Those Silly Republicans - It's Gas Prices Stupid!

I just filled up the tank on my Toyota Sequoia today, and since I had let it almost get to empty, that sucker cost me $91.30 to fill up! Can you believe that. An I'm told that In California, the price is around 10% higher, so over there it would have cost me over $100.00 to 'filerup'. Thank God I'm in Florida.

So why doesn't the GOP take advantage of this? What the heck is up with those slow Republicans, can't they do a bit of Grand Standing? Put on a bit of a show and crank up the criticism of Pelosi and her insane policies? Don't they know that Americans are sick and tired of paying through the nose for Gas? Pelosi is talking about how Gas prices are higher since Bush took office, but of course, she doesn't say out 75% of that increase has come since she took over as speaker of the house. Here we are with the greatest issue that they've ever been on the right side of, and you don't see them exploiting it. Where's the Press Conferences, the Advertisements, the hoopla over the fact that the Democrats keep on putting up more and more barriers to Drilling. Where's the Energy plan that Pelosi promised us when the Democrats took over congress 2 years ago. Instead of gas prices going down, they've nearly doubled!

Sure Oil has taken a bit of a beating, but Inventories are down, and the EU might start to raise Interest rates, which will put renewed pressure on the Dollar, forcing it back down to it's pre-rally levels. That in turn will cause Oil prices to start rising again, since we import the vast majority of our oil. The only way to resolve this particular issue is to produce more of our own oil. Look at how strong the Canadian Dollar has become because of Oil. Of course, expanding drilling isn't something that is going to help the price at the pump next week, but the sooner we get started on this, the sooner we'll start to see some relief.
Continued after our sponsor...

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Here's the kicker. As soon as the speculators see that Congress is actually doing something about Oil inventories and this artificial shortage that they've created, most will stop buying new contracts, and you'll see quite a few of hem take their profits and run. Once the Stampede heads for the exits, we could see prices at a third to half their current levels.

So what's going on? Well, I've reported to you how the Democrats in Congress were blocking all the Republicans led attempts at expanding Oil drilling. In addition, Appropriations chief, David Obey actually shut down the Appropriations process to actually come to a vote, mostly because he wanted to shield Democrats from the embarrassment of voting against Oil drilling when most Americans want Drilling to proceed. Obey actually said that he would bring the bill back up, after the Fourth of July Holiday, and include the "Use it or Lose it" legislation (which I'm opposed to) that Democrats feel will increase drilling. Well it hasn't happened. They know that the Republicans now finally have enough votes, since some Democrats are finally starting to feel the heat from voters wanting something done about ultra high gas prices. Instead of doing the right thing for the American People, they've chosen to scuttle all energy related legislation for now, so the the bill won't even come up for a vote.

The worst part about this is that the Chinese will soon be drilling off the coast of Florida, but American Companies can't do the same! This is absolute insanity, we're on the verge of a Half Trillion Dollar Giveaway, because we would rather buy our oil from outsiders than get the stuff ourselves.

Where's the outrage? Where are the press conferences? Where's the drama?

Even if you believe in the theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming, (man made over natural) shifting where we buy our oil from makes absolutely no difference on the world stage on that issue.

Sure they put out nifty little videos like this one on YouTube, but they need to go a lot further:

• Buy some Air Time.
  
• Have some Republicans Chain themselves to Gas Pumps.
• Jump out of Air Planes with "Pelosi Premium" on the Parachutes.
• Do some outrageous things to get some attention.
• GET THE MESSAGE OUT!
  

The worst part about this is that the only thing Obama is saying about the high gas prices is that he had hoped that Gas prices did as quickly as the did. The fact that gas went up did bother him, the fact that it went up so fast bothered him!

Republicans have the one issue that the vast majority of Americans side with them on, and instead of exploiting it to win back the seats they've lost in congress, they're acting like the skinny little kid in the school yard cowering under the table to keep the big bully from beating him up. Grow a backbone and let's go get 'em.

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Sad Forth of July??

Happy 4th of July to everyone out there, it rained a lot here in South Florida, so I took the time to do several posts today that I've been wanting to put up for a while.

