Big Dogs Weblog

Oil is Slippery Subject for Democrats

by Big Dog on Jul 9, 2008 at 21:02 Political

The Democrats in this country have gotten us in a pickle with regard to energy, specifically oil. In the 70s they asked us to conserve and over time all drilling in this country ceased. Sure, oil companies have leases but they are in places where it will be hard to find oil. We know of the places where the oil is but the Democrats still refuse to let us go after it. Obambi wants us to conserve but our oil consumption is lower now than it was back then.

Democrats have told us that it would take 10 years to get oil (which they said 10 years ago) and that we need alternative energy. Affordable alternative energy does not yet exist but oil does. We should be drilling for our own oil while developing new energies for the future. We cannot sit on our hands while the price of oil goes up and while we continue to compete with other nations for whatever OPEC decides to pump out. Now that we are winning the war it is no longer front page news and the Democrats know they will not win an election based on it. They also know that gasoline prices are on people’s minds and they also know that the people see the Democrats as the ones obstructing access and keeping prices high.

The Democrats very badly want the price of gas to go down until the election because that will be a winner for them but they also do not want to lose the environmental whack jobs who have helped to create the problem. Democrats are turning to president Bush to help them out. Nancy Pelosi wrote a letter to the president asking him to release the strategic reserves so that the price of oil will go down and lower the price of gasoline. There is enough oil in our reserves to supply our country for two months without any imports. Using our own oil for two months and not importing any would certainly help the prices go down but it would be short term and end up costing more when we needed to import again.

The Democrats are desperate because they do not want to lose an election over the price of gas, especially since they caused the problem. Now they are changing positions, not because people want them to but because they want to win. If it were not an election year they would care very little about the price of gas because high prices make people drive less and Al Gore smile. Dick Durbin stated that he would be willing to open new places to drill and said that Harry “oil makes us sick” Reid might buy off on it as well. It is funny that they went from “we can’t drill our way out of the problem” to we need to drill our way out of the problem. The point that is missed is that Pelosi has admitted that increasing OUR own supply will lower prices. She admitted it when she asked that OUR oil in the reserve be released. Democrats sometimes miss the irony of their positions. They favor increased taxes and say tax cuts don’t help and then send back our money in a stimulus check because if you have more of your money you will spend it and help the economy.

In the case of oil, Pelosi has made the argument that we need to drill for our own. We need to be hitting the shale and ANWR as well as the coastal regions. States are still able to say no but if they do they can’t have any of the oil we get. It is as simple as that. They can buy from the Saudis while the rest of us enjoy our own.

In any event, this is a great opportunity for the president. He should strike a deal with the Democrats that he will release the strategic reserves but only after Congress passes a bill that allows drilling in ANWR and all the other places where we have oil. He needs to ensure the language of the bill is airtight so that they cannot change anything and he needs to make sure that ALL areas are open to drilling. As soon as that bill is signed into law he can release the reserves. If he were smart he would let John McCain broker the deal so that he would get the credit. Then the GOP needs to take ALL the credit and make films and other ads showing the Democrats saying we can’t drill out and all their other opposition. Best of all, it would put Obambi in a position where he would have to vote for drilling or against it. He has already expressed his opposition so if he voted yes the left would BBQ him and if he voted no he would be seen as someone who opposed the lower prices who wanted to screw people. It would put him in a very bad position.

If the president plays this right it would show the Democrats for the obstructionists they are and it would allow the president to loosen the death grip the Democrats have on our economy. More oil means lower prices and that means a better economy. If the GOP does it right they can get the corn ethanol requirements removed and allow us to import sugar beet ethanol from Brazil. The cost of food would go down because there would be more corn for human (and feed animal) consumption and the cost of transport would be lower as well.

I am willing to bet they could get this done very quickly if they wanted to and the cost of oil would be going down real soon (even if we won’t get it for 5 or 10 years it will go down on speculation). As an aside, I have heard they could get oil flowing in two years if they got the go ahead to drill.

Perhaps the best part is all the speculators who drove up the price would get screwed to a wall on the price of a barrel of oil. Watching them jump from tall buildings would be reward enough. OK, Obama being put in a bad place and cheaper oil are the best parts but the speculators getting screwed ranks right up there.

Drill here, drill now, pay less.

My G-d people, if we can’t sustain ourselves with our own oil we should be ashamed to call ourselves a superpower.

New York Times
Newsmax

Tags: drill, durbin, Obama, oil, Pelosi, strategic reserve