gas resources, creating thousands of jobs in the process. For example, Johnson authored H.R. 4605 and 4606, bills that would allow America to prosper economically and create jobs here at home by efficiently exporting our excess natural gas to our allies in Europe and Asia -- our friends who have, for too long, been under the thumb of Vladimir Putin's Russia to meet their energy needs. With trillions of cubic feet of recoverable natural gas beneath our feet, the U.S. is currently the world's largest producer of natural gas. We should be doing all we can to take advantage of this abundant resource, especially as these exports will help create thousands of jobs here at home, and provide billions of dollars in increased wage earning potential for American workers.

In addition to supporting efforts to safely streamline the pipeline permitting process, and responsibly develop our off-shore oil reserves, Bill has introduced legislation called the POWER Counties Act that would ensure local governments keep some of the revenue generated by local oil and gas development on federal lands -- currently, those dollars all go back to Washington, D.C or to the states. Communities, such as those near the Wayne National Forest here in Ohio, should receive some of that money for schools and roads.

In order to achieve energy dominance, we must move full speed ahead on domestic oil and natural gas development and coal production, but we also must begin expanding our nuclear footprint and determine what role market-driven innovations in wind and solar power and other renewable technologies will play in that equation. America has significant energy resources, and if Washington would get out of the way and let the private market drive energy innovations, we would learn to produce, store, distribute, and use energy in ways we've never imagined…it's called "American Exceptionalism".

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