Democrats and oil

This morning, Associated Press writes that President Bush is expected to ask Congress to relieve restrictions on off-shore drilling;

Then gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon this summer. Drivers and others began clamoring for federal lawmakers to do something about the record price of oil, much of it produced in foreign countries.

In response, President Bush is renewing his call to open U.S. coastal waters to oil and gas development, arguing that it’s high time to battle high prices with increased domestic production. He is planning to ask Congress on Wednesday to lift the drilling moratoria that have been in effect since 1981 in more than 80 percent of the country’s Outer Continental Shelf and to let states help to decide where to allow drilling.

But, surprise, the Democrats want to extend the ban into 2009 – when they hope to have the presidency and they can claim they solved the current energy problem.

For their part, some lawmakers have their own plan: Legislation that would continue the ban into late 2009 was scheduled to be considered Wednesday by the House Appropriations Committee.

Congressional Democrats, joined by some GOP lawmakers from coastal states, have opposed lifting the prohibition that has barred energy companies from waters along both the East and West coasts and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico for 27 years.

On Monday, GOP presidential candidate John McCain made lifting the federal ban on offshore oil and gas development a key part of his energy plan. McCain said states should be allowed to pursue energy exploration in waters near their coasts and get some of the royalty revenue.

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for president, opposes lifting the ban on offshore drilling and says that allowing exploration now wouldn’t affect gasoline prices for at least five years.

Well, that’s not true, exactly. When President Bush announced his support for tax rebates, in anticipation of the infusion of cash, the economy responded immediately. The same would happen with the oil market.

When Jimmy Carter was president, the Democrats were anxious to solve the problem. In his famous “malaise speech“in 1979, Jimmy Carter promised;

To make absolutely certain that nothing stands in the way of achieving these goals, I will urge Congress to create an energy mobilization board which, like the War Production Board in World War II, will have the responsibility and authority to cut through the red tape, the delays, and the endless roadblocks to completing key energy projects.

We will protect our environment. But when this nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it.

Well, Democrats, we need to cut through red tape, we critically need refineries. Is it only a good idea when Democrats use the issue to expand government?

Jimmy Carter even admitted that coal is a solution, that we have enough shale oil to be independent from the Middle East oil;

We have more oil in our shale alone than several Saudi Arabias. We have more coal than any nation on Earth. We have the world’s highest level of technology. We have the most skilled work force, with innovative genius, and I firmly believe that we have the national will to win this war.

Apparently, we only have a national will when the Democrats own the seats at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Category: Economy, Jimmy Carter, Politics