Contact your Congress critters to let them know that you are tired of high gas prices.
Posted on 07/28/2008 6:21:35 PM PDT by mdittmar
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has split the Democratic front opposed to drilling with a plan that would open new areas for exploration.
Reid’s proposal was meant to insulate Senate Democratic candidates from public anger over gas prices. Instead, it has created a divide with liberal colleagues and drawn fire from senior House Democrats.
The legislation, drafted by Reid and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), would open nearly a billion new acres off the coast of Alaska to study for drilling. It would also dramatically accelerate oil leases in the western and central Gulf of Mexico.
“I am unalterably opposed to drilling,” said Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, who cited a massive oil spill that closed nearly 100 miles of the Mississippi River last week.
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) urged Reid to be “very careful about drilling off the coast of Alaska.”
Reid could also face resistance from other Democrats who oppose drilling off Alaska’s shores.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), for example, has sponsored legislation to ban drilling in the North Aleutian Basin, an area that Republicans have already opened to oil leasing.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told The Hill that lawmakers should focus on the National Petroleum Reserve on Alaska’s North Slope instead of offshore.
“There are tens of millions of barrels in the reserve. If you want oil in Alaska, drill there,” she said.
Some Democrats are irked that Senate leaders haven’t shown stronger resolve in the face of Republican attacks that attempt to blame opponents of offshore drilling for higher gas prices.
“Some people are just scared of the accusation that not leasing more acres has an impact on oil prices,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio, a senior Democrat from Oregon. “It just doesn’t.”
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, echoed Pelosi.
“I don’t object to oil companies doing more drilling where they already have leases,” said Waxman.
“I don’t think any of the proposals to open more areas for oil drilling off the coast of our country makes a lot of sense, because it will be years before we see any oil from these places,” he said.
Democratic lawmakers say the Reid-Bingaman proposal seems to be gaining momentum, though these same sources questioned whether Pelosi would schedule it for a vote in the House.
The provision has attracted support from powerful liberals such as Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works panel.
Votes against expanded drilling would open Democrats to accusations that they had blocked efforts to lower record gas prices. Votes for Republican amendments to encourage more drilling, however, would anger environmental activists.
Before reaching the House, the proposal must pass the Senate, where it is caught in a procedural dispute.
Reid has suggested voting on his legislation and a Republican alternative in the form of amendments to a pending oil speculation bill.
Reid’s office did not respond to requests seeking comment.
Republicans are demanding votes on several amendments and have pledged to block Democrats from moving to other issues until drilling receives floor votes.
Environmental activists have panned Reid’s suggestion that more of Alaska’s waters should be studied for oil drilling.
“We truly believe drilling off the icy shores of Alaska is a bad idea,” said Melinda Pierce, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, who said that sea ice increases the chances of an accident in the Arctic. “We’ve been long and vocal opponents of offshore development in the Arctic Ocean.”
Eleanor Huffines, Alaska director for The Wilderness Society, urged Senate Democrats to forget about offshore drilling and concentrate instead on tax credits for renewable energy development and other ideas.
“We think looking for additional oil and gas leasing will do nothing to lower the price of gas,” said Huffines.
Bill Wicker, spokesman for the Energy and Natural Resources panel, said Bingaman supports tax credits for renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.
But he said the Reid-Bingaman proposal could significantly increase domestic oil production.
Specifically, the proposal would set up planning areas covering nearly 1 billion acres off the Alaskan coast with access to an estimated 1.2 billion barrels of oil.
The bill would also accelerate leasing by requiring the government to offer lease sales more frequently. It would also eliminate some royalty relief for Outer Continental Shelf leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
Wicker acknowledged environmentalists’ criticism that opening more territory would have little immediate impact on gas prices.
“We never presented this as going to have an immediate impact on lowering the price of gasoline,” he said.
In the mail yesterday, I got a magazine with a lot of photos of Wexler meeting with various PACs. The groupings changed, the people changed, but there was one dominant theme to all the pictures: EARS.
Woops! Wrong Demo.... I meant Waxman.
bttt
Yeah, the price of a road trip to Vegas has doubled since 2004.
Maria Cantwell, that b1tch from Washington, she’s the one that confirmed my suspicions about this whole anti-energy/global warming ecofreak mess being behind it. She came out the other day in a press conference and said the goal was to get people using less oil. They don’t want drilling because people would use more oil. They don’t want us using our own resources. Anything that allows people to use more energy they are against.
Which is another reason why (not the only one) they were against dropping the gas tax.
Which is why they are against any new drilling.
Which is why they don’t want any oil or coal or natural gas prices going down.
Which is why they don’t want more coal plants even though most use lots of scrubbers and low SOx coal.
They don’t want ANY INCREASES IN SUPPLY!!!!! Increases in supply drive prices down, more is used. Even if prices don’t go down (which they will) there is more supply to be used at some point.
They are trying to fight against the market. They are trying to keep supply low and demand high, then tax the sh1t out of it and not allow any increases in supply - and they in fact want supply to go down even more.
They are trying to implement Kyoto without having to sign it.
They are friggin evil, to do this to their own countrymen. Elitist top party communist officials. Saying “F#ck You! to all of us in the proletariat” (in their commie-loving worldviews).
The Party of Unity, yessiree.
I thought it was his nose - don’t they call him nostrilitis?
how do you know when a democrat is lying?
you can tell when his lips move.
The oil that is pumped will be worth whatever the market will pay for it at the time it is delivered. Just as the farmer who plants corn or soybeans based on the market price in the spring can hope the prices stay high but if the forecast starts to show record numbers of acres planted and record harvests are predicted the price will fall. That's the same thing that will happen when Congress stops trying to close the spigot and let the oil companies drill. The price will drop long before the first barrel of that oil reaches the market.
If they aren't drilling the land they already have leases on it's because even $150/bbl doesn't justify the costs/risks involved for the oil that may or may not be there.
The voters will remind Democrats this Fall that new oil drilling means new jobs...whether the price of gasoline comes down or not.
I was wondering when Reid was going to figure out that once people cannot afford to fly or drive to Vegas, his political career would be over.
“And at age 84, he is running for re-election to the Senate.”
Who is running against him?
Do they have any chance at all of winning?
““We truly believe drilling off the icy shores of Alaska is a bad idea,” said Melinda Pierce, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, who said that sea ice increases the chances of an accident in the Arctic.”
Oh! So it’s ICY in Alaska?
Who knew?
Well then, that changes things doesn’t it?
Let’s just forget the whole matter!
Facts don't matter when they don't help the Dems agenda. Besides not wanting to upset the environazis in their party, the Dems just want to make things bad for the middle class in hopes that they blame Bush and the Republicans. I seriously think they want a recession so they can use it as a club to beat Bush with even though he's not running.
If we can show the public that the Dems are strangling the economy the Dems are in trouble. Reid is getting worried but Nancy and the rest are clueless. The media is still playing for them but the news is starting to get through. The middle class is feeling the pinch and they will vote with their wallets.
Welcome.
Contact your Congress critters to let them know that you are tired of high gas prices.
My junior senator, Bobby M, was too busy organizing collection of the drop from the Siciliano Waste Management company, which will go to the Robert J. Menendez Foundation, yet somehow end up in an account in the Cayman Islands.
Well,that sounds nice,but the AFL-CIO backs obama.
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