<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>WHY NOT have a vote on offshore drilling? There's a serious debate to be had over whether Congress should lift the ban on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf that has been in place since 1981. Unfortunately, you won't be hearing it in the House of Representatives -- certainly, you won't find lawmakers voting on it -- anytime soon. Instead of dealing with the issue on the merits, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a staunch opponent of offshore drilling, has simply decreed that she will not allow a drilling vote to take place on the House floor. Why not? "What the president would like to do is to have validation for his failed policy," she said yesterday when asked that very question. "What we're saying is, 'Exhaust other remedies, Mr. President.' . . . It is the economic life of America's families, and to suggest that drilling offshore is going to make a difference to them paycheck to paycheck now is a frivolous contention. The president has even admitted that. So what we're saying is, 'What can we do that is constructive?' " If there is an explanation buried in there about why that makes offshore drilling off-limits for a vote, we missed it. Ms. Pelosi is correct that drilling is no panacea for the nation's energy woes. The short-term effect of lifting the moratorium, if there were any, would be minimal. That doesn't mean the country shouldn't consider expanded drilling as one of many alternatives. There are legitimate concerns about the environmental impact of such drilling -- environmental concerns that, we would note, exist in other regions whose oil Americans are perfectly happy to consume. But have technological improvements made such drilling less risky? Why not have that debate? ad_icon When they took the majority, House Democrats proclaimed that "bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that allows open, full and fair debate consisting of a full amendment process that grants the Minority the right to offer its alternatives." Why not on drilling? Meanwhile, the dispute has snarled progress on spending bills for fear of having drilling amendments attached. Citing "the uncertainty in how the oil and gas drilling issue is currently playing out on the Senate floor," Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) called off committee consideration of spending bills on which Republicans were threatening to offer drilling amendments. The result threatens to be the first time since at least 1950 that lawmakers will go home for the August recess without either chamber having passed a single appropriations bill. If drilling opponents really have the better of this argument, why are they so worried about letting it come to a vote?</div> Source Nancy Pelsoi: "I'm trying to save the planet!" Simply Amazing.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>"What the president would like to do is to have validation for his failed policy. What we're saying is, 'Exhaust other remedies, Mr. President.' . . . It is the economic life of America's families, and to suggest that drilling offshore is going to make a difference to them paycheck to paycheck now is a frivolous contention. The president has even admitted that. So what we're saying is, 'What can we do that is constructive?' "</div> That was one of the most confusing, convoluted things I've ever read.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chutney @ Aug 5 2008, 04:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>"What the president would like to do is to have validation for his failed policy. What we're saying is, 'Exhaust other remedies, Mr. President.' . . . It is the economic life of America's families, and to suggest that drilling offshore is going to make a difference to them paycheck to paycheck now is a frivolous contention. The president has even admitted that. So what we're saying is, 'What can we do that is constructive?' "</div> That was one of the most confusing, convoluted things I've ever read. </div> Yeah I have to admit it seems pretty ridiculous. So much superfluous drama...
