Reid’s Grabs Land Now, We Pay The Price Later
Sunday afternoon, Senate Democrats made their first major mistake. They passed legislation that will put millions of acres of federal land offlimits for oil drilling:
Environmental groups said the bill set the right tone for the new Congress.
“By voting to protect mountains and pristine wildlands, Congress is starting out on the right foot,” said Christy Goldfuss of Environment America, an advocacy group. “This Congress is serious about protecting the environment and the outstanding lands that Americans treasure.”
Sen. Tom Coburn, (R-OK), wasn’t happy with the legislation:
Coburn and several other Republicans complained that bill was loaded with pet projects and prevented development of oil and gas on federal lands, which they said would deepen the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
When oil prices rise again, which will happen, Republicans will point directly at Democrats as passing legislation that put large deposits of oil and natural gass off-limits.
Here’s what Amanda Carpenter wrote about Reid’s land grab:
The 1200-page, pork-laden, $10 billion proposal locks up millions of acres of energy-rich property by designating it as environmentalist-friendly “federal wilderness” area where not even as much as a bicycle would be permitted to travel across the land. Many of these areas recently became available when the ban on domestic drilling in Western states expired last fall and the liberal left couldn’t muster the courage to keep it in place due to rising energy prices. Now Democratic leaders are using different legislative strategies to put a new kind of ban in place.
One Republican House staffer put it this way: “Reid is going to make it federal land so no one can touch it. He’s locking up the equivalent of ANWR.”
The bill, S.22 “Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009,” would cordon off more than 3 million acres from energy leasing by restricting various areas as “federal wilderness” or “wild and scenic” river ways.
When House Republicans put pressure on Pelosi’s Democrats used every trick in their book to pass bills that looked like they were pro-drilling. I said then that the benchmark for whether they were pro-drilling was whether they’d sign the discharge petition for the American Energy Act:
It’s obvious that Republicans won’t be satisfied with voting on just any bill. They want their amendments heard and voted on. Specifically, they want the AEA voted on. Any attempt by Speaker Pelosi to thwart amendments to their legislation will be met with fierce opposition.
Now Reid’s Democrats have all but passed legislation that will make us more dependent on foreign sources of oil. When this legislation reaches the House, Pelosi’s Democrats will be little more than a rubberstamp. By the time it reaches President Obama’s desk, he’ll prove that he lied about his energy policy.
Let’s remember that Barack Obama took 3 different positions on drilling in 3 days:
Perhaps his handlers didn’t tell him that he shifted positions from drilling being a Republican “scheme” during a campaign stop in Missouri to saying he was open to drilling when campaigning in Florida.
He started by calling drilling on the OCS a GOP scheme. Later, he made this idiotic statement:
“If everyone were just filling their tires and getting regular tuneups, you could actually save just as much.”
By the time he reached Florida, polls were showing that 60 percent of Floridians supported drilling on the OCS. Here’s how he reacted:
“My interest is in making sure we’ve got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices,” Obama said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post.
“If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage—I don’t want to be so rigid that we can’t get something done.”
Reid’s bill isn’t comprehensive energy legislation. Relying heavily on green energy isn’t comprehensive, either. By definition, we can’t have comprehensive energy legislation if we lock up 3,000,000 acres of oil-rich land.
It isn’t a stretch to think that this congress is a protectionist congress that agrees totally with its special interest allies. It isn’t a stretch to think that this congress will attempt to pass everything on their special interest allies’ wishlist.
They certainly voted the way their envirowhacko lobbyists wanted them to vote on this bill. They put a higher priority on voting the special interests’ interests ahead of voting for the United States’ energy independence. They put a higher priority on voting the special interests’ interests ahead of voting for stabilizing or lowering home heating prices for their constituents.
Every middle income person that watches their home heating bills should write their senator and complain that their senator didn’t vote for them, that their senator voted with special interest groups who don’t have their best interests at heart.
Let’s put it differently. This land grab was theoretically done to lower the risk of global warming. Let’s leave the arguments out over whether man-made global warming is real or not. The million dollar question we should pose to people is whether they’re more concerned with saving money on their heating bills or with curtailing man-made global warming.
This is the proper framing of the question. If you poll people if they’re concerned about ‘the environment’, 90+ percent of people will say yes. If you ask them whether they’re more worried about doing whatever it takes to stabilize or lower home heating bills or curtailing man-made global warming, I’d doubt that 50 percent of people would pick curtailing man-made global warming.
Conversely, I don’t have trouble believing that 50+ percent of people polled would pick stabilizing or lowering home heating bills.
That’s how we need to frame this argument if we want to put Rust Belt Democrats on the defensive.
Technorati Tags: Harry Reid, Land Grab, Environment, Heating Bills, Gas Prices, Environutters, Special Interests, We The People, Pocketbook Issue, Energy Independence, Barack Obama
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog