Dems: The breaks

Some Democrats in Congress bending on drilling debate

Posted by Kate Sheppard at 4:57 PM on 11 Jul 2008

Some Senate Democrats are warming to the idea of opening some offshore areas in U.S. waters to oil and gas drilling, as we reported earlier this week. A few more may now be joining the ranks.

Republicans in Congress have hyped the need to drill, and representatives are under pressure from constituents to do something about gas prices. Bending on drilling at least politically creates the appearance of doing something, despite the fact that opening offshore areas to production won't actually lower oil or gasoline prices until about 2030 -- if it does then. Even the head of the Energy Information Administration says that offshore drilling wouldn't affect the price of gas very much.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said this week that he's "open to drilling and responsible production," and apparently Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is also considering it. According to today's news, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown is also considering supporting more drilling, despite having formerly opposed it.

Some Democrats on the House side, mostly the conservative "Blue Dogs," are joining the Republican call for more drilling. "I propose that we drill in ANWR," said Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.). "We've already got a pipeline going to Alaska, the ANWR, that can handle two million barrels a day. We're only putting one million in it. Let's fill it up."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) spoke in favor of a compromise with some drilling this week, noting that 20 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska, an area set aside by Congress for oil drilling in case of emergency, could be made available for leases. Hoyer is pushing a plan that would mesh opening this area with forcing more drilling on the 68 million acres of already available land, a move that failed last month in a separate bill.

Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reiterated her stance that drilling isn't sound energy policy. "This call for drilling in areas that are protected is a hoax, an absolute hoax on the part of the Republicans and this administration," she said yesterday.

For story: Dems: The breaks
8 Comments | Post a Comment

orly?

Did anybody not see this coming? Literally all that this administration and Congress can do is make pretend fixes that actually do more harm than good. This will sadly be no different:(

by alphaniner at 4:45 AM on 12 Jul 2008

One of these days

the Democrats are either going to have to produce some of the change they promised, or just do themselves a favor and shut up. On Iraq they have rolled over, on energy they have rolled over, and on FISA they rolled over. Is there no limit to their rolling?

Then they wonder why Congress is more unpopular than pedophiles.

Randy Cunningham
Cleveland, OH

Randy Cunningham

by randino at 4:58 AM on 12 Jul 2008

Is anyone here curious about marine oil prospects?

The radio is saying 2600 km^2 of California has burned. Has recently burned. Isn't that, like, 1 percent of the whole state? Perhaps it's parts where no-one lives. Well, it's definitely that now, but perhaps before, too.

Oil mining is bad, but I wonder about the wisdom of projecting that American oil prospecting in the ocean will be so much less effective than Brazil's has seemed to be. Are there geological reasons for this expectation?

--- G.R.L. Cowan, H2 energy fan 'til ~1996
http://www.eagle.ca/~gcowan/boron_blast.html

by GRLCowan at 5:23 AM on 12 Jul 2008

Did anyone here notice that the..........

human population worldwide is exploding, that yesterday was World Population Day and that too many of our leading politicians and mass media moguls did not take advantage of World Population Day by so much as mentioning this "mother" of all human-driven global challenges?

Yesterday was World Population Day. Can anyone name one world leader or mass media organization to direct our attention to this momentous event?

After all, if Earth cannot be expected to sustain the skyrocketing growth of global human population, perhaps there is a case to be made for political leaders and mass media "talking heads" to advocate family planning, health education and contraception programs universally, freely and immediately available for voluntary use.

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php

by stevenearlsalmony at 6:37 AM on 12 Jul 2008

Feh...

Pandering toadies.

The mellotron is your friend.

by archigeek at 7:42 AM on 12 Jul 2008

Its an election year

I think this is some political theater. The democrats are making a token gesture to the right to blunt the PR offensive McCain and the right have launched. I don't think it will amount to anything.

by josullivan58 at 11:57 AM on 12 Jul 2008

Bingo - Election Time

Silly politicians always want to appear in control of things, even though they can't do diddley squat.

A far greater vision would be to sponsor large clean energy projects such as wind, solar, wave, and thermal - almost a competitive "shootout" if you will.

This would do two things. First, employment, R&D, and investment would flow to clean energy sectors using the government seed money for building infrastructure (not subsidizing energy and kW-hrs). Second, Big Oil would probably want to get some of that cash, and perhaps even try to ramp up near-term "dirty energy" supplies as well.

Just trying to fix an emergent oil crisis is playing the cards the exact wrong way.

Onward through the fog

by Sam Wells at 7:25 AM on 13 Jul 2008

Energy bills

Why don't the Democrats insist on some alternative energy provisions for the oil drilling?
Like extending tax incentives for solar and wind, now set to expire in December.
More drilling is just hair of the dog. If they really think it's politically necessary -- that the average American can be convinced it'll help by the massive campaign from the oil lobby, then why not get something for it that moves us forward?

by PurpleOzone at 7:46 AM on 27 Aug 2008

ADVERTISING POLICY

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have an account, log in. If you don't have an account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.