Dems' "No Energy" Bill "An Elaborate Exercise to Give Their Members a Heaping Dose of Political Cover"
Dems' Bill Permanently Locks Away 88 Percent of America's Best Oil Resources Below the Outer Continental Shelf
Washington,
Sep 15, 2008 -
As Democrats put the final touches on their latest “no energy” legislation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her leadership colleagues continue to tout their proposal as a real “drilling” bill. But it is becoming increasingly clear that this measure is little more than another step in the Majority’s cynical strategy to provide political cover to vulnerable Democrats who have consistently voted against more American energy while promising their constituents back home real drilling and lower gas prices. Don’t forget, Politico highlighted this plan last month, calling it “an intentional strategy in which Pelosi takes the heat on energy policy, while behind the scenes she’s encouraging vulnerable Democrats to express their independence if it helps them politically.”
With this strategy in mind, Roll Call asks this morning whether the Democrats’ bill really is an attempt to legislate – or just “an elaborate exercise to give their Members a heaping dose of political cover”:
|
“The biggest question remaining this Congress is whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) really want to cut a deal with the White House before the elections to allow more offshore oil drilling – or whether they are going through an elaborate exercise to give their Members a heaping dose of political cover…”
“[Republicans] note her package includes no revenue sharing for states that choose to allow drilling, which they consider a poison pill. Nor is there any provision for drilling closer than 50 miles, which puts off limits most of the oil reserves on the West Coast, where the Outer Continental Shelf is narrow. They deride her proposal to tie the oil package to a renewable electricity mandate, charging it would raise utility bills.”
|
The Virginian-Pilot detailed the Democrats’ sham proposal over the weekend, noting that the lack of any revenue-sharing between the federal government and coastal states will mean those states will simply block any energy production off of their coasts:
|
“Even as House Democratic leaders handed Republicans a symbolic victory this week in their long fight for new offshore oil development, critics charged that the fine print in the plan probably will continue to keep drillers out of the Atlantic.”
“While lifting a 25-year federal ban on most offshore oil and natural gas drilling, the legislation would block Virginia and other coastal states from sharing in a $2.6 trillion bonanza of tax revenue expected to flow from offshore fields. A Senate bill still in the works would give states part of the money.”
“Unless states stand to profit from offshore development, they almost surely would exercise their right under the bill to block any drilling within 100 miles of their shores, critics of the House initiative charged.”
|
In other words, Democrats are purposely planning to leave revenue-sharing out of the bill because they know no state would agree to increased energy production off of their coasts without it – meaning the “Drill-Nothing Congress” will get to keep its title after all.
By leaving out critical revenue-sharing with coastal states and banning environmentally-safe drilling up to 50 miles offshore, Speaker Pelosi’s latest proposal permanently locks away some 88 percent of the best American oil resources on the Outer Continental Shelf. And that’s only one way that the bill fails to provide the American people an “all of the above” approach to lower gas prices – which is at the heart of the House GOP’s American Energy Act (H.R. 6566).
Speaker Pelosi and her colleagues in the Democratic leadership – not to mention their far-Left special interest allies – have made the decision to run out the clock until the next congressional recess without scheduling a vote on the American Energy Act. The House GOP bill increases environmentally responsible American energy production off our coasts, in the Inter-Mountain West, and on Alaska’s remote North Slope to help lower gas prices as part of a comprehensive “all of the above” strategy to reduce fuel costs. The Democrats’ “no energy” bill locks most of those resources up for good. Which bill do you think the American people want to see on the House floor?
READ MORE:
Dems’ “Comprehensive” Bill Is Latest Ploy in Speaker’s Election-Year Energy Scheme (9/12/08)