Something I noticed though, is that it actually turned out to be a kind of sad 4th. My wife and I have several friends that we usually visit every 4th of July, because each one is doing some sort of huge party and a massive fireworks display and so we end up carefully planning how we're going to make "the rounds" without ticking anyone off.

Well it turns out this year, that no one and I mean no one had a big party this year. To top it off, usually when we come home at night every year, it's hard to park our car, because our neighbor at the end of the street has all of her friends over, literally lining up the entire block. This year, it was still hard to park the car, but only because the Neighbors Dog was in our driveway. When I took him over to her house, it only then hit me that her house was empty. I asked, "Where's the big party you guys usually have?" She replied, "Well, with Gas, Food and everything else going up and away, we just didn't have the money to do anything this year."

It's pretty sad to see my friends and family this way. Everyone basically canceling trips, canceling parties, not being able to enjoy themselves, because their taxes are going through the roof, their food prices and of course, the biggest problem of all, their Gas prices.

What sickens me the most about this, is the apparent lack of concern that Congress has over this whole issue. When Nancy Pelosi came riding into Congress 2 years ago, she promised to do something about Gas prices that have gone up over 35% in the previous 6 years. Well instead of doing something to make things better, her and the Democrats fought to take lands away from Oil Drilling, and do everything possible to stop all use of Fossil Fuels and Nuclear energy. Instead of fixing the problem, over the past 2 years, we've seen prices just about double, or three times the rate of the previous 6 years. To top it off, because of Ethanol, we now see food prices higher than they've ever been, and if Obama wins, just to add icing to the cake, we can look forward to having our taxes increased. Yay!!

I guess this is one of the reasons why I keep writing about this issue, because only if we stick together, only if we make enough noise together, will we see any kind of results.

Good Night, and I hope you've had a GREAT 4th of July.

Operation Drill Bit Showing Success!!

I'd like to give a BIG thanks to everyone who participated in the Schnitt Show's Operation Drill Bit that we've been promoting here at No Socialism! Apparently, our efforts have not gone in vain and congress is starting to take notice.

Rep Ginny Brown-Waite, gave a speech to Congress in which she talked bout receiving Drill Bits from Constituents as their way of letting Congress know that the time has come for America to Drill and provide for it's own resources.

Again, we need to remember that's this is not just about drilling for oil, it's also about building more Nuclear Power Plants as Europe has done is is continuing to do. It's also about doing more about alternatives that we have the technology to take advantage of now, like Coal to Oil Gasification and Shale to Oil technologies. It's about ending the diversion of our food supply that's driving up our food prices. It's about ending the Stonewalling that's going on with the Democrats blocking every attempt to expand drilling and expand energy here in America.

I think we all need to go another round with these guys to let them know we're still watching them. If possible, "Adopt" a Democrat to send an extra set of Drill Bits to, perhaps I don't know, maybe someone like Congressman David Obey. Let him know that a policy of "No", just won't cut it. Let him know that Bills like "Use it or lose it" are not any kind of solution, but yet another roadblock. If you need his address, it's:

Congressman Dave Obey
First Star Plaza
401 5th Street,
Suite 406A
Wausau, Wisconsin 54403-5468

Please remember to help out by signing Newt's Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less initiative, and participate in Operation Drill Bit, to Flood Washington with Drill Bits. These initiatives will help remind Congress that they are in Washington to represent "We The People" and should follow our directives.

