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10.01.2008 0

Day 41: Democrats Ready to Offer Terms of Surrender

  • On: 10/22/2008 14:02:28
  • In: Energy Crisis, Global Warming Fraud, and the Environment
  • Having become completely trapped on the issue of energy, Congressional Democrats are scrambling to put together favorable terms for their own surrender on this all-important issue to the American people. Republicans need to not take the bait, or they will lose one of their most potent weapons in achieving energy independence.

    Since 1982, Congress has reauthorized the current ban on off-shore oil and natural gas drilling every single year. It was such a common, bipartisan practice that nobody ever thought or saw the necessity to make the ban permanent.

    That is, until 2008. Which is pretty ironic. And sinister.

    The irony is that one would think that Congress would be looking to lift the off-shore ban in a meaningful way so as to dramatically increase energy production. And instead they are considering proposals to make it permanent. That’s also why it happens to be sinister: in a year when oil nearly topped $150/barrel, Congress is seeking to make permanent a ban on the American people accessing their own oil and natural gas resources.

    Congress AM Daily is reporting that House Democrats are ready to unveil their legislative plans to address the energy issue:

    “House Democratic leaders are proceeding cautiously on energy legislation that calls for expanded offshore production in an attempt to protect the Blue Dog Coalition from Republican efforts to push tough votes on them in the weeks before the election.

    “While final decisions have not been made, Democratic leaders are leaning toward offering a proposal allowing four southeastern states — Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia — to choose to allow drilling for oil and natural gas between 50 and 100 miles from the coastline, according to key lawmakers, Democratic aides and lobbyists. This option would be allowed in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

    “But the question remains whether that is enough to protect Blue Dogs and allow them to vote against any GOP motion to recommit as well as procedural hurdles when an annual congressional offshore drilling ban becomes tangled in talks on a continuing resolution.”

    This mirrors the Gang of 10 proposal currently being bandied about in the Senate. The House Democrats’ plan shares the same flaws as the Senate proposal, which according to the American Petroleum Institute would keep off limits “approximately 23 billion barrels of oil and approximately 45 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas…”

    According to House Republican Leader John Boehner, “What the Democrats won’t admit is that this approach actually holds huge amounts of American energy resources hostage by putting 80 percent of our offshore energy resources off limits, choking off our nation’s vast oil and gas reserves at a time when they are needed most to help bring down fuel costs and reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign sources of energy.”

    What’s worse is that the plan would be a permanent solution—not to the energy crisis, but to the real problem in Democrats’ eyes: the annual moratorium on off-shore drilling.

    Something happened in 2008 that had never happened before: oil prices shot up to record highs. In response, Republicans have adopted as a part of their plan allowing the current moratoria on off-shore drilling to expire. To accomplish that, all they need to do is block any bill that reauthorizes the bans, which in Congress is not impossible.

    In fact, a dedicated minority party can block just about anything so long as they can maintain 41 votes for a filibuster in the Senate.

    For that reason, Democrats want to permanently lock away America’s energy resources so that it never comes up again. That’s ironic. And yes, it’s sinister.

    In response, Republicans need to loudly reject the Democrats’ bill and demand an unconditional surrender by the lawmakers who for decades have stood in the way of increased domestic energy production. Which is what happens when one wins a battle: the victors draw up the terms of surrender. They don’t abide the vanquished dawdling.


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