Dems' "Comprehensive" Bill Is Latest Ploy in Speaker's Election-Year Energy Scheme
Speaker Pelosi to Vulnerable Dems: Say One Thing About American Energy at Home, Vote Another Way in Washington
Washington,
Sep 12, 2008 -
Speaker Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues have conspicuously shifted their rhetoric as they prepare to bring their latest “no energy” bill to the floor. Due for a vote next week, the bill cobbled together behind closed doors by Democratic leaders and their special interest allies seems designed more to provide political cover to vulnerable Democrats who’ve consistently voted against more American energy, even though they have promised their constituents back home real drilling and lower gas prices.
This is simply the next step in the Majority’s cynical political strategy Politico highlighted 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.”
After taking a beating in the news media and in the court of public opinion for the last several months for refusing to allow any new American energy production, desperate Democrats now claim to embrace limited drilling off our nation’s coasts – all in a cynical attempt to provide themselves political cover and run out the clock until the election. But The Hill reports that the Democrats’ sudden “change of heart” on offshore drilling is little more than a legislative sleight-of-hand because the bill takes away any incentive for states to actually “opt in” to energy production off their shores:
|
“Key provisions in House Democrats’ emerging energy bill raise the possibility that expanded offshore drilling could be approved by the federal government but blocked by coastal states…”
“The problem is that, according to lawmakers and aides, the Democratic plan would allow drilling off a state’s coast only if the state government agrees. That concept is called ‘opt-in.’”
|
The Democrats’ bogus “drilling” scheme is just one way their latest “no energy” bill fails the American people at a time when real leadership on this issue is needed most. Take a look at just 10 ways this 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):
1. 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.
2. The Democrats’ “no energy” bill permanently locks up more than 1 trillion barrels of oil from oil shale in the Inter-Mountain West.
3. The Democrats’ “no energy” bill permanently locks up more than 10 billion barrels of oil on Alaska’s remote North Slope – an area where energy production and wildlife have been safely coexisting for decades.
4. The Democrats’ “no energy” bill blocks more nuclear power production – clean, efficient, and less costly production that nations such as France have been safely using for years while the United States continues to fall behind.
5. The Democrats’ “no energy” bill does nothing to construct new clean coal energy production facilities – facilities that are a win-win, with benefits both to consumers and for the environment.
6. The Democrats’ “no energy” bill raises taxes – a new burden for overstressed consumers already paying high prices at the pump and preparing to pay higher home heating costs this winter.
7. The Democrats’ “no energy” bill permanently prevents federal agencies from using unconventional and alternative sources of fuel at exactly the time when Congress should be encouraging the use of these fuels.
8. The Democrats’ “no energy” bill increases electricity costs on families, seniors, and small businesses by creating a new, heavy-handed electricity mandate.
9. The Democrats’ “no energy” bill includes plans for exactly zero new refineries to be built on American soil. Is this the way to show our competitors around the globe that we are finally serious about achieving energy independence?
10. The Democrats’ “no energy” bill defies the will of a solid majority of Americans who support the House GOP’s “all of the above” plan to increase American energy production, promote the use of alternative and renewable fuels, and encourage more conservation and efficiency.
While Speaker Pelosi and her allies eagerly run out the clock until the next congressional recess – which is set to begin just two weeks from today – the Democratic leadership still refuses to schedule a vote on the House GOP’s American Energy Act. The bill includes no tax hikes, increases American energy production off our coasts, in the Inter-Mountain West, and on Alaska’s remote North Slope to help lower gas prices, encourages more efficiency and conservation, and promotes the use of more alternative and renewable fuels. This is the bill the American people support and expect. How much longer will Speaker Pelosi block it?
