Losers: The Democrats Surrender On Drilling
Via Ed:Congressional leadership has conceded the issue to Republicans, who have staged protests and raised the profile of energy policy over the last six weeks. Starting on October 1, states will have no federal restrictions on oil production:
Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in an months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.
Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election.
Republicans have made lifting the ban a key campaign issue after gasoline prices spiked this summer and public opinion turned in favor of more drilling. President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling in July.
“If true, this capitulation by Democrats following months of Republican pressure is a big victory for Americans struggling with record gasoline prices,” said House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio.
This puts quite the capper on the 110th. Not only did Democrats fail to achieve their broad policy goals, they failed on almost every specific goal they set in 2006. They failed to stop funding the Iraq war, they failed to impeach George Bush, and they surrendered on energy policy. Their only policy goal achieved ” an increase in the minimum wage ” came in a war-funding bill.
September 24, 2008 - 10:34 AM on September 24th, 2008
ok, Kids. Let’s circle back on this next year and see where we are at. My vote is that we will have $3 gas and a replay of “Who killed the electric car?”
NY-David
September 24, 2008 - 12:32 PM on September 24th, 2008
Looks like the greens are losing their support with the american public i mean after all paying $5:00 a gallon for gasoline and high utility bills is bad news for the green freaks and the demacrok party as well SCREW THE GREENS
September 24, 2008 - 01:26 PM on September 24th, 2008
I think (maybe it’s “hope”) that the American people do not forget the $4.40 gas no matter what happens. I remember well the 1972 Arab oil boycott, with the odd/even days and red, yellow and green flags. We’ve been talking about energy independence for 36 years. It is a failure of the entire political leadership of this nation that we are where we are.
What mentally-ill Pelosi doesn’t seem to understand is that we cannot continue sending ~$700 billion out of our country every year for oil for some unknown length of time before we can get alternatives online. Even if we started building nuke plants tomorrow it would be 4 years before they were online and it will be 10 years until we can get enough numbers to make a big difference. What do we do for those 10 years? That’s 7 trillion dollars more out of this economy at today’s rate.
How can anyone not grasp that reality?