Watch as Senator Mitch McConnell, (R) Kentucky, proposes that allowance for off-shore drilling be triggered at $4.50, $5, $7.50 and finally at $10 per gallon price of gasoline — and the Democrats objections overriding his requests.

Hey America, even if you have to fork over 10 George Washingtons (nope, doesn’t look like Obama by the way) for a gallon of go juice for the family jalopy, those “I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet” congressional Dem-wits don’t want to give you any relief. But, is their stance even a little bit sound, even on an environmental level? Nope, Nada, Ain’t NO way Jose! — Charles Krauthammer elaborates:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposes lifting the moratorium on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and on the Outer Continental Shelf. She won’t even allow it to come to a vote. With $4 gas having massively shifted public opinion in favor of domestic production, she wants to protect her Democratic members from having to cast an anti-drilling election-year vote. Moreover, given the public mood, she might even lose. This cannot be permitted. Why? Because as she explained to Politico: “I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet.”

A lovely sentiment. But has Pelosi actually thought through the moratorium’s actual effects on the planet?

Consider: 25 years ago, nearly 60 percent of U.S. petroleum was produced domestically. Today it’s 25 percent. From its peak in 1970, U.S. production has declined a staggering 47 percent. The world consumes 86 million barrels a day; the United States, roughly 20 million. We need the stuff to run our cars and planes and economy. Where does it come from?

Places like Nigeria where chronic corruption, environmental neglect and resulting unrest and instability lead to pipeline explosions, oil spills, and illegal siphoning by the poverty-stricken population — which leads to more spills and explosions. Just this week, two Royal Dutch Shell pipelines had to be shut down because bombings by local militants were causing leaks into the ground.

Compare the Niger Delta to the Gulf of Mexico, where deep-sea U.S. oil rigs withstood Hurricanes Katrina and Rita without a single undersea well suffering a significant spill.

The United States has the highest technology to ensure the safest drilling. Today, directional drilling — essentially drilling down, then sideways — allows access to oil that in 1970 would have required a surface footprint more than three times as large. Additionally, the U.S. has one of the most extensive and least corrupt regulatory systems on the planet.

Does Pelosi imagine that with so much of America declared off-limits, the planet is less injured as drilling shifts to Kazakhstan and Venezuela and Equatorial Guinea? That Russia will be more environmentally scrupulous than we in drilling in its Arctic?

The net environmental effect of Pelosi’s no-drilling willfulness is negative. Outsourcing U.S. oil production does nothing to lessen worldwide environmental despoliation. It simply exports it to more corrupt, less efficient, more unstable parts of the world — thereby increasing net planetary damage.

{…}

They [the Dem-wit Democrats] seem blissfully unaware that the argument for their drill-there-not-here policy collapses on its own environmental terms. [Emph. mine]

[h/t: Michelle Malkin]The Democrats are sure good at NIMBY. Remember RFK and his uncle Teddy Kennedy and the fight to keep wind turbines out of their precious beach-front sight lines, even though you couldn’t even see ‘em from his compound? Yeah, let’s save good ol’ Gaia, at least that part o’ her that we can see from the windows at Tiffany’s. Oh ya betcha! That’s some hard-core environmental hair-growin’ and planet-savin’ going on — sho’ ‘nuf. But, forget these schmoes — Hugh Hewitt has a plan:

Shut down the government by blocking the appropriation’s bill, which will no undoubtedly contain a continuation of the off-shore drilling ban and let the public know how those Dem-wits really feel!

John Hawkins correctly notes that the ban on offshore drilling on the outer continental shelf expires at the end of the fiscal year. If the GOP refuses to allow an appropriations bill with the ban through the Congress, the ban will expire even as the government shuts down.
{…}
Obama opposes outer continental shelf drilling. Pelosi opposes outer continental shelf drilling. Reid opposes outer continental shelf drilling.

But majorities in both houses of Congress and John McCain support outer continental shelf drilling, as do large majorities of Americans.

After the war and judges, energy is the most important issue in the fall, and the GOP should keep a clear focus on the Democrats indifference to the pain at the pump spreading throughout the country.
{…}
But if the plans are laid now and explanations given over and over again of why a showdown and a shutdown are coming –because we have to bring new domestic supllies of oit to market– the GOP can win this confrontation and get the drilling ban lifted.

In the meantime, the Department of the Interior should prepare to start issuing leases for the newly opened areas the moment the ban is off. Secretary Kempthorne hemmed and hawed when I asked him about this, but President Bush and his team should direct DOI to be ready to go.[Emph. mine]

As Michell Malkin notes, even Californians (yeah, us nut jobs out here on the Left Coast!) are beginning to see the big picture.

See what happens when you lead?

It took the Beltway GOP long enough to get in front of the issue, but now it’s paying off.

No need for “rebranding” or “re-imaging” or moving to the left. Just moving ahead in the Right direction.

Still, as gasoline and heating oil prices continue to hover at $4 per gallon or rise further, and with food prices skyrocketing from increasing transportation costs, let all the up-for-a-vote Representatives and Senators that are against drilling have to face the music back home.

“Gee, we sure are sorry that lil’ Jimmy and lil’ Suzie aren’t gettin’ three squares a day because you have to pay for fuel to drive to work, or that their lil’ fingers and toes have turned that funky blue-black color — you ever heard of turning up the heat? — oh, sorry ’bout those heating oil and natural gas prices, but hey you know, we gotta concentrate on what’s really important here!”

[We're] trying to save the planet; [T]rying to save the planet.”

Yeah — right! Gaia don’t vote! Tell that to someone who cares . . .

Technorati Tags: Senator Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, anti-drilling, off-shore drilling ban, outer continental shelf drilling

This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 9:36 am and is filed under American Future, Do Nothing Congress, Global Warming B.S.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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