dnc’s “Drill”, an act in 2 parts

Posted by Chris on July 22nd, 2008 filed in General, Politics

So the democrats have come to their senses and decided to make a move on oil! Could it be that they are feeling the heat? Could it be that they want to help hurting Americans? Could it be that they are actually seeing the light? Well, no. Not so much. You see, they are feeling the heat. This is a home run issue for McCain. The democrats are completely on the wrong side and they know it. But they are hostage to the envirowackos in their base. So what do they do? They take an emergency bill called the Drill Act and try to ram it through. So, what is the Drill Act and why is it impotent? No, not important, impotent. Why? Read on and see.

There are 2 provisions in the Drill Act. First is the drill now or lose the lease provision, AKA “Use it or lose it”. That sounds reasonable. If you have a lease and you fail to utilize it, you lose it. Can’t argue with that. One problem: That’s already the policy! The federal oil leasing system has flaws, yes, but this isn’t one of them. Simply put, if a company, say BP, grabs a lease (more on that in a later post), it has between 5 - 10 years to drill it. If it doesn’t, then the lease goes to someone else. This stops a company from grabbing up the leases and holding them to drive up prices. So, strike that provision as totally useless. The republicans have pointed this out but few people want to report it. If you’re in the tank for Obama and Pelosi, you can’t make them look bad. Our republican leader points out in 1992 Pelosi voted for the very provision that she is trying to pretend doesn’t exist now. Fortunately for her, Obama supporters aren’t bright enough to know that or to find that out.

Next up in the 2 part act is the Alaska oil only to America provision. This one says that Alaskan oil cannot leave the US. It goes to American refineries only. Again, that sounds good. After all, we know that all oil goes straight to the world market and is overpriced there now don’t we? Um, well, no it doesn’t. It’s not law, no, but not one barrel of Alaskan oil has left the US since 2000. It stays here. Surely, someone in the press would mention that, right? Sure they would. Again they are in lockstep with Pelosi and Obama so not a word will be said. Only Investors Business Daily pointed that one out so far. Don’t hold your breath for the others.

So, why did the republicans just roll over and not fight? Come on, this is a winning issue. Well, this time, they really tried. They had all kinds of amendments ready to go, but the democrats used a procedure for emergency bills. A process put in place to expedite laws in response to 9/11 type of emergencies. Ironically, they wouldn’t allow this method to be used after 9/11. No, the 9/11 stuff allowed all kinds of changes, but this bill is for election pandering and is way more important than responding to the September 11th attacks, so under this emergency procedure, a 2/3’s majority was needed to allow any change to the Drill Act. So when the republicans tried to attach ANWAR drilling, they had a majority supporting it, but not the super majority. So out it went. When the republicans tried to attach outer continental shelf, again they had a majority, but not the super majority. Basically, Pelosi used a procedure for emergencies (that wasn’t invoked after 9/11) to stop actual drilling changes to occur. Also in her favor, it needed that 2/3 majority to pass too. It didn’t get it and now all the press headlines are blaming the republicans for blocking it.

Give it to Pelosi here. She did what the republicans would never have done. She puts up a bill that was just a passage of the same stuff that is already law or policy saying it will fight gas prices even though it would change nothing. Then she blocks all changes and makes sure a super majority of her party supported it and when it fails, she blames the republicans. This will be in commercials all over the country by the end of the week. Unfortunately, it will probably work because the press won’t throw the BS flag and because people willing to support Obama are certainly stupid enough to believe it. We, however, know better. And we will shine the light on it even if the press won’t.