The Half Trillion Dollar Giveaway

The United States of America is on a course for self destruction on an unprecedented scale. At today's prices we are poised to transfer a Half Trillion Dollars of our wealth over to the Canadians, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Venezuela, Dubai and the other countries that we import Oil from.
While Europe, you know those guys who scold us for not signing the Kyoto Protocol, is preparing to build dozens and dozens of Coal Fired Electrical plants, we haven't built a single one in 30 years. We've heard of ecological disasters if we do so, and yet, China has built over 1000 of them over the past decade. Where's the Global Warming? Instead the past 2 years have seen some of the coldest winters on record, with record snowfall in North America, some of which contributed towards the flooding in Colorado.
The U.S. has an estimated 800 Billion Barrels of oil, yet we're keeping most of it locked away for what? To help our Arab Friends?
In our rush to 'fix' something that we don't understand, we said we were doing it to help those least fortunate. The world's poor, and yet the poorest around the world are paying for our policies in the form of higher than ever food prices, and literally starving because of this. How many people will have to die before we do something?
We read story after story of Truckers leaving the Hauling business, Airlines dumping planes, and firing pilots, in February alone the U.S. lost 63,000 jobs, and yet what's being done?
In 2005, the U.S. Trade deficit was running at 60.9 Billion per month, of that almost half was Oil, and that was when Oil was 1/3rd of the price it is today! Yet as far back as 2005, Democrats in Congress were doing everything they could to either stop domestic drilling, or keep our country from expanding any kind of Fossil Fuels, and the picture hasn't changed at all today.
We see stories on the Discovery Channel on how Dubai and others are building Massive Gleaming Towers, even entire cities off the oil money that we are providing, while we lose thousands of jobs. Jobs that could be provided by a renewed Oil industry here in the U.S. and jobs that would be created by consumers actually having cash in their hands to spend. The average suburban household is now spending almost $300.00 a month more for gas than they did just 3 years ago, how many coffee shops will have to close, how many bakeries, how many electronics stores, hair salons, cell phone shops, how many stores in the Malls will have to close, because the American family must divert cash they once spent in their local neighborhoods and are now giving it to Venezuelan and Middle Eastern Thugs.
While demand for Gas is down, which in theory should lower prices, that hasn't happened because the speculators see the Democrats stopping any and every proposal to build Nuclear, Coal or any power plant for that matter. Even Solar powered plants are being hampered by excessive regulations. The speculators assume, rightly so, that the U.S. Economy needs more investments in energy, but this is not happening, so the claims of Barrack Obama and other Democrats that "drilling won't help for 10 years", is just foolishness. If the speculators see that we're doing something about the situation, they will start reducing or even liquidating their positions in Oil, and that will help reduce prices now.
I was at the supermarket yesterday talking to a woman in line about this, her response was that we shouldn't drill because she was sure they'd do something like come up with a Paint that generates Solar Power. When I said to her, but lady my $35,000.00 Sedan and my $45,000.00 SUV runs on Gas, am I just supposed to throw those away? Her response was that I should have thought about that when I bought those cars. I said, You've got to be kidding me? Gas was a 1/3rd the price it is today when I bought those cars. Besides that, even if they DID invent that magic Solar Spray paint. When will it go into production? We don't yet have the technology to replace fossil fuels, so do we just do without? And up north, next winter, do the people simply freeze to death because they don't have their Solar Powered heaters?
You see, that's the Democrats response. "Oh well, too bad you suburbanites, you should move to downtown and use public transportation". When you really think about it, this is an assault on the "Red State". The States where most of the population lives outside of town. Where most of the population has to drive long distances and where they have no public transportation. It's the Democrats way of pushing these people who are unaware of the games being played to vote Democrat next time. They're banking on the fact that most Americans will blame their woes on the President and by proxy his party. This is their strategy to win in November.

What can you do? Sign the Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less Petition. Also, participate in Operation Drill Bit, let's flood Washington with Drill bits along with a letter letting them know that we're on to them.

We all know that the future belongs to Solar, the question is will we get there in prosperity and in style, or will we get there, beaten broken and in misery.

Republicans Face an Uphill Battle

It looks like I was wrong, when I said that Congress was responsible for the latest increases in Gas and Oil, it's the Democrats in Congress that have given Congress a bad name. Republicans are facing an uphill battle to save the U.S. Economy and the U.S. Consumer's wallets and Bank accounts, but the Democrats are fighting them tooth and nail.
Let the Democrats in Congress know how you feel by participating in Operation Drill Bit. Let then know we're watching.

• On January 4, 2005, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) introduced a bill (H.R. 39) to repeal the prohibition against the production of oil and gas from ANWR and any leasing or development leading to such production.

• On April 21, 2005, the House passed a bill (H.R. 6) by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) to allow oil and gas leasing in ANWR. 90% of Republicans voted for the bill, while 80% of the Democrats voted against it. The provision was removed before the bill was signed into law.

• On October 6, 2005, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) introduced a bill (H.R. 4004) to repeal the prohibition against the production, leasing, and development of oil and gas from ANWR. Rep. Paul has reintroduced the legislation in the 110th Congress (H.R. 2415).

