15
Jul

Bush and GOP Pushing Harder on Energy

Posted by: Mike's America @ 10:59 am in Energy, Oil, Politics  | 1 views

President Bush and Republican leaders speaking with one voice on energy!

Continuing a campaign to focus national attention on America’s needs to develop new energy supplies President Bush stood at the White House podium on Tuesday to repeat his message to Congress that needs to act now to increase the supply of domestic oil by permitting offshore drilling, exploration of ANWR in Alaska and oil shale development.

Today’s press conference was a follow-on to his announcement on Monday that he was lifting the executive ban on increased offshore drilling and he called on Congress to do the same.

President Bush has been demanding attention to the energy issue since the first days of his Administration (photo chronicle of his efforts to highlight alternative fuels is here). And yet, every year, the only action from Democrats in Congress has been to use the issue as a political football or to use it to raise taxes, not increase energy supplies.

Are Democrats Listening to The American People?

In June we learned from Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole (R) what aggressive measures House Republicans were taking to address the issue and how that effort has been obstructed by Democrats. There was hope that after House Democrats got an earful on high gas prices from their constituents they would be willing to be more flexible on the issue after returning from their break. Unfortunately, House Speaker Pelosi announced that rather than even permit a discussion on more oil drilling, no energy bill would be brought to a vote.

Up to now, Democrat attention to the energy issue can be summed up by this quote of a Democrat congressional aide:”Right now, our strategy on gas prices is ‘Drive small cars and wait for the wind.’”

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are not sitting still. U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell introduced the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008 on June 26, 2008 with 43 GOP Senators as co-sponsors. The legislation is a compromise designed to attract Democrat votes as it omits drilling in Alaska’s ANWR.

Key points of the legislation:

  • Remove the ban on offshore drilling 50 miles beyond the shore except on the Florida Gulf coast where drilling is still banned.
  • Remove the moratorium on development of oil shales in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming.
  • Foster development of “plug in” electric cars and trucks.
  • Tighten regulation of commodities markets.

10 Democrat Senators have recently been quoted suggesting that drilling for new oil may be necessary. And it’s not hard to understand why they would change on this issue. Polls show an overwhelming majority of Americans favor drilling for new domestic oil supplies. And the following Democrat Senators are up for re-election this year:

Mark Pryor of Arkansas
Joe Biden of Delaware
Dick Durbin of Illinois
Tom Harkin of Iowa
Mary Landrieu of Louisiana
John Kerry of Massachusetts
Carl Levin of Michigan
Max Baucus of Montana
Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey
Jack Reed of Rhode Island
Tim Johnson of South Dakota
Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia

Voters in those states should waste no time contacting BOTH their senators and demanding they support the legislation.

Is Senate Leader Reid Listening?

Response from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been typical. Once again he trotted out the flawed talking point that oil companies already have permission to drill in areas where no oil is likely to be found. But, he also reiterated that Democrats were not opposed to finding new domestic supplies of oil, so it seems he should endorse allowing oil companies to drill where they feel oil is more likely to be found.

Reid also repeated a desire for more wind power. While Democrats criticize drilling as an immediate solution (ignoring the psychology of the market to do so) Reid and friends seem oblivious to the fact that energy solutions from alternatives like wind power will take years and years longer than drilling.

If only we could harness the wind power coming from Democrats on this issue all our energy problems would be solved!

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19 comments so far

MataHarley
 1Reply to this comment  

Up to now, Democrat attention to the energy issue can be summed up by this quote of a Democrat congressional aide:”Right now, our strategy on gas prices is ‘Drive small cars and wait for the wind.’”

Uh, you might want to add also that BHO/DNC also advocate high as prices in order to induce different behaviour from US citizens on energy useage. The difference between the GOP and the DNC is the latter believes the govt has the obligation to tell – no, make that *mandate* – consumers what size cars to drive, and at what temperature to maintain your home.

If only we could harness the wind power coming from Democrats on this issue all our energy problems would be solved!

ooof.. what a foul wind that would be. Isn’t there some air pollution reg that aroma would be violating??

I liked this press conference… tho I only got to see the last 30 minutes or so. POTUS with an edge… about bloody time.

July 15th, 2008 at 11:15 am
thebronze
 2Reply to this comment  

Bush and GOP Pushing Harder on Energy

Not nearly hard enough.

