This Sunday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi again promised to use all her power to prevent the House from voting on any measure that would allow new oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Outer Continental Shelf. A majority of Americans support new oil exploration in these regions. Pelosi has tried to prevent the House from even debating whether or not to increase domestic energy production, but this past Friday a small group of conservatives took over the House floor after Democrats voted to go on a five-week paid …
Unless the House acts today, it will be the first time since the 1950s that lawmakers left for August recess without passing a single appropriations bill. It took one issue to bring the appropriations process to a screeching halt: energy. Instead of allowing even a single debate or vote on the issue, the liberals who control Congress have shut down all work on setting spending priorities for the federal government. Explaining why she refuses to allow a vote on expanded offshore drilling Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Politico: “I’m trying to …
Today the U.S. has about 22 billion barrels of proven oil reserves that can be legally developed. Yesterday, President Bush lifted just one of the many roadblocks that stand between American consumers and the estimated 19.1 billion barrels of oil in the Outer Continental Shelf that are currently off-limits from production. Bush’s rescinding of his father’s 1990 presidential directive restricting all new offshore exploration and drilling could almost double proven U.S. oil reserves. The next step is getting Congress on board. Beginning in 1982, Congress restricted more and more offshore areas …
The following e-mail was forwarded to me today, and it’s just too good not to republish. Coupled with American Solutions’ petition with more than 1.2 million signatures calling for energy production, it is clear that oil drilling can mobilize the right like few other issues. First, do you know what ANWR is? ANWR = Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Now, a comparison: And some perspective: Note where the proposed development area is (in the ‘ANWR Coastal Plain’):
NASA’s James Hansen is a hero on the left. He was among the first people to ask Congress to step up its control of the economy to decrease carbon emissions into the atmosphere. This week marks the 20th anniversary of Hansen’s first Capitol Hill testimony and he is on a media tour promoting his latest central planning solutions for the economy. Yesterday he told the House that although the left could stop all domestic oil drilling, it had no hope of stopping other countries from developing their resources: CO2 from oil is …
Skyrocketing gas prices are rapidly changing Americans’ priorities. Voters routinely identify energy costs as either the second or third most important issue. Considering that any economist will tell you that high energy prices are a major cause of recent economic sluggishness, and that the economy has been the No. 1 issue on voters’ minds for some time, the cost of energy has quickly become a defining issue for the nation. High energy costs were a big reason why liberal efforts to institute a carbon tax failed earlier this month in …
When the Democrats were still in the minority, Americans were paying $2.91 a gallon on average for gasoline. At the time, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) promised “a commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices by cracking down on price gouging, rolling back the billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, tax breaks and royalty relief given to big oil and gas companies, and increasing production of alternative fuels.” This is standard boilerplate for liberal politicians when Americans complain about gas prices: blame Big Oil greed for high gas …
Food riots have forced the collapse of the government in Haiti. People are dying in food lines in Egypt. The U.N. warns that food stocks for 450,000 Cambodian children is set to tun out in 30 days. Rising hunger is contributing to instability in Afghanistan. In India, even the gods are going hungry. After more than 30 years of declining hunger, suddenly, this year soaring commodity prices are causing hunger worldwide. The poor are are suffering the most. Some are blaming the food crisis on droughts in Australia and growing …