• On May 23, 2006, Rep, Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) introduced a bill (H.R. 5462) to direct the Bureau of Land Management to establish an oil and gas leasing program in ANWR and conduct two lease sales there before October 1, 2010.

• On May 25, 2006, the House passed a bill (H.R. 5429) by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) to repeal the proscription against the production or leasing of oil and gas resources from the ANWR and to provide extensive environmental safeguards for such production. 87% of Republicans voted for the bill, while 86% of the Democrats voted against it.

• On July 26, 2006, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) introduced a bill (H.R. 5890) to repeal the prohibition against production of oil and gas from ANWR and any leasing or development leading to such production.

• On July 18, 2007, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) introduced a bill (H.R. 3089) to repeal the prohibition against producing oil and gas from ANWR.

  OCS. Republicans have also consistently proposed expanding energy exploration and extraction on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), the lands under the waters surrounding the United States, most of which are statutorily off limits to energy development. Reports indicate that such expansion could yield 86 billion barrels of oil.

• On February 17, 2005, Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-WY) introduced a bill (H.R. 907) to allow easements or rights-of-way for energy and related purposes on the OCS for otherwise prohibited activities when such activities support exploration, development, production, transportation, or storage of oil, natural gas, or other minerals.

• On April 13, 2005, Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA) introduced a bill (H.R. 1596) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to grant a lease, easement, right-of-way, license, or permit on the OCS for activities not otherwise authorized under existing law, if those activities support or promote exploration, development, production, transportation, or storage of oil, natural gas, or other minerals.

• On April 21, 2005, the House passed a bill (H.R. 6) by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to grant, on either a competitive or noncompetitive basis, a lease, easement, or right-of-way on the OCS for activities not otherwise authorized under current laws, if those activities support exploration, development, production, transportation, or storage of oil, natural gas, or other minerals. 90% of Republicans voted for the bill, while 80% of the Democrats voted against it. These provisions were retained in the final version of the bill signed into law, and a provision was added to direct the Secretary of the Interior to inventory, analyze, and report to Congress on oil and natural gas resources beneath all of the waters of the OCS.

• On September 15, 2005, Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) introduced a bill (H.R. 3811) to terminate any prohibition on the expenditure of federal funds to conduct oil and natural gas leasing and preleasing activities anywhere on the OCS and to terminate all withdrawals of federal OCS land from leasing activities.

• On September 27, 2005, Rep. John Peterson (R-PA) introduced a bill (H.R. 3918) to terminate any prohibition on the expenditure of federal funds to conduct natural gas leasing and preleasing activities anywhere on the OCS and to terminate all withdrawals of federal OCS land from leasing for exploration for, and development and production of, natural gas. Rep. Peterson introduced a similar bill (H.R. 4318) on November 15, 2005.

• On October 6, 2005, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) introduced a bill (H.R. 4004) to terminate any prohibition on the expenditure of federal funds to conduct oil and natural gas leasing and preleasing activities anywhere on the OCS and to terminate all withdrawals of federal OCS land from leasing activities. Rep. Paul reintroduced the bill (H.R. 2415) in the 110th Congress.

• On November 7, 2005, Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA) introduced a bill (H.R. 4241) that contained a provision terminating the effect of all existing federal laws prohibiting the spending of appropriated funds to conduct oil and natural gas leasing and preleasing activities for OCS areas. The provision was omitted from the version of the bill that passed the House.

• On May 18, 2006, Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) offered an amendment (H.Amdt. 842) to strike sections of the Interior Appropriations bill that prohibit the expenditure of funds for OCS oil leasing activities in certain areas. A majority of Republicans voted for the amendment, while Democrats overwhelmingly voted against it.

• On June 29, 2006, the House passed a bill (H.R. 4761) by Rep. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) to greatly increase energy development on the OCS, including a prohibition on more than 25% of the acreage of any OCS Planning Area being withdrawn from leasing more than 100 miles from any coastline. 86% of Republicans voted for the bill, while 79% of Democrats voted against it.

• On July 18, 2007, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) introduced a bill (H.R. 3089) to terminate all existing federal laws prohibiting expenditures to conduct oil and natural gas leasing and preleasing activities on the OCS.

