California Conservative

Captain Ed has a great post up skewering Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats for their declaring last 4th of July Energy Independence Day. As Captain Ed notes, the Democrats’ new direction is the wrong direction. Here’s a video showing Ms. Pelosi’s bold declarations:

During her criticism of the Bush administration’s inaction, Ms. Pelosi said that Democrats would send money to “the Midwest, not the Middle East.” While it’s true that more subsidies are heading to the Midwest, they’ve failed in their goal of energy independence. In fact, they’ve taken us in another wrong direction, forcing us to import more foreign oil than ever before.

Here’s something Ed said that’s worth noting:

What Pelosi failed to mention was that gas prices at the pump were $2.24 per gallon in January of that year, and that under Democratic leadership, prices went up over 30%.

Think about that. When Pelosi’s Democrats took over, people were paying $2.24 a gallon at the pump. Eighteen months later, it’s over $4 a gallon. The next question to ask is what’s changed since Pelosi took control. For starters, they’ve made the prospect of making more known oil reserves available for exploration and production. Knowing that energy supplies won’t be increased in any meaningful way, speculators wonder how high the price is going to go.

As I said here, there was a daily 9 million barrel cushion between America’s needs and available supply when oil sold for $10-15 per barrel. That cushion is now 1.5 million barrels per day. A bit of sabre-rattling from Ahmadinejad or Chavez, a hurricane in the gulf or any number of other things can cause oil production to lag, thereby erasing whatever cushion existed.

As I said here, this is a crisis created by the Democrats’ decisions. They’ve wanted this crisis so that more people would jump on the conservation/alternative bandwagon, which has happened. What’s been proven, though, is that their policy won’t supply America’s needs.

Here’s the transcript of Speaker Pelosi’s speech on Energy Independence Day:

“This weekend, the nationwide average of $3.07 per gallon set a record, exceeding last August’s previous record. And I’m particularly concerned because the highest price, $3.49 per gallon, is what is being charged in my district of San Francisco.

“With Memorial Day travel and the start of the summer driving season only a few weeks away, drivers are paying a heavy price for the Bush Administration’s failure to enact a comprehensive energy strategy.

“Years of the Bush Administration’s policies that have favored Big Oil over the consumers have resulted in record dependence on foreign oil, leaving American families and businesses to pay even higher prices.

“This Congress, under the Democratic leadership, is working to make up for years of inaction, taking America in a new direction that helps bring down the cost of gas and promotes energy independence. Energy independence is essential to reducing the price at the pump.

“In the first 100 hours of the new Congress, the House passed legislation to roll back $14 billion in subsidies for Big Oil, when Big Oil was already enjoying record profits. Our proposal reinvests that money at home in clean alternative fuels, renewable energy, and energy efficiency.

“A number of House committees are taking action, holding hearings over the next few weeks to take a comprehensive look at how we can fight price gouging; the development of clean alternative fuels; the impact our dependence on foreign oil has on our economy; and how we can put new technologies to use to achieve greater energy efficiency.

“I’ve asked Chairman Waxman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee to look into this issue. Chairman Dingell of the Energy and Commerce Committee will quickly mark up the Stupak bill on price gouging.

“We have our Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming moving forward with its recommendations, and we have Mr. Conyers, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, having anti-trust hearings on the subject of Big Oil.

“We have elevated this issue by creating the Select Committee, and we will make this July 4th Energy Independence Day with a package that will do the following things: provide economic incentives to develop and use clean alternative fuels; help our nation’s farmers fuel our energy independence, we will send our energy dollars to the Midwest not the Middle East; encourage an energy innovation economy that will create new jobs and help small business; and enhance technology driven energy efficiency.

“We will lead our nation in a new direction toward energy independence that strengthens both our economic and national security.”

On almost every point, the Democrats’ plan has failed. Ethanol is a particular failure. Holding hearings into whether there’s price-gouging have yielded the same results that they always have: nothing. The Democrats’ energy plan does alot of things except address the need to increase oil supplies.

My representative, Michele Bachmann, is one of the voices of sanity on this issue. Here’s what she said with regards to the Democrats’ approach:

In an effort to pass some kind of energy bill before the 4th of July recess and having failed with their price gouging bill, the Democrats brought H.R. 6251, the Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act sponsored by Rep. Rahall from West Virginia, to the floor last week. The bill is also know as the “Use it or Lose it” bill.

Not only does it do nothing to increase oil production, this bill prohibits the Secretary of the Interior from issuing new leases for exploration for, or production of, oil or natural gas, unless the applicant certifies that he is “diligently developing” the leased lands or surrenders the leases. This bill would restrict the development of American energy, while sending a signal to the energy markets that petroleum had better come up quick or not at all, a move that could trigger higher energy prices and discourage investment in energy exploration.

19 Democrats joined 176 Republicans in defeating this “duplicate” piece of legislation. I say duplicate because Federal energy lease holders already must produce oil or natural gas within five to 10 years to live up to the terms of the lease and the law.

In other words, Democrats have acted busy but they’ve been ineffective at getting anything meaningful done with lowering gas prices. Their ineffectiveness will be highlighted from now until Election Day. That’s guaranteed.

Anyone want to bet that farmers down in Minnesota’s First District will buy into Rep. Walz’s ‘No New Energy’ plan? BTW, Rep. Walz’s plan is almost identical to any other Democrat’s plan. They should sound the same. After all, the environmental extremists wrote their talking points.

One thing that’s perfectly clear is that Senate Democrats will filibuster any bill that includes opening up the OCS or ANWR or the federal lands that President Clinton put offlimits. Another thing that’s perfectly clear is that we’ll use the Democrats’ votes as a billyclub in the 2010 election. If gas prices continue climbing, which they will, and if the economy tanks because of the exhorbitant gas and diesel prices, which will happen, then Senate Democrats will pay a steep price in 2010.

What this really points to is that Democrats aren’t on the side of working families. They’re on the lobbyists’ side of this important issue. Don’t think that we won’t point that out repeatedly. Democrats will be sick of getting beaten over the head with this issue long before November’s election.

You can take that to the bank.

Technorati Tags: Gas Crisis, Nancy Pelosi, Price Gouging, Tim Walz, Nick Rahall, John Conyers, John Dingell, Energy Independence Day, OCS, Oil Exploration, Oil Production, Michele Bachmann, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 9:27 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Election 2008, Energy, Investigations, Pelosi, Special Interests, W. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.