Sunday, September 21, 2008

THE GREAT 'DRILL BUT NO-DRILL' BILL

Well, our illustrious U.S. Congress has once again outdone itself!! Gee -- just what high fuel price-weary truckers and consumers wanted to hear, too!! We finally got a domestic drilling bill passed by the House of Representatives last week.

Or did we?? It turned out to be a no-drill bill, in reality.

The bill was a surprise to most in Congress. It was written in the middle of the night and put up for a floor vote the next morning, allowing no one an opportunity to read it. One congressman said you can always beware when something like this is done, because it's not going to be anything that you will like. It wasn't.

The bill purports to open up a small, meager bit of land for drilling in addition to the land already open, which isn't being drilled on. This new expansion won't be either, and for the same reason:  Because there is either little or no oil to be found on that land, or it would be so expensive to recover that it isn't economically feasible to do so. Why else would the oil companies not drill on that land?? They are in business to make a profit, like any business is, and you can believe that they would be tapping wells there if it were profitable to do so. Common sense would tell anyone that, but the current leadership in Congress believes that average Americans are stupid and won't figure that out. Well, we're not stupid, and they risk a serious backlash in November, with stunts like this.

But, it gets better still. Oil shale production? Still off-limits. Nuclear power?? Ditto on any new plants. New refineries?? Nope. The ANWR?? Huh-uh. Nada. And offshore drilling?? Not within 50 miles of the coast (where most of the recoverable oil is known or suspected to be). Then, from 50 to 100 miles out, it's up to the state governments, but neighboring states must approve any drilling, also. Under Democratic state governments, like you have on the Left Coast and the Northeast, it will never happen. If Virginia wanted to allow drilling, New Jersey could veto it. No drilling allowed, otherwords. If Florida voted to allow it, North Carolina could block it. And, finally, from 100-200 miles out, to international waters, the federal government has the say-so on it. Last time I checked, the environmental lunatic-loving Democrats were in charge of Congress. So, nope again. No drilling.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) plopped the bill down and said, "Okay, guys, here's your drilling bill!" Only it's a no-drilling bill, in reality. Nothing changes with this turkey; everything stays just like it now is. It will likely die in the Senate, but if it should survive, Pelosi & Company know that President Bush will veto it. Then the Dems can puff their chests out, look indignant, and say:  "Well, we gave you a drilling bill, but he vetoed it!!" Yeah. Right. Sure you did. Uh-huh. This is an election year political ploy, designed to buy time until November, when the Democrats believe they'll get the whole ball of wax -- the House, the Senate, and the White House. But they sure won't with my vote, and I can't help thinking that many other angry Americans, tired of high fuel prices and sick of bowing to the whims of OPEC, will follow suit. Pelosi and the Democrat-led Conress have arrogantly thumbed their noses at average Americans, like you and me. The question before all you should be, what are you going to do about it on November 4th?? Are you going to keep this Democrat majority in power?? Or will you elect someone who will open up that land and let us tap our own natural resources??

America runs on oil. Our economy is a petroleum-based one and has been for most of the past 100 years. It's not just the cars and trucks that we drive, but our industry needs oil in order to operate. While it's true that the oil won't last forever, we still need to drill and refine it for now, to serve our needs until we can come up with a viable alternative energy source to replace it with. That replacement energy source hasn't been decided on as yet, and the technologies that do exist don't do so on anywhere near a large enough scale. Switching over could take as much as 25 years, and maybe longer, while the source is found and the technology is developed to utilize it safely and cheaply enough to be readily available to everyone. You can't force this issue, as the enviro-loonies and the Dems want to do; it's going to take time. Meanwhile, we need the oil for now. We have an abundance of it, and a few people block every effort we make to pump and utilize it. This is sheer madness and it has to stop!!

It's up to us -- us "stupid" average Americans. We control
Congress, with our votes. They may think they control us, but that's not true -- yet, anyway. I think that it's high time when we show them who their boss really is; not the Sierra Club and not Greenpeace, but US!! The time has come. Are any of you with me on this one??

10-7

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm with you 100 percent.  While you were gone they had a supply of gas shortage here in K-town and the price went to $4.99 per gallon one day ( it was because of Ike they said) but a lot of people think it was price gouging and signed petitions were sent to the Governot in Nashville.  That one day, the price per gallon was the highest in the Nation.  I meant to mention that to you when you were here and forgot it.  The only way we can win is to vote I guess as you say.

Anonymous said...

I am with you.