• On August 3, 2007, Rep. Chip Pickering (R-MS) introduced a bill (H.R. 3435) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to inventory oil and natural gas resources beneath the waters of the OCS, other than those in the Gulf of Mexico or off the coast of Florida. The Secretary would have to make available for oil and natural gas leasing all such inventoried areas.

Republicans continue to try to get Petroleum that's available in the form of Tar Sands, Oil Shale and Coal to Liquids to increase the U.S. supply of oil from alternative sources, I'll give you two guesses on who's blocking these bills, but you're only going to need one.

• On February 9, 2005, Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) introduced a bill (H.R. 681) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to issue separately, for the same area, a lease for tar sands and a lease for oil and gas.

• On July 28, 2005, the House passed a conference report (H.R. 6) led by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) to instruct the Secretary of the Interior to make available for leasing public lands in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming in order to conduct research and development of technologies for the recovery of liquid fuels from oil shale and tar sands. The legislation also contained various other provisions encouraging the increased development of oil shale and tar sands, including evaluating and mapping U.S. oil shale and tar sands deposits and instructing the Defense Department to procure fuel derived from U.S. coal ("coal-to-liquids"), oil shale, and tar sands 90% of Republicans voted for the conference report, while 80% of the Democrats voted against it.

• On November 18, 2005, the House passed a bill (H.R. 4241) by Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA) that contained a provision facilitating the commencement of oil shale and tar sands leases.

• On June 27, 2007, Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) offered an amendment (H.Amdt. 452) to the Interior Appropriations bill to carve out Utah and Wyoming from certain restrictions on oil shale development. 91% of Republicans voted for the amendment, while 89% of Democrats voted against it.

• On March 31, 2008, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) introduced a bill (H.R. 5656) to repeal Section 526 of the major energy bill of 2007 that prohibited federal agencies from procuring fuels made from unconventional petroleum sources.

Republicans also realize that one of the best ways to lower gas prices is for NEW players to get involved in Oil and Gas Refineries, so they're trying to make it easier for that to happen, but of course, the Democrats keep blocking for the Big Oil companies, I mean they don't want to upset those Record Profits to they?:

• On April 21, 2005, the House passed a bill (H.R. 6) by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), which included, among other things, provisions to prescribe guidelines for the designation of refinery revitalization zones and the coordination and expeditious review of permitting process for such zones. 90% of Republicans voted for the bill, while 80% of the Democrats voted against it. Subsequent iterations of the legislation included tax incentives for refinery investment.

• On September 20, 2005, Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) introduced a bill (H.R. 3836) containing a variety of provisions to expedite federal permitting procedures for construction or expansion of domestic petroleum refining facilities.

• On September 22, 2005, Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) introduced a bill (H.R. 3887) to direct the Secretary of Energy and the Secretary of Defense, to jointly designate three closed military installations as suitable for constructing oil refineries and to prohibit the federal government, for two years, from selling or disposing of any such designated site except for purposes of oil refinery construction.

• On September 27, 2005, Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) introduced a bill (H.R. 3924) to revise the tax deduction for certain liquid fuels refinery property to allow expensing of the entire cost of such property if the property allows for a production capacity increase of five percent or more on an average daily basis; and to allow, in lieu of such expensing deduction, a five-year recovery period for the depreciation of such refinery property.

• On October 6, 2005, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) introduced a bill (H.R. 4004) to provide additional tax incentives for investment in oil refineries. Rep. Paul reintroduced the legislation in the 110th Congress (H.R. 2415).

• On October 7, 2005, the House passed a bill (H.R. 3893) by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) that included a variety of provisions aimed at facilitating the siting, construction, expansion, and operation of refineries. 94% of Republicans voted for the bill, while 100% of Democrats voted against the bill.

• On June 20, 2006, Rep. Ron Lewis (R-KY) introduced a bill (H.R. 5653) to extend the election to expense the construction of oil and unconventional fuel (including oil shale and coal-to-liquids) refineries until 2016. Rep. Lewis reintroduced the bill (H.R. 683) in the 110th Congress.

• On July 18, 2007, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) introduced a bill (H.R. 3089) to provide for increased expensing of refinery property and direct the President to designate at least ten sites for oil or natural gas refineries on federal lands and make such sites available to the private sector for refinery construction.

