The Democrats are Irresponsible and are Playing Politics with Energy

In my last post I said that both parties have good points and bad points on energy. However, the left is by far the more irresponsible and beholden to special interests than the right. The Democratic house speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to even allow a vote on offshore drilling, and as I write this Republicans are leading a revolt on capital hill to demand a vote.

I have been very disappointed in the Republicans in the past, but I can say that right now I am proud to call myself a Republican. Finally the GOP are standing their ground against the Democratic majority and the special interests they serve. I am not naive, the GOP have their own special interests too and at times have let them come before the good of the American people ,but right now they are doing exactly what they should be doing, taking a stand for the greater good of the American people.

We've all heard the excuses, "The oil companies already have 68 million acres that they aren't using", and "Even if we drill today we won't see a drop for 10 years", and of course "Drilling will only reduce the price of oil by 1 to 3 cents". All these arguments are deceptive and are only used because the Democrats know they are on the unpopular side of this issue.

Oil companies are drilling, but many of those 68 million acres are either dry or what oil they do have is economically unfeasible to retrieve. On the question of not seeing a drop for 10 years, it is actually more like 2-3 years. Furthermore, if that were true, if we have started drilling in ANWR in 1995 like the Republicans wanted we would have have a steady supply of oil from there for 3 years. The last argument, the one about the impact of drilling only reducing the price by a few cent at most, this is also a deception.

Once the speculators see that America is serious about drilling again, they will speculate that prices will come down. This will send prices down much farther than the Democrats claim. A few weeks ago President Bush lifted the executive ban on offshore drilling and now prices have dropped under $4.00 a gallon, imagine what could be done if congress lifted their ban as well and the oil companies announce they will start drilling on the continental shelf.

Republicans absolutely need to adopt some of the Democrats solutions, they are already taking alternative energy more seriously. Now they need to consider raising fuel efficiency standards as well. I hope that if the Republicans pull off a miracle in November they do this, it will not only be good for them politically, but, much more importantly, it will be better for America.