Is Pelosi coming around, or is this a feint to allow Pelosi to get this inconvenient-for-Democrats issue off the table?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled on Saturday her willingness to consider opening more coastal areas to oil and gas exploration.
In the Democratic Party’s weekly radio address, Pelosi (Calif.) said opening portions of the Outer Continental Shelf for drilling will be part of energy legislation that House Democrats intend to put forward in the coming weeks to address oil dependence and high gasoline prices.
Just weeks ago, Pelosi seemed resolved to block any votes to allow offshore drilling. New oil drilling is allowed now only in federal waters in the western Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska.
Pelosi’s radio remarks were the latest to hint that Democrats are budging on the issue.
That Pelosi says off-shore drilling will be a “part” of energy legislation Democrats will offer suggests the tactic the Democrats are going to use. They’re going to offer a bill with off-shore drilling included in it, but they’re going to load it with a ton of other things Republicans and conservatives don’t want. Like massive new entitlements for biofuels, for instance, and massive new tax hikes for the oil industry.
In short, the very sort of “one step forward two steps back” nonsense currently being touted by the “gang of ten.”
As I see it, domestic oil drilling is an important issue. One that should be considered on its own merits without other issues clouding things up. Democrats don’t want to consider the issue on its own, however, because it puts them between a rock and a hard place. Most rational Americans want more domestic drilling for oil which will increase oil supplies on the market and lower the price of gasoline (not to mention make us less dependent on foreign oil). The environmentalist hordes in the Democrat base, however, hate oil and want to see less of it. Not more.
So what can the Democrats do? Exactly what Pelosi is suggesting. Allow drilling only as a part of a bill that also gives the environmentalists what they want: More government welfare for their pet energy projects and more government punishment for the much-hated oil companies.
Update: Republicans want nothing to do with Pelosi’s deal making.
Republicans lambasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) energy plan Saturday advising her to “get out of the way” if she was not going to accept GOP solutions to the energy crisis.
In her Saturday radio address Pelosi announced that Democrats would consider opening up parts of the outer continental shelf for drilling as a part of a broad new energy plan that will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
The Democratic initiative will also seek to release oil from the 700 million barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve, require oil companies to pay billions of dollars Democrats believe they owe to invest in clean energy resources, increase the use natural gas and create a federal Renewable Electricity Standard.
Nice to see some GOP backbone for a change.