If you take a look at the first picture on this page, it shows a yellow and orange area in the North East corner of Alaska, this is a closeup of that area. The two spots, marked .08 is the proposed drilling areas. That area is about 100 miles from any trees, it's nothing but a frigid swamp. That Tiny spot in ANWR that we'd like to develop, I mean it's like a little pea in the middle of a football field, but again the Democrats put up EVEN MORE Barriers:

• On February 2, 2005, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced a bill (H.R. 567) to designate oil-rich lands within ANWR as wilderness and components of the National Wilderness Preservation System, thus erecting another barrier to energy extraction there. Rep. Markey has reintroduced the legislation in the 110th Congress (H.R. 39).

• On April 20, 2005, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) offered an amendment (H.Amdt. 72) to H.R. 6 to strike the provisions of the underlying bill allowing oil and gas exploration in ANWR. 85% of Democrats voted for the amendment, while 87% of the Republicans voted against it.

China is building Oil Drilling platforms just 50 or 60 Miles off the coast of Florida on the OCS (Outer Continental Shelf), in a partnership with Cuba. Using horizontal Drilling, they'll probably even be able to get to OUR RESERVES!!! Do Democrats care?

• On April 21, 2005, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) introduced a bill (H.R. 1798) to prohibit leasing for the exploration, development, or production of oil, natural gas, or any other mineral in either the Mid-Atlantic or the North Atlantic planning areas of the OCS. Rep. Pallone reintroduced the bill (H.R. 777) in the 110th Congress.

• On February 16, 2006, Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) introduced a bill (H.R. 4782) to prohibit oil and gas preleasing, leasing, and related activities in areas of the OCS located off the coast of California and to exclude such areas from the OCS inventory required under current law. Rep. Capps reintroduced the bill (H.R. 2918) in the 110th Congress.

• On May 4, 2006, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) introduced a bill (H.R. 5300) to repeal the existing law requirement for a comprehensive inventory of OCS oil and natural gas resources. Rep. Hinchey reintroduced the bill (H.R. 586) in the 110th Congress.

• On April 19, 2007, Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) introduced a bill (H.R. 1957) to prohibit the conduct of oil and gas preleasing, leasing, and related activities in OCS areas located in the North Aleutian Basin Planning Area and to exclude such planning area from a mandated inventory of OCS oil and natural gas resources.

• On June 15, 2007, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) introduced a bill (H.R. 2758) to prohibit oil and gas preleasing, leasing, and related activities in areas of the OCS located off the coast of Mendocino, Humboldt, and Del Norte Counties in the state of California and to exclude such areas from the mandatory inventory of OCS energy reserves.

• On April 24, 2008, Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) introduced a bill (H.R. 5861) to prohibit oil and gas preleasing, leasing, and related activities in certain areas of the OCS off the coast of Florida.

When Nancy Pelosi rode into power 2 years ago, she promised to do something about Gas prices which had gone up around 50% to just over $2.00 a gallon. Instead, prices have doubled since the Democrats took over congress. Of course, Nancy Pelosi in True political fashion, blamed the whole thing on Bush, but let's take a look at what the Democrats have done when it comes to alternative energy like Oil Shale, Tar Sands, Heavy Oil and Coal Gasification.

• On December 7, 2006, Rep. Marty Meehan (D-MA) introduced a bill (H.R. 6417) to repeal the tax credit for producing fuel from a nonconventional source.

• On June 27, 2007, Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO) offered an amendment (H.Amdt. 448) to the Interior Appropriations bill to prohibit funds in the bill from being used to prepare or publish final regulations regarding a commercial leasing program for oil shale resources on public lands or to conduct an oil shale lease sale. 88% of Democrats voted for the amendment, while 93% of Republicans voted against it.

• On June 27, 2007, the House passed the Interior Appropriations bill (H.R. 2643) introduced by Rep. Norman Dicks (D-WA), which included a provision to prohibit the use of funds to prepare or publish final regulations regarding a commercial leasing program for oil shale and tar sands resources on public lands or to conduct an oil shale lease sale pursuant to the Energy Policy Act of 2005. 98% of Democrats voted for the bill, while 76% of Republicans voted against it.

