GOP Members of Congress Unveil ‘No Cost Stimulus’ Bill

(by Edwin Mora, CNSNews.com) – [Six] conservative Republicans – three from the House and [three] from the Senate — have introduced a “common sense” economic stimulus package that includes energy proposals they say will boost the economy without adding to the national debt.

The “no-cost stimulus plan” calls for expanding offshore oil and gas production and leasing the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas producers, which in turn would generate new federal revenue.

“This is an energy plan involving both traditional and renewable energy that can create significant jobs, significant economic growth without costing the U.S taxpayer one cent and without having to borrow more money,” Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said during a Capitol Hill news conference.

The plan also would allow commercial leasing of oil shale as long as there is a profitable interest, expedite the nuclear plant licensing process and prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from using the Clean Air Act as “ammo” to enforce carbon dioxide regulations.

If adopted, Vitter said the plan would provide “well over 2 million long-term sustainable and well-paying jobs,” and would “dramatically increase GDP” — by approximately $8.2 trillion over the next 30 years – in addition to reducing the cost of energy.

Best of all, the Louisiana senator pointed out, the stimulus would create those jobs at no cost to taxpayers.

Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), said the GOP plan is also a step closer to the U.S. adopting a “sound energy policy.”

U.S. manufacturers, businesses and families — including low-income families — would all benefit from low energy cost courtesy of the no-cost legislation, he added.

“The no-cost stimulus bill is actually a way of having your cake and eating it too,” Fleming said. “It’s green, it’s environmentally friendly, and it’s funded by the very extraction of the fossil fuels that will be provided.”

The new revenue would be used to create an Alternative Renewable Energy Trust Fund that would be dedicated to “clean” and renewable energy programs.

Provisions of the GOP’s stimulus, such as energy-cost reduction, “would constitute a more significant tax cut than anything in the (Obama’s) stimulus bill,” said Louisiana’s Vitter.

Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), meanwhile, said that the plan would address the fact that U.S. energy production is currently being “outsourced” to other countries.

“We are outsourcing energy production in this nation to a scale 10 times as great as any of the outsourcing of American jobs,” Shadegg said.

Shadegg pointed out that the natural gas and oil that we get from other countries, such as Russia and Venezuela, could be gathered from within the U.S., which in turn would reduce the outsourcing of American jobs and create more jobs.

The Republicans said their plan was more acceptable to the American public than the Obama administration’s proposed “cap-and-trade” program – a plan that Sen. James Inhofe, the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said would constitute a huge tax on American business.

“If they did this (impose a cap and trade tax), we would be looking at a minimum of $300 billion a year,” Inhofe said. “This would be the largest single permanent tax in the history of the world.”

Under cap-and-trade, caps on carbon emissions are set for industry, and companies that produce emissions under the cap are allowed to sell their excess capacity to companies that go over the limit.

The No Cost Stimulus Act of 2009, meanwhile, also would step up the disbursement of funds from Obama’s stimulus bill by streamlining the National Environmental Policy Act — an action recommended by the Congressional Budget Office.

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