July 15th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Fit fit
 3Reply to this comment  

Can anyone explain Bush senior’s executive ban? The congressional ban seems to predate it by several years. Why did he ban something that was already banned?

July 15th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Scrapiron
 4Reply to this comment  

“Can anyone explain Bush senior’s executive ban?” At the time it was purely a symbolic gesture, or appeasement on some other subject. The Bush family has always been accused of being in big oil’s pocket. The nuts do it today to GWB, 30 years after he sold out of the oil business and doesn’t stand to make a dime not available to 300 million Americans.

July 15th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Fit fit
 5Reply to this comment  

I’m not opposed to drilling offshore or in Alaska, but what’s going to be your excuse when those things get passed (as they certainly will) and we’re still paying $5 a gallon (as we certainly will)?

July 15th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Dreadnought
 6Reply to this comment  

Fit, frankly I don’t particularly care if the price of oil doesn’t go down substantially. Increasing supply will provide downward pressure – that’s basic economics, but Indian, Chinese and other developing world demand will continue to increase demand and thus prices. But that is not the most important issue.

The most important thing is that every barrel of oil that we can produce ourselves will reduce the amount of money we have to send overseas, often to countries who love the idea of using our own money to hurt us. Right now, we are sending some $60 Billion PER MONTH to countries like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. Remember that their production costs are less than $10 per barrel.

Increasing our own production will reduce our trade deficit, which will increase the value of the dollar, which will reduce the price of oil some more, as well as make our capital markets more attractive to foreign investment (boosting the stock market and our overall economic growth).

So drilling now should be a no-brainer.

July 15th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Mike's America
 8Reply to this comment  

Oh, and just to pre-empt any libs in denial who may say that President Bush hasn’t done anything about the energy problem until now, take a look:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/energy/archive.html

Page down to the bottom of that archive to early 2001 and you’ll see that he began touching on many of the same themes he is repeating today, INCLUDING CONSERVATION.

It’s a shame that Congress didn’t listen. But, contrary to what some libs think, we are not living in a dictatorship and President Bush can only do so much with Executive Orders and speeches.

July 15th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
DW 5000
 9Reply to this comment  

Here, let me spruce this up for you:

It’s a shame that [Republican] Congress didn’t listen.

July 16th, 2008 at 5:37 am
Mike's America
 10Reply to this comment  

DW: Perhaps you would like to retract that statemement before I post the voting records on the various energy bills which included new drilling in places like ANWR.

It has been the policy of the Democrats in congress, whether in minority or majority, to oppose nearly every measure that would expand domestic production of oil.

July 16th, 2008 at 8:29 am
missy
 11Reply to this comment  

Aided and abetted by campaign contributions from the various environmental lobbies, lawsuits to prevent refineries, nuke plants, and drilling by more of the dem contributers in the legal profession. Even the acreage the dems are claiming the oil companies aren’t drilling on have law suits currently preventing them from drilling on the legal area they hold leases on. What a racket!

Adding, a couple of weeks ago Eric Bolling did a few interviews on several FOX programs. He said he contacted drilling companies to find out how long it would take to recover and produce oil. The answer ranged from 1 year to no longer than six. Dispells the 10 year myth.

Today in Ed Laskey’s column I see more interesting information to share:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/07/how_wrong_are_the_democrats_on.html

July 16th, 2008 at 8:43 am
DW 5000
 12Reply to this comment  

DW: Perhaps you would like to retract that statemement before I post the voting records on the various energy bills which included new drilling in places like ANWR.

Post all you want. Congress had a Republican majority for years and years and the job you want didn’t get done, while the Democrats have been in a majority for a year and a half. How that translates into the problem being caused by Democrats is something that perhaps only you can understand. I’ll retract nothing, thank you very much.

July 16th, 2008 at 10:37 am
MataHarley
 13Reply to this comment  

I see some believe that the oil futures supply problem only began with a Bush Presidency. Ah yes… time itself didn’t move until Bush took the oath of office. Before then, it was a veritable paradise with nary a problem in the world. Nary a fart wafted on the winds pre-GWB.

For some, it’s much too easy and politically convenient to ignore the refusal to allow drilling and new refineries over the past decades… thru both GOP and DNC led Congresses.

Oh, but *wait*… they’ll say we didn’t have $5 gas then, so it’s okay! uh huh… As if the rising demand, and increase in developing countries (a good thing) – weighed against a stagnant and declining petroleum source – wasn’t forseeable. Only to the utterly blind and simplistic single cell mind was this entire scenario not predictable.

