California Conservative

Nancy Pelosi has sent a letter to Republican leader John Boehner criticizing the GOP protest faction. The more she says on this, the easier the ads write themselves. Hugh picked up on it last night on H & C. He repeated what I’ve said for a month: that a vote for a Democrat is a vote for Nancy Pelosi’s energy policies. Here’s Pelosi’s letter:

August 5, 2008

The Honorable John A. Boehner
House Republican Leader
H-204, The Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Leader Boehner:

Thank you for your letter from the House GOP leadership yesterday on gas prices.

America uses nearly a quarter of the world’s oil, but sits atop less than 3 percent of the world’s reserves. According to the Bush Administration’s own Energy Department, if we repealed the offshore drilling ban today, oil and gas production would not begin there until 2017, and impact on prices before 2030 would be “insignificant.” We cannot drill our way out of this problem.

The facts are clear. The New Direction Congress has repeatedly brought forth proposals to increase domestic supply, reduce the price at the pump, protect American consumers and businesses and promote renewable energy and conservation. To date, Democrats have brought forward 13 major initiatives to accomplish the above goals and each time a majority of House Republicans have voted against these proposals.

One of these proposals would codify Democrats’ call for releasing a small portion of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Releasing a small amount from the government stockpile is a positive short-term step that would provide immediate impact on the price at the pump and ease the pain American families and businesses are feeling every day.

The SPR has been tapped or suspended before by President Bush, President Clinton, and the first President Bush, and each time the impact on prices has been dramatic and immediate. In 1991, oil prices immediately dropped by 33 percent. The 2000 exchange drove oil prices down by 19 percent. And the release by President Bush in 2005 resulted in a 9 percent drop.

While a very small band of your colleagues remain on the House floor to discuss gas prices, their constituents deserve to know why their representatives in Congress have failed to support serious, responsible proposals. These proposals would increase supply, reduce prices, protect consumers, and transition America to a clean, renewable energy independent future. Americans deserve real solutions, not rhetoric. Using yesterday’s solutions to today’s problems will not allow us to achieve energy independence.

Again, thank you for your letter, and I look forward to working together on behalf of America’s working families.

best regards,

NANCY PELOSI
Speaker of the House

Ms. Pelosi’s assertion that we have only 3% of the world’s energy reserves is that this letter is spin. Referencing this fact sheet tells you what you need to know:

This estimate of 2-6% of the world’s oil supplies does not hold up to scrutiny.

In oil shale alone, found in the Green River Formation in parts of Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming, the U.S. has approximately 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil, or over three times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia. This comes from a midpoint estimate in a 2005 RAND study done at the request of the Department of Energy, and a higher end estimate puts the number at over one trillion barrels.

Furthermore, there are vast areas of the United States and its outer continental shelf where it is illegal to even look for oil. Exploration routinely yields additional resources far larger than initial estimates. Resources from oil shale and additional oil resources that are likely to be discovered are not included in the estimates of American oil supplies.

Ms. Pelosi is simply telling a whopper when she says this. She couldn’t say this if she were under oath because she’d be slapped with perjury charges. The shale oil deposits of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah have enough oil to sustain us for the next 400 years.

If Ms. Pelosi wants to argue that 400 years worth of oil constitutes 3% of the world’s oil reserves, doesn’t that say that we have an incredible abundance of oil in the world? I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t explore alternative energy sources. I’m just suggesting that we’ve got alot of energy that we currently can’t access because Congress won’t unlock the reserves.

What’s fascinating to me is watching Speaker Pelosi try to change the subject, which is what she’s doing here:

For instance, Question No. 5. asks: “Senator McCain missed two critical votes in the Senate to promote renewable and conservation. The American people have a right to know why he is putting the interests of Big Oil ahead of American consumers. Why is that?”

Pelosi also suggested Congress repeal tax breaks for oil companies in light of recent record profits. “If House Republicans are for ‘all of the above,’ why do you oppose efforts to protect consumers like price gouging and holding OPEC accountable for price fixing?” reads Question No. 6.

Pelosi laid blame at Republican feet for not ensuring “we wouldn’t reach the energy crisis we’re in now” while they were in the majority in Congress, and asked for support for ending “undue speculation in the oil market”, a measure that met its demise in the Senate.

The American people aren’t distracted by these questions. Their only concern is cringing anytime they pull into a gas station. The American people are looking for solutions-oriented legislators, not blame game artists. Based on David Winston’s polling, it’s safe to say that Democrats aren’t seen as the solutions-oriented legislators:

Pollster David Winston of the Winston Group told House Republicans at a morning briefing that 68 percent of Americans want a drilling vote before the end of the 110th Congress. He also said the GOP is winning generic ballots by 12 percent on energy policies when the Republican and Democratic plans are compared, a source in the room said.

This information should frighten Democrats. I suspect it does. It isn’t often that Democrats lose the generic ballot question. That’s why Democratic strategists should be frightened to hear that they’re losing the biggest issue of this election by a dozen points. I don’t normally put alot of stock in generic ballot polling because it doesn’t take into account what type of campaign is being run, the quality of the candidate and other important factors.

This time, I’m paying attention to this generic polling because it’s an issue where alot of Democrats are locked in by their environutter supporters. Disagreeing with them is political suicide for a Democrat because half their GOTV operation is comprised of environutters. Alot of their campaign contributions come from the environutters, too.

Democrats are where they never thought they’d be: East of the rock, west of the hard place.

Technorati Tags: Gas Crisis, Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, Newt Gingrich, Drilling, David Winston, Polling, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 11:04 pm and is filed under Environment, Election 2008, Pelosi, Author: Gary Gross, Energy. 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.