REPUBLICANS in Congress finally got their vote on offshore oil drilling this week. Few were satisfied with the bone tossed them by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The American people shouldn't be satisfied, either.
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Pelosi, who opposes new drilling for American oil, allowed the vote only because this summer Democrats were on the wrong side of offshore exploration, which seven in 10 Americans favor.
Unfortunately, the House-passed bill is nothing more than a fig leaf for Democrats as they prepare to face frustrated voters in November.
It would permit drilling only beyond 50 miles off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. It omits new exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and provides no incentive for states to authorize drilling off their shores. The quip heard in the Republican caucus was that Pelosi's bill was like an architect planning to build a two-story house — but only the second floor.
Republicans said the legislation would keep 85 percent of offshore reserves off limits because they're located inside the 50-mile limit, while essentially imposing tax increases on oil producers.
In addition, the bill says nothing about tapping oil in remote northern Alaska or increasing nuclear power. Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Cheyenne, called the legislation an "empty offering to the American people.”
It'll be interesting to see the bill's reception in the Senate. House Democratic leaders denied Republicans a chance to offer an alternative or to amend the majority version. Senate rules won't permit that kind of heavy-handedness.
More than likely the issue will remain in a stalemate — bad for America's energy future but preserving the issue as a point of contention in campaigns for the White House and Congress.
As well it should be. Americans made clear their support for offshore exploration during the summer's spike in gasoline prices. They deserve a chance at the ballot box to show their displeasure with the Democrats' election-year drilling gimmick.
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Keep an eye on em ! They screw people and the Gov't everyday on royalty, etc.
It has been a hundred years since the government has kept its hands out of the oil business. Things like whear oil companies can drill. How much oil companies can pump out of the ground. The minimum amount that companies can charge for oil / gas. The maximum amount that oil companies can charge for oil / gas. Who can and who can not sell oil / gas. Everything that has touched oil has had the touch of many kinds of government regulation. We do not need more oil regulation we need less.
We see what happens when an ideology of hands-off and no oversight or regulation becomes official Gov't policy. There are greedy people in every adventure, let's be careful taking the leash off and turning our backs and closing our eyes and telling them to get it while they can. Anyone for Social security invested with these goobers?
Before any new policy policy of leases to the oil companies go into effect , there needs to be a thorough investigation into the relationship between the agency that approves leases and the companies that bemefit from them. Just last week news broke of a sex and drug relationship between the employees of this agency and companies who bid on the leases.
An environmental movement run amok. The Sierra Club and its sycophants in Congress while kneeling before the alter of Gaia are forcing more and more production into parts of the world without environmental controls or oversight. Every well they block in the US or offshore is another that goes down in the jungles of Nigeria and Brazil.
Good. We need a comprehensive energy policy. It's been about 30 years since we've had one! But such policy should be driven by sober consideration and debate, not the pandering and partisan posturing and rhetoric that is inescapable during an election season. So, if this isn't something that can garner bipartisan support, let it die on the vine and revisit the matter after the new Congress and Administration takes office January 20, 2009. Isn't it better to get a good plan and policy in place than to hop, skip, and jump to the tune of expeditious election season political hype?
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Leave a comment. Log in below or sign up (it's free).Editor's note: It is not our intent to offer comments on crime or fatality stories.