Pelosi's Energy Bill a Shameless Hoax

Without floor debate or committee discussion, on Tuesday, September 16th, Nancy Pelosi, in her usual tyrannical and heavy-handed manner, ramrodded HR 6899 through the House of "Representatives".

The Institute for Energy Research (IER) labeled the Pelosi bill a "bait and switch" which "won't produce one drop of oil for many years to come."

The American Petroleum Institute (API) characterized the bill as "a dry hole for the American consumer...[which] will make Americans more dependent on foreign energy."

Looks like our Machiavellian me-first San Fran Nan and her liberal "party-first" minions have done it again: swindled "we the people". Let's pray for cooler heads in the Senate where this preposterous bill is headed.

Passing along essentially party lines, this so-called "compromise, comprehensive, all-of-the-above energy bill" permanently prevents America's accessing 80%--that's 80%!!!--of its offshore energy reserves, prohibits exploration in nearly 90% of the outer continental shelf, blocks energy production in the Western US, and, for the first time, prohibits energy production in arctic Alaskan waters. It also prohibits construction of any nuclear plants and, the coup de grace, levies $18B in taxes on the oil industry, the cost of which will, of course, be passed on to American consumers. And, yes, folks, there is pork. It's just too tantalizing for our "reps" on the Hill to resist.

In effect, this travesty of an energy bill extends the current moratorium on domestic drilling which would otherwise have expired on September 30th.

More specifically, the fine print imposes a 50-mile coastal ban on drilling where the largest known energy supplies exist, and allows drilling within 50-100 miles of the coast--but only with state approval and without any incentivizing revenue sharing mechanism in place to ensure state buy-in. Beyond the 100-mile range where there is precious little energy to be had, drilling is mercifully allowed by Politburo Chief Pelosi.

Nancy's environmental lobbyist contributors must be positively giddy and already feverishly scibbling checks for the DNC. And, of course, they must all be salivating in anticipation of a White House and Congress controlled by Dems and their socialist allies in November.

During these profoundly precarious economic times, wouldn't you think the Dems would try to do what's best for America first and not their environmentalist contributors? Or have they really shown their true colors for all to see? And, once again, those colors aren't red, white and blue! Imperiously ignored by autocratic congressional "leadership" once again, just when will the American people rise up and toss Comrade Pelosi and her elitist socialist bums on the street where they belong!

Better that Congress, the sop of special interests, were still on vacation than be allowed to perpetrate this debilitating hoax on America. Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Russia, among other oil producers--and those pesky speculators lurking in the shadows--are most certainly buoyed by this outrage. Look for higher oil prices soon if the Senate rubberstamps this or a similarly odious energy bill.

Boy, are we in trouble. When our own "representatives" work at cross purposes with those they are supposed to represent--YOU and ME--what is our recourse?

("The citizen can bring political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can." John Gardner)

("The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through." Alexis de Tocqueville)

("A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves." Edward R. Murrow)