In fact, we’ve been warned over and over. It’s been an issue for decades. It’s been ignored for that same length of time.

BOTH parties are guilty…. even if they voted affirmative. Because they never laid out it’s importance to the American public, nor did it in time to prevent this moment from ever happening. Noooo… we had to wait until the sheeeet hit the fan…. giving the enviros just what they want. Force wean us off of oil by making it cost prohibitive.

Then the same dodos who still can’t see the storm thru the rain on their face (read Obama and ilk…) want to charge/tax the public an arm and a leg to develop even less efficient energy sources, then charge us even more $s to use that less efficient energy. This when we’re all struggling with the increases of everything due to fuel/shipping cost hikes.

All the while, this same group can’t even get solar and wind farms built because of their heavy handed bureaucracy, and enviros stepping in at every turn to protect that weed in the desert…. At the same time, they halt any coal or oil with legal lawsuits – plants that could be up and running and provide rapid relief.

Can elected officials truly be this stupid and keep their jobs? Evidently. It just requires an even more stupid electorate to pull the ballot lever for them…. how embarrassing it is to see this nation come to this. Unbelievable.

RANT KEY OFF/

July 16th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
John Ryan
 14Reply to this comment  

DW 5000 during previous years the Republicans were busy trying to pass other more important legislation such as the bridge to nowhere. Why is it that “conservatives” never seem to want to conserve our national resources, they never seem to want to leave anything behind for other generations.

July 16th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
MataHarley
 15Reply to this comment  

Ah yes, yet another concrete dweller who believes the world is a GOP strip mine, and that DNC sheeeet don’t stink.

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right….. and damn – they vote too!

July 16th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
SoCal Chris
 16Reply to this comment  

This is from National Review Online by Larry Kudlow yesterday…very interesting, I thought, that while President Bush was speaking at the news conference on Monday, the price of oil went down to $136.! Supply and demand is my new mantra.

http://kudlow.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjMyNDljNTQ5MThjNWE3YTAzYWYzMmZmNDVmMjA0ZWY=

July 16th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Mike's America
 17Reply to this comment  

DW: Are you really so clueless that you are unaware that a majority of Democrats have voted against drilling in ANWR every time the measure has come up?

If we really were living in a dictatorship with Bush as the Lord and master it would be fair to say that he’s to blame for the situation.

But there’s this little thing you might have heard of called the Constitution and it divides the powers between the three branches of government.

If you haven’t heard of the Constitution before, or are unaware of how power is divided let me know and I’ll recommend some remedial reading for you at your grade level.

And John Ryan: Your ignorance is showing again when you said: “Why is it that “conservatives” never seem to want to conserve our national resources”

Would you like me to cite the number of initiatives that President Bush has pushed stressing conservation?

I gave you the link above, but apparently expecting you to be well informed before polluting these comments with your ignorance is too much to ask.

Here’s just one of many examples:

Memorandum
May 3, 2001

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

SUBJECT: Energy Conservation at Federal Facilities

A key component of my Administration’s overall commitment to make the most economical use of public dollars and to protect the environment is to improve energy conservation at Federal facilities. Further, with possible electricity shortages in California and in the Northeast and Northwest this summer, the Federal Government should set a good example of conservation by reducing its own energy use, particularly in regions where electricity shortages may occur and during periods of peak electricity demand. Such conservation would save public money, protect the environment, and help to minimize shortages.

Therefore, I hereby direct the heads of executive departments and agencies (agencies) to take appropriate actions to conserve energy use at their facilities to the maximum extent consistent with the effective discharge of public responsibilities. Agencies located in regions where electricity shortages are possible should conserve especially during periods of peak demand.

In addition, agencies should review their existing operating and administrative processes and conservation programs and identify and implement ways to reduce such use. Agencies should report to me, through the Secretary of Energy, within 30 days from the date of this memorandum on the conservation actions taken. The agencies shall take these and other appropriate energy conservation actions using existing budget authority.

GEORGE W. BUSH

Note the date: May 2001

Instead of continue with your dumb and blind Bush bashing perhaps you could call your Senators and Represenative and tell them it’s time to work on a bipartisan plan that allows the free market to supply the needs of America’s consumers at a lower price.

But of course you really don’t want that to happen do you?

July 16th, 2008 at 7:17 pm

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