Montana’s sole member of the House of Representatives announced Tuesday he is co-sponsoring a bill he says will help energy consumers and reduce U. S. dependence on foreign energy sources.

“With Montana families struggling to get by on fixed budgets, higher gas prices don’t just mean paying more at the pump, ” Rehberg said in a press release. “It means they have less to pay at the grocery store and everywhere else in their lives. That undermines our economic recovery and costs jobs.

“Sending more of our scarce dollars overseas for energy we could be developing right here in Montana — and creating good energy jobs to boot — just doesn’t make any sense, ” Rehberg added.

Rehberg was one of 60 original cosponsors — all Republican — of House Resolution 909, “A Roadmap for America’s Energy Future, ” sponsored by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.

The Association of Oil, Gas and Coal Counties came out in support of the bill.

“This bill would be a huge benefit to the state of Montana and the nation to reduce our reliance on foreign oil and create jobs, ” William Duffield, the association’s executive director, said in the release. “Not only would it let us move forward to utilize our vast coal, gas and oil potential but also the huge potential for jobs in the energy industry. A single coal-to-liquid plant could create hundreds of jobs. There are job opportunities in every facet of domestic energy development.”

Letter to the president

Rehberg announced today he also sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to expedite permitting for offshore energy production.

While longstanding moratoria on drilling permits were lifted by Obama last year, the Bureau of Ocean Management still has not issued a single deepwater permit, Rehberg’s release announcing the letter said.

“Government shouldn’t be standing in the way of quality job creation and lower energy costs, ” he said. “Let’s get these permits approved and get to work producing our own energy. ”

Details of energy bill

The bill allows for expanded oil and gas production including offshore drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf, on the Arctic Coastal Plain, including repealing the ban on oil and gas production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and in oil shale regions, including in the Bakken Formation which extends into Montana, the release said.

The bill also allows the U. S. Department of Defense to construct and operate a coal-to-liquid facility to provide fuel for the U. S. military.

It mandates the permitting of 200 new nuclear facilities over 30 years, along with revising the regulation of nuclear power production and waste in the United States and prohibiting the president from “blocking or hindering spent nuclear fuel recycling activities. ”

The bill repeals the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, and requires a study on the feasibility of contracting with independent agencies to manage radioactive waste storage facilities. It also creates a council to advise the U. S. secretary of energy in matters regarding nuclear energy.

The bill also repeals a section of U. S. Code prohibiting federal agencies from purchasing alternative fuels unless the greenhouse gas emissions are at least as low as from petroleum-based sources. This will encourage production of U. S. alternative fuels such as from oil shale, tar sands and coal-to-liquid technology, the release said.

It also bars use of greenhouse gas regulation for climate change purposes in the Clean Air Act or in the implementation of the Endangered Species Act.

The bill also sets up a trust fund for the promotion of alternative energy creation through the use of a reverse-auction process. The process would award federal assistance to projects with the lowest bid per megawatt-hour of production regardless of technology.

That would let “the market choose winners and losers instead of unelected Washington bureaucrats, ” the release said.