Who:
The American Energy Alliance (AEA) is a recently formed not-for-profit 501(c)(4) organization that advocates for free-market energy and environmental policies. It is affiliated with the Institute for Energy Research (IER), another not-for-profit – founded in 1989 – that conducts intensive research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets. Both AEA and IER maintain that freely-functioning energy markets provide the most efficient and effective solutions to today's global energy and environmental challenges and, as such, are critical to the well-being of individuals and society.

What:
AEA has secured an extended radio buy to urge Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO) to reverse his well documented opposition to increasing domestic energy exploration and production by voting to end Congressional restrictions on producing domestic energy in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and other regions of the United States.

When:
The AEA ads are running statewide, starting today, for at least 2 weeks.

Why:
- Energy is the lifeblood of our economy and the key to our high standard of living in America. There is a direct correlation between high energy prices and the shrinking supply of spare capacity of crude oil and natural gas. Therefore, in order to reduce high energy prices for consumers, it is critically important to increase the global supply of crude oil and the domestic supply of natural gas.

- The U.S. is now the only developed nation in the World that restricts access to its offshore energy resources.

- Our economy and our consumers are feeling the effects of our government's failure to increase domestic energy supplies to help meet the growing global demand for energy and sustain economic growth here at home.

- With today's advances in drilling and extraction technologies, exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas can be done in an environmentally responsible manner. According to the U.S. Department of Interior, offshore operators produced 7 billion barrels of oil from 1985 to 2001 with a spill rate of a mere .001%

- The Congressional bans on outer continental (OCS) and oil shale exploration and production expire on September 30th, the end of the federal government's fiscal year, unless Congress votes to continue to the bans in the meantime.