Monday, August 18, 2008

EDITORIAL: Energy falsehoods

The pressure House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faces for stonewalling on energy legislation won't go away anytime soon - and certainly not after the distortion-laden speech she gave over the weekend. Mrs. Pelosi's weekly radio address attacked Republicans for U.S. energy problems, and to be sure, they are hardly blameless. But Republicans cannot take credit for the $1.50-per-gallon increase in gas prices that has occurred since Democrats took over Congress following the 2006 elections.

Mrs. Pelosi continues to push the absurd notion that oil companies need to produce oil in the 90 million acres they are currently allowed to lease, even though 1) there is no guarantee that there is oil to be found on these lands; and 2) the fact that the leasing and exploration process can take years to complete. We know there are deposits of oil shale. And there is oil to be found off the West Coast and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The speaker told an incredible whopper about how congressional Democrats passed a bill to stop President Bush from filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, "and the price fell by over $20 a barrel." But that vote occurred May 19. On that day, a barrel of oil cost $127.15 - this was just before the summer spike to $145.31 a barrel by July 3 - which led analysts and politicians to conclude that the nation was in an energy crisis.

But this should surprise no one. This claims have evolved, but they are the same false arguments Democrats have used in an effort to thwart Republicans from working towards effective energy policy for more than a year. But despite the Democratic leadership's obstructionism, House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam notes that 112 Republican lawmakers "have returned to Washington to demand that Speaker Pelosi bring Congress back into session so we can have an up-or-down vote on a truly comprehensive, pro-American, pro-production energy strategy that eases the pain at the pump and lessens our dependence on foreign oil."

It is clearly Mrs. Pelosi who is playing the rhetoric/propaganda game with the American people and they are not buying it. According to the latest Rasmussen poll, 61 percent of Americans want Congress to reconvene and lift the ban on offshore drilling. Moreover, 67 percent said they believe the Republicans are on the right side of the issue. According to the same poll, 70 percent of women and 73 percent of men said offshore drilling is important to how they will vote this year. Democrats could be in for a rude surprise in the fall - especially if many of the 30 House and six Senate seats they expect to gain in November end up with Republicans still holding them.