California Conservative

Minority Leader John Boehner took Speaker Pelosi to task for her statement on Meet the Press about supporting natural gas production. Here’s Boehner’s official statement:

Hypocrisy Alert: Speaker Pelosi Votes Against More Natural Gas, Then Claims She Supports It
Speaker Pelosi Has Fought Every GOP Effort to Open Up Offshore Drilling to Produce More Natural Gas Supplies

Washington, Aug 25 - Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) adjourned Congress for a five-week break without a meaningful vote on gas prices and still wouldn’t commit to giving the American people the vote they want on NBC’s Meet the Press over the weekend. Today House Republicans are continuing their nationwide gas prices protest for the 17th consecutive day to highlight GOP efforts to lower gas prices through our “all of the above” plan to lower gasoline prices by increasing America’s energy supplies, promoting more conservation and efficiency, and encouraging the use of more alternative and renewable fuels.

Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats like to claim they support an “all of the above” approach, they like to claim they support drilling, and they like to claim they support natural gas. But their rhetoric doesn’t match their actions or their voting record. Over the weekend, Speaker Pelosi made quite a claim on NBC’s Meet the Press, attempting to justify her investment in T. Boone Pickens’ Clean Energy Fuels Corp., which markets compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas, by saying natural gas is “something I believe in” as a “clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuel.” But as the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire blog pointed out, natural gas is a
fossil fuel:

“On NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday, the Speaker twice seemed to suggest that natural gas, an energy source she favors, is not a fossil fuel. ‘I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels,’ she said at one point. Natural gas ‘is cheap, abundant and clean compared to fossil fuels,’ she said at another…But according to naturalgas.org, an educational Web site maintained by the Natural Gas Supply Association, ‘natural gas is the
cleanest of all the fossil fuels.’”

Not only is natural gas a fossil fuel, but there is an abundance of proven natural gas reserves right here in the United States. In fact, there is some 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas off our shores that Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats have fought to keep off limits, opposing every GOP effort to open up environmentally-safe drilling to produce more natural gas supplies. Let’s look at their voting record:

• Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats overwhelmingly voted “YES” on legislation authored by Pelosi that would put new limits on access to America’s natural gas resources. The American Chemistry Council said the Democratic bill would “deny large quantities of natural gas to American consumers.” (H.R. 3221, Roll Call 832, August 4, 2007)
• Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats overwhelmingly voted “NO” on the Deep Ocean Energy Resources (DOER) Act (H.R. 4761), a bill to help deliver American-made oil and natural gas supplies needed to lower prices for consumers. (H.R. 4761, Roll Call 356, June 29, 2006)
• Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats overwhelmingly voted “NO” on an amendment offered by Rep. John Peterson (R-PA) to lift the moratorium on environmentally-safe exploration of our deep ocean oil and natural gas reserves. (Amdt. 172, H.R. 2361, Roll Call 192, May 19, 2005)

Just how hostile are Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats toward more natural gas? So hostile that they passed legislation authored by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) that would actually stop planned construction of a liquefied natural gas facility that would increase energy supplies to residents of the Northeast and help reduce their home heating costs.

A new round of polling shows continued strong support from the American people for increased American energy production, including production of natural gas, to lower gas prices. As House Republicans continue their nationwide gas prices protest for the 17th consecutive day, American families, seniors, and small businesses continue to feel the pain at the pump, and are preparing to face higher home heating bills this autumn and winter as well. How much longer will Speaker Pelosi continue to ignore them by refusing to allow a vote on the “all of the above” energy plan they support and expect?

This week, Democrats have pretty much avoided the topic of increasing energy production. I’ll bet a pretty penny that increasing energy production will be front and center at the GOP convention in St. Paul. Democrats know that they’ll lose big if they highlight this issue. That’s precisely why the GOP will put it front and center at their convention.

Rest assured that only one thing will satisfy Americans. That thing is bringing down prices on gas, diesel and electricity. That won’t happen if we don’t lift the moratoria on the OCS and the Green River Formation shale deposits and if we don’t start building refineries and nuclear power plants ASAP.

Despite all the Democrats’ protestations, the American people want action in the form of increased drilling. People standing in the way of that will be political roadkill this November.

Technorati Tags: Gas Crisis, John Boehner, Natural Gas, Refineries, Nuclear Power, John Peterson, Moratoria, Shale Oil, Nancy Pelosi, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 2:33 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Election 2008, Energy, Environment, Liberals, Pelosi. 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.