The Republicans in both the House and Senate have been pressing for votes to open up new drilling in the U.S. to bring oil and gas prices down. But the Democrats led by their unholy trinity of Pelosi-Obama-Reid are doing all they can to block votes.
Eric Cantor, the Republican chief deputy whip in the House, is one of those leading the fight to get relief at the pump for Americans. Cantor is a rising star and is on the short list of those being mentioned as a running mate for John McCain.
In a detailed account provided to Power Line, Cantor describes the mess Democrats have created with their opposition to drilling:
While American families are enraged over pain at the pumps, Democrat leaders, beholden to environmental extremists, remain mired in an anti-drilling posture that pits them against a clear majority of the American people. And they know they are vulnerable too.
So what exactly are the "Don't Drill" Democrat leaders Pelosi-Obama-Reid doing?
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have ducked and dodged a debate over drilling at every turn. Reid has bogged down bills by stonewalling Republican amendments aimed to bolster American energy exploration. Pelosi has foisted bills onto the suspension calendar to thwart the addition of Republican pro-drilling amendments. Meanwhile, House Appropriations Chairman David Obey went so far as to shut down the FY ’09 appropriations process because his party couldn’t stomach a debate on offshore drilling.So what is their strategy then? The Democrats’ goal is to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people. Look like you are doing something substantial, rail against “Big Oil” and other convenient scapegoats you can find, and pray the public doesn’t catch on.
Republicans stand ready to lock arms with our Democrat counterparts to promote conservation and to heavily invest in alternative sources of energy. But for us to pretend that oil won’t remain a significant part of our energy consumption for the next several years is a dereliction of duty. This ostrich head-in-the-sand strategy only promises greater pain down the road.
There are several other ways for America to send jittery world oil markets a signal that a gusher of new, secure oil is on the way. We should start by drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR), which contains 10.4 billion barrels of oil, and lifting the 27-year-old moratorium on deepwater exploration off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, which would meet 100 percent of our oil needs for 10 years, and all of our natural gas needs for 20 years. Both of these actions – in addition to incentives for renewable energy sources, shale oil production, increased refining capacity and energy efficiency – form the basis of the American Energy Act, a bill unveiled last week by House Republicans.
This is what we need, but what are the prospects?
The steps called for in our bill would have a tangible effect on spot oil prices. So far the Democrats won’t get behind them, but we simply will not relent on an issue that is battering every single middle class American family.Congressional Democrats thought this summer and fall would be a cakewalk for them. They expected it to be a coronation of Senator Obama. What they got instead was a fight.
With fighters like Cantor who won't back down, Pelosi-Obama-Reid can be defeated and a victory chalked up for the American people.
