As Congress looks to address our debt through the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, we urge them and the Administration to work together to end the unmerited and expensive subsidies to the oil and gas industry. They obviously don’t need them to secure our “energy independence, since they are now exporting more and more of that energy overseas:

• The U.S. is now a net exporter of refined petroleum products, a downward trend that started in 2007 and has expanded every year since.  We are now exporting over 690,000 barrels per day.
• U.S. gasoline exports are on pace this year to exceed 150 million barrels, triple the amount in 2007
• In the first quarter of 2011, the U.S. exported more than 26 million short tons of coal, a 50% increase from the same time a year ago
• Much of the tar sands oil that would come from Canada through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline isn’t earmarked for domestic U.S. consumption, either.  The companies at the end of the pipeline are intending to ship much of it to South America, Europe and Asia.
• And the Department of Energy has recently approved two licenses to companies to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) drilled

Instead of drilling away America's lands, we should focus on responisible  wind and solar energy development, along with improvements in energy efficiency, to become truly energy independent.