On May 20th Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement celebrating House passage of a bill preventing President Bush from adding oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. From the statement: “As the price of oil per barrel nears $130, suspending purchases will expand oil supplies and help bring down fuel costs for consumers.” Oil closed at $129 that day and by July 11th Pelosi’s oil policy had driven the price of a barrel of oil all the way down up to $147. On July 14th President Bush lifted the executive ban …
Venezuela’s leftist leader Hugo Chavez isn’t set to arrive until tomorrow to meet with Russian Prime Minister Vladimr Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, but two Russian media outlets are already claiming that Chavez will buy $1 billion to $2 billion worth of subs, helicopters and airplanes while in Moscow. Since 2003, Chavez has bought more than $4.4 billion in arms from Russia. Last year Russia announced plans to build two Kalashinkov assault rifle factories in Venezuela. Unfortunately, arms sales are just a small part of the Russian-Venezuelan axis that is …
New York Times reporter Andre Revkin has a typically banal hatchet job of a post up at his Dot Earth blog trying to undercut Newt Gingrich’s “Drill here, Drill now, Pay less” campaign by using the tired lefty tactic of painting him as a tool of big oil. Newt’s a big boy who can defend himself, but Revkin’s slander-a-thon also mentions The Heritage Foundation in passing. Revkin writes: Thomas A. Saunders III ($200,000)—Saunders is a Trustee of the Heritage Foundation, a think tank devoted to free enterprise, limited government and …
Yesterday CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), drilling her about her refusal to allow more domestic energy production. From the interview: BLITZER: There are a lot of people out there, including plenty of Democrats, who say one of the most important things to do right now is to resume offshore drilling off the coast of California, Florida, elsewhere around the United States. Take a look at this poll that CNN/Opinion Research Corporation recently did. “Do you favor offshore drilling?” Seventy-three percent said yes. “Do you oppose offshore drilling?” …
Liberals in Congress are desperate to head off the growing consensus for increased domestic oil production. Trying to convince her fellow Democrats not to cave in and allow oil exploration and production off the coast of California, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-NY) explained: “This is our ethanol.” As persuasive as that argument is, liberals are desperate to pass anything that they can use to try and trick the American people into thinking they want to reduce gas prices. One bill that has passed the House and is heading to the floor …