• On August 4, 2007, the House passed a bill (H.R. 3221) that includes a prohibition on surface occupancy for oil or gas exploration or development purposes in each lease for certain federal lands on the Roan Plateau in Colorado. 96% of Democrats voted for the bill, while 86% of Republicans voted against it.

• On December 18, 2007, the House passed a bill (H.R. 6), now current law, that prohibits federal agencies from procuring fuels made from unconventional petroleum sources, aimed at stopping the Defense Department's plan to procure fuels derived from Canadian oil sands.

And of course, the Democrats just HAD to make smaller Oil refineries EVEN MORE expensive:

• On November 18, 2005, Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-VT, who caucused with the Democrats) introduced a bill (H.R. 4420) to repeal, among other things, the tax incentive from the Energy Policy Act of 2005 allowing a taxpayer to expense 50% of the cost of certain crude oil refinery property placed in service before January 1, 2008.

• On April 27, 2006, Rep. John Larson (D-CT) introduced a bill (H.R. 5234) to repeal tax incentives from the Energy Policy Act of 2005 relating to expensing of crude oil refinery property and exemptions from limitations on oil depletion deductions for certain small crude oil refiners.

All of this leads you to wonder why are the Democrats doing this? Don't they realize how hard this is hitting the poor and middle class, the very people they claim to represent? Don't they realize what all of this has been doing to the World food supply and how many of the world's poor are going hungry over this? Probably because of their belief in Global Warming, but despite their claims, the science isn't quite settled on this yet. Even Europe, while paying lip service to Global Warming is still moving ahead with their plans of building more Coal Fired Plants, Shale to Oil, Coal to Oil, Oil drilling and everything else they need to secure their energy future. Does it seem prudent to destroy the U.S. economy over something that's not quite known. Let's remember that man made Global warming is STILL a theory, and even if the models turn out to be true, if the record breaking cold weather keeps up that we've been having over the past couple of years, we're going to need that energy to keep warm.

The only thing we can do, is let congress know we're watching their every move, and one of the best ways to do this is by participating in Operation Drill Bit. Let's FLOOD Washington with Drill bits so they get the message, if you've already participate, then a heartfelt THANK YOU. If not, please get to the Hardware Store now, or even send in some old ones you have lying around. They will only act if they think we're watching.

Congress Needs To Show Us They Care

By congress' own actions, I would say that they agree with the findings of the Economic Policy Institute, in their assessment is that "Higher gas prices .. incentivize conserving". In other words, they seem to believe that higher Gas prices are "good" for the country, because the force people to conserve and use less gas. The sad part is that by my conversations with people in Coffee shops and people I meet in stores, many American's, or at least Rich American's (I live in one of the wealthiest areas in the country), feel the same way. The biggest problem with this line of thinking is that, as the Economic Policy Institute so astutely observed, it affects the bottom half of income earners the hardest; not to mention the devastating effects these policies have on the world's poor. Gas and corn prices have gone up at least 50% and 100% respectively, since Congress was taken over by the Democrats almost 2 years ago. In other words, we're building this brave new "Green World", on the backs of the ones who can afford it the least. Everyone talks about about oil as if it's passe technology, like we don't need it anymore. We should just move on. NewsFlash! The world still runs on oil, and we still don't have any alternative that is as economically viable as oil.
This morning President Bush expounded on Congress to do something to increase domestic drilling to help the economy. His comments were dismissed mostly because Congress, despite the high prices, seems to feel that we need to focus more on Green Fuels. Unfortunately, they know that Green Fuels can't compete with cheap gas and so they are reluctant to act, even if it's what the American People want. Popular Mechanics did a great story last year, where they show that Green Fuels have a long way to go be competitive with Gas, this is still true even with the recent run up in prices, especially corn based ethanol, which is about 50% higher than last year, due to increases in oil and corn.
On January 28th 1981, Reagan, faced with gas at 3X what it was when Carter stepped into office, decided that the government tried and failed in their attempts at regulating the Oil and Gas business. He decided to let the free markets dictate the price. In the book Envy of the World: A History of the US Economy and Big Business by Timothy, J. Botti, on page 392, the author talks about how, "Reagan dropped all price controls on the industry for the first time since 1971. In addition, he cut Carter's windfall profits tax of 30% on new oil exploration in half". Later, in 1988, after the ensuing Oil Glut, Reagan was able to eliminate the tax entirely, since the Oil industry was just barely making a profit. The U.S. consumer benefited with lower gas prices for the next 20 years! This my friends is what is called Leadership, something sorely needed by our so called leaders today. The reason it worked was simple, unshackled by excessive taxation and regulation, the industry found so much oil, that our reserves during the 80's increased by over 29%. To top it off, in order to compete with the U.S. massive oil output, OPEC, ended up cutting prices to the point to where Oil was as low as $8.00 a barrel!
Instead of following the example of what worked, set by Reagan, here's what congress is doing:

