Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leadership are attempting to foster the illusion that they are dealing with America's energy problem.
For a generation of Democratic politicians, the notion of opening protected sites to drilling was toxic. But with soaring gas prices, public opinion is shifting toward anything that promises relief at the pump and congressional politics is moving with it.
In a shift on Saturday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that the House will take up comprehensive energy legislation next month that includes partially lifting the 1981 ban on offshore drilling.
“It will consider opening portions of the Outer Continental Shelf for drilling, with appropriate safeguards, and without taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil,” she said in the weekly Democratic radio address on Saturday.
On Friday, Senate majority leader Harry Reid said that the Senate will also examine lifting the ban, which now covers all but central and western portions of the Gulf of Mexico and some parts of Alaska....
Until Saturday, Speaker Pelosi called the notion that more drilling would lower prices at the pump a hoax and said that there would be no votes on this issue on her watch.
They claim they will take up the issue next month. But none of this is good enough for House Republicans.
Since Aug. 1, 109 Republicans have returned to Washington to argue the case for offshore drilling on the floor of an adjourned House.
“Our members are finding at home that what we¹re doing here in Washington is appreciated,” said Rep. Roy Blunt, the House Republican whip, at a press briefing off the floor of the House on Thursday. “At least somebody is willing to fight for the No. 1 issue for their families today and that’s gas prices, soon to be followed by energy prices, as we get to the fall.”
And on closer examination, Republicans have found the proposed Democratic legislation to be deeply flawed
The plan mandates the release of some 700 million barrels of oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve to “reduce the price at the pump within 10 days,”Pelosi said on Saturday.
The plan also requires oil companies to pay the billions of dollars in royalties to be invested in clean energy resources and aims to rein in speculation in energy markets, viewed by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle as a factor in the run-up of gas prices.
In response, House Republican leaders called on the speaker to immediately reconvene the House to vote on a GOP bill to ‘drill here, drill now, and pay less.’
The combination of a windfall profits tax and a release from the Strategic Reserve is the poison pill that assures Republicans can not support the bill.
Republicans soundly rejected Pelosi’s proposal – indicating it was too little too late.
“Madame Speaker, we ask you to work with us to help Americans feeling pain at the pump by developing more American energy,” said Republican Study Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas). “If you refuse, we simply ask you get out of the way and allow us to help the people that sent us here.They understand how flawed and out of touch your caucus is on energy issues, and so do we.”
Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) added, ““There is no better, more qualified spokesperson for the Democratic Party’s failed energy policies than Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”
Except, perhaps, Senator Obama who proposes a 50% windfall profits tax on Energy producing companies and a release of 70 million barrels from the Strategic Oil Reserve.
But the same criticisms I made with regards to this proposal still remain; with one additional concern: Russia.
As I noted in that previous post
...as the Senator pointed out, our enemies control most of the oil production. As a result, while the strategic oil is reserve is depleted by the 70 million barrels we are vulnerable to an energy "attack".Our enemies in Iran and Venezuela could see this as an opportunity to cut supply. Al Qaida could step up it's pressure on Nigerian Oil production and they could increase piracy activity off the coast of Somalia. The worst case scenario is that our enemies could put us in a position where we could not run our Army, Air Force and Navy with severe rationing on the ordinary citizen.
I guess then we would know we were at war, huh?
And now Russia has become more threatening and could, by itself, restrict the oil that everyone but they themselves use. Not only would that spike world oil prices, but it could leave us short: a situation that is precisely what the Strategic Oil Reserve was intended to mitigate.
And a plan that Senator Obama once supported:
"I agree with the President's decision to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help replenish supply shortages resulting from Hurricane Katrina. Nearly all oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut down, and releasing this oil will help increase production and stabilize prices. However, I do believe that this tragedy makes it very clear that that the reserve should only be used in the event of an emergency, and that we shouldn't be tapping the reserve to provide a small, short-term decrease in gas prices.
"Catastrophic events like Hurricane Katrina are the reason the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was created, and releasing oil at this time is appropriate. But to truly provide Americans relief from skyrocketing oil prices, we must get serious about decreasing America's dangerous dependence on foreign oil by increasing fuel efficiency and investing more in the renewable fuels that can lead us down the path to energy independence." (emphasis is mine).
By crippling our capacity to produce oil, by depleting our Strategic Oil Reserve, and by punishing the very people who explore, extract, refine, and deliver our petroleum products, are not the Democrats helping our enemies, and most specifically Russia?
Russia has become a resurgent threat precisely because of high oil prices. They are the ones who have benefited most from "windfall" profits. And now they have taken those profits, rebuilt their military, and are now on the march.
And it was Democrats who produced this windfall for our enemies.
Remind me again: Whose interest do the Democrats serve?
America's or her enemies?
