Bean mailer misleads voters

Today I received a mailer from the office of Congresswoman Melissa Bean, sent at taxpayers' expense. In the mailer Congresswoman Bean acknowledges "we need a strategic energy policy that reduces our dependency on foreign oil" and touts her support for "the drill responsibly in leased land's" (DRILL) Act. H.R. 6515

The DRILL act creates a new level of bureaucracy and further restricts the number of available new oil and natural gas leases and would cause termination of the many outstanding leases. The intent of this bill may be to encourage immediate drilling, but the result would be that there will be less land available for drilling, which is the exact opposite of what the country needs.

But, in her mailer Bean says the DRILL Act "would spur immediate drilling for new energy in Alaska's national petroleum reserve and pressure oil companies to begin immediate drilling in 68 million acres of onshore and offshore public lands they are ready have access to."

As you may know, Congresswoman Melissa Bean has adopted Speaker Nancy Pelosi's "NO drilling in ANWAR or the Outer continental shelf" position. It appears, however, that Melissa Bean is trying to falsely imply that she supports more exploration and drilling. The mailer's reference to Alaska and offshore drilling is an intentional effort to mislead voters into believing she supports finding new sources of domestic oil, when in fact her position is the reverse.

Congresswoman Melissa Bean is entitled to follow party lines and oppose drilling for new sources of domestic petroleum in ANWAR and the Outer Continental shelf. She should not, however, use taxpayer dollars to mislead her district into believing she supports new sources of domestic petroleum.

Daniel Venturi

Chairman, Lake County Republican party