1. Subsidizing millionaire farmers.
2. Restricting Oil Exploration and production.
3. Ignoring Maryland's call to restart the 'Synthetic Fuels Corporation'.
4. Focusing on Corn based Ethanol, which only benefits Agribusiness.

How did we get here? After the Oil collapse of 1985, Oil companies started to consolidate the industry through mergers and acquisitions to become more profitable, and in many cases to stem huge losses. At the same time, OPEC seeing a threat from a more energy independent U.S. Started cutting prices to the point to where it costs less for us to buy our oil, than to go out, try to find it, extract it and so forth. The U.S. not only had excess capacity of Oil, we had a HUGE excess gas capacity as well. If gas prices had stayed high, they could still make money, but by the end of 1985, gas prices bottomed out at about .89 cents a gallon, too low for them to make any money. Through merger's acquisitions (and explosions) we cut the number of gas refineries down do about half today of what we had during the Reagan years, but unfortunately, congress used the Exxon Valdez spill as an excuse to once again, shower the industry with regulations, most of which had nothing to do with Shipping, and environmental spills, and more to do with protecting the industry from newcomers getting into the business. This had the effect of allowing the industry to continue to consolidate, and cut costs, while at the same time preventing any newcomers installing new refineries or oil drilling to compete with the existing business. In other industries, such as Airlines, smaller carriers like Spirit or Jet Blue enter the market to provide low cost choices, where Mergers caused those low cost choices to disappear, not so in the Oil industry. The past few years has seen the merger of Exxon and Mobile, Chevron and Texaco, British Petroleum and Amoco. Where are the new startups to challenge these guys?

Of course, the other White Elephant in the room is Global Warming. Too many of congress' decisions are based upon the whole "Carbon Footprint" theory, that somehow we are causing Global Warming. Before you dismiss me outright, let's keep in mind that the Southern Hemisphere has been cooling about as much as the northern hemisphere has been warming over the last decade or so. Also, 3 of the 5 or 6 hottest days on record since 1890, happened over 70 years ago. There's absolutely no proof that we are outside of normal variations. In addition, the tales of the oceans rising, it turns out were falsified. Even a British judge has said that Gore's movie, needed to be shown with Guidance notes to point out the "Political Indoctrination" and "Factual Errors".

But here we are betting our entire future that this is all correct, when in reality it's nothing more than the latest political fad du jour. A hundred years from now, when the next Glaciation Cycle starts, historians will be saying, "What the hell were those people thinking? Didn't they have the technology to study history back then?" I'll get into that in another post.
Back to the subject at hand, if congress really cares about us, here's what they need to do to lower prices on Gas.

1. Realizing the Industry is cleaner than it's ever been, streamline the EPA process required to get a new site up and running.
2. Reform the EPA to actually allow more Gasoline Refineries to be built in the U.S. (without it costing Billions to do)
3. Restart the Synthetic Fuels Corporation.
4. Offer tax breaks to companies to switch Power Generation from Oil to Coal.
5. Mandate higher fuel efficiency for vehicles.
6. Mandate all new homes be built with Solar Hot Water Heaters at the bare minimum.
7. Mandate higher energy efficiency in Homes and appliances.
8. Mandate to all electric utilities that they MUST buy any available electricity at the same cost, that it costs them to generate that electricity (this way if someone builds a Garbage powered generator, he can sell the electricity back to the utility.

If these policies are announced on the SAME DAY that they announce a stop in Emergency Reserve purchases until the end of the summer driving season, AND a stop to interest rate cuts, believe it would be enough to burst the current Oil bubble that is powering oil up even higher every day.

So there you have it congress, now show us you care!

Recap of references used in this Story on Diigo.