“This week, the House will vote on comprehensive energy legislation that is a result of a reasonable compromise.”—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), September 9th, 2008.
Congressional Democrats this week are promising a vote on “comprehensive energy legislation…” But what’s in the bill? Well, unfortunately, nobody seems to know.
In fact, not even the Democrat leadership itself knows—because according to its own spokesmen, it is still being cobbled together as of this writing. They can only say that it’s brand new, not based on legislation already introduced. Which raises the real question as to whether anyone will even get a chance to read it before it’s rushed to the floor of the House for a speedy attempt at a rubber stamp vote.
In other words, Democrats had the entire August recess to put together a plan, but instead they waited until their September 9th caucus meeting to even try to decide what their plan may be. More than a little slow in responding to public demand for increased energy production, the Democrats are proving that they only respond to real political pressure provoked by the sky-high prices that have hurt American families so much this year.
It’s ironic. And tragic. They had no plan when oil topped $100/barrel. Nor any plan at $120/barrel. Nor any plan at $145/barrel. No, they waited for the oil bubble to pop, and oil is back down near $100/barrel. And they still don’t have a plan.
According to Roll Call, Democrats do not expect to get a vote until next week, undermining Speaker Pelosi’s promise of voting this week:
“House Democratic leaders probably will have Members review their energy proposal over the weekend and look to next week for floor action, according to the bill’s sponsor, Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.)… An hour before heading into a Democratic Caucus meeting, Rahall said he was hopeful to have bill language to Members ‘in five to six hours.’ Several sticking points remain, namely over limits on offshore drilling.”
They’ve waited until the last minute to act in utter desperation. And that’s just not what one would define as leadership.
Of equal import and cause for concern is that whatever the plan is, it is not the “result of a reasonable compromise…” as Ms. Pelosi suggests. If it were, it would have included Republican leaders. But they were not even consulted. And there is not a single Republican member of Congress that could tell you what’s actually in the Democrat energy “plan.”
For a party so interested in “compromise”—that was their promise to the American people when they won the majority in 2006—the Democrats seem to have forgotten that there are two political parties in Washington that might have an opinion about the greatest crisis facing the economy in over thirty years.
In contrast, Republicans have been calling for an up-or-down vote on their own proposal, the American Energy Act—their “all-of-the-above” bill that would dramatically increase drilling for oil and gas, lift bans against oil shale exploration, remove red tape to building new nuclear power plants and gasoline refineries, extend tax incentives for alternative energy, and open up the door for coal-to-liquid.
Yesterday, the Democrats blocked a vote on that bill, and instead are foisting their desperate fig leaf “plan” upon the Congress, thereby wasting the American people’s time and money—and exhausting their patience.
Here’s an idea: Since the Democrats still do not have a plan ready for action, why not have an up-or-down vote on the Republican plan while they weigh their desperate options?
