Democrats on the committee voted down a bill to open offshore drilling in the US today. Why?
How do you lie to the public for 20 years then come clean? You can’t. Even the sleaziest, like Durbin can’t face the the heat by having all their past comments shown by campaign opponents. Plus, they are tied to so many lobbyists who don’t want any form of domestic energy productions, they can’t switch positions. Their candidate for president is firmly against all domestic production. Basically, they can’t change positions.
Get this, “we are kidding ourselves if we think we can drill our way out of these problems” House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis said. No, David, we will windfall tax ourselves out of it,right? How do we get out if it, honorable representative? Match this with Sierra Club director Athan Manuel who said: ” since the first Arab oil shock of the 1970’s” the U.S. has produced almost 90 billion barrels of oil since then, so we’ve tried drilling our way out of the problem and it just hasn’t worked.” Those two statements epitomize the stupidity the public is being sold. Not drilling having high prices and giving billions to foreign countries is better. Two flew over the cuckoo’s nest. The inmates are running the place.
Plus, the Republican candidate for president is in the same situation. Watch as all the Republicans distance themselves from McCain on energy. Peter Roskam, my congressman, is for every form of domestic supply. He will probably be reelected on this platform alone. As they open their campaigns they will elevate the differences on energy at the local level. Pressure will be put on McCain to change his unfortunate stance on domestic production.
If Peter Roskam loses the election in November with a strong position on domestic energy production, it means we are in more trouble than we know. A Democratic president and congress will mean no help for two more years. If McCain wins and the congress stays democrat, we may get some relief in the areas of nuclear and offshore. If other Republican candidates follow Peter Roskam’s lead and push for aggressive domestic energy production, it could keep the balance closer than we think in congress.
Best case, expect little help from Washington. They are simply unable to say we caused this problem and we will fix it. It doesn’t work that way in Washington today.
Get politically active. That means more than sending checks. It means letter writing. It means getting your family involved. It means getting friends involved. It means talking it up with your neighbors. Use those leadership skills you use or used at work to elevate understanding about the energy supply problem. Don’t quit because the task looks so hard. It’s turning slowly. Take heart from some small victories. Cap and trade went down in flames. Windfall profits tax went down in flames. Neither would have happened if the average American wasn’t getting pretty savvy about who is causing the problem. When some people like Durbin lose elections we will get there attention. We need to take on the worst of the worst and send a message to the rest.