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>LANSING, Mich. — Barack Obama called Monday for tapping the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to provide short-term relief from rising gasoline prices, marking the second time in a week that the Democrat has shifted positions on an energy issue. ADVERTISEMENT His proposal to release 70 million barrels of oil from the stockpile — a concept he rejected one month ago — follows his decision last week to support some offshore drilling if it were part of a comprehensive energy bill. The doubling of gas prices over the past year constitute a “crisis,” aides said, prompting Obama to reconsider his position on the oil reserve. But similar to the caveat he issued when he reversed course on drilling, Obama said no single step, including drawing on the oil reserve, would reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil in the long term. “Breaking our oil addiction is one of the greatest challenges our generation will ever face,” Obama said in his prepared remarks Monday. “It will take nothing less than a complete transformation of our economy. This transformation will be costly, and given the fiscal disaster we will inherit from the last administration, it will likely require us to defer some other priorities.” Tapping the oil reserve was just one piece of a broad package that Obama said would reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign oil over 10 years, spending $150 billion on a mix of subsidies for business and consumers to encourage a “clean energy” future. The plans include a $7,000 tax credit to drivers who buy advanced-technology vehicles and $4 billion in direct assistance to Detroit automakers to help them build hybrid vehicles in the U.S. “We can do this,” he vowed in Michigan, the nation’s car capital. Obama’s speech here marked the start of a weeklong focus on energy issues — a campaign flashpoint as voters feel the pain of higher oil prices. The presumptive Democratic nominee, who has spent the past week deflecting Republican comparisons of him to Hollywood celebrities, launched the offensive on the campaign trail and TV. He spoke here several hours after releasing an ad attacking Republican John McCain for being in the “pocket” of Big Oil. In his speech, Obama said McCain had not done enough during his 26 years in Washington to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil. “So when Sen. McCain talks about the failure of politicians in Washington to do anything about our energy crisis, it’s important to remember that he’s been a part of that failure,” Obama said. McCain returned the blame Monday, telling a crowd in Lafayette Hill, Pa., that Obama should press his party’s leaders, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, to pull Congress out of its summer recess and pass an energy bill. “I am going to lead our nation to energy independence, and I'm going to do it with a realistic and comprehensive 'all of the above' approach that uses every resource available to finally solve this crisis,” said McCain, who has also reversed his opposition to offshore drilling. On Friday, Obama dropped his opposition to offshore drilling, saying he would be open to limited drilling as part of a compromise energy package. But on Monday in Michigan, Obama said oil companies must first look at drilling on 68 million acres that they own but have not touched. "And if they don’t, we should require them to give up their leases to someone who will," Obama said. In proposing to tap the oil reserve, Obama said his plan would swap light sweet oil with heavier oil. President Clinton used a similar swap of government oil in 2000, releasing 30 million barrels because of concern over rising gas prices. It was last tapped in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The reserve “is there for a purpose: to help Americans in times of crisis,” a policy paper released by the campaign states. “Barack Obama believes the doubling of oil prices in the last year is a crisis for millions of Americans and the transfer of wealth to oil producing countries, many of them hostile to our interests, is a threat to our national security.” A month ago in St. Louis, Obama said it was not time to tap the oil reserve, saying it should be used in a “genuine emergency.” He cited, as an example, a terrorist attack on a major oil facility in Saudi Arabia in which we "suddenly had huge amounts of oil taken ... out of the world market.” Spokeswoman Jen Psaki disagreed Monday with the characterization that Obama had shifted his position, saying the senator has been “consistent about his belief that the president should retain his discretionary authority to conduct exchanges or swaps” as warranted by circumstances. McCain opposes tapping the oil stockpile. His spokesman said Monday that it exists "for America's national security strategy — not Barack Obama's election strategy." The three main components of Obama’s plan are: — Get 1 million 150-mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrids on U.S. roads within six years. — Require that 10 percent of U.S. energy come from renewable sources — more than double the current level — within four years. — Reduce U.S. demand for electricity 15 percent by 2020. “If I am president, I will immediately direct the full resources of the federal government and the full energy of the private sector to a single, overarching goal: In 10 years, we will eliminate the need for oil from the entire Middle East and Venezuela,” Obama said. To set an example, Obama is vowing to convert the entire White House fleet to plug-in hybrid vehicles within one year and to convert all federal vehicle purchases to plug-in hybrids or all-electric by 2012.</div> Source Gotta love that energy plan.
Pelosi has decided that shes the emperor of the world, and the earths foremost authority on energy policies....so instead of letting them vote, she would rather make the decision on her own....she should be tried for treason in my opinion....
Pelosi needs to be removed as Speaker. She's been horrendous. And the President needs to call Congress back into session, if only as a symbolic measure. It will help his approval rating if anything.
