Pelosi Blocks Vote On Offshore Drilling Bill

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Pelosi blocks offshore drilling vote GOP wants

Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Friday, August 1, 2008

(08-01) 04:00 PDT Washington — For weeks, pressure has been mounting in Congress to approve more domestic oil drilling, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has held the line, using her power to block a vote on offshore drilling.

President Bush has made almost daily calls for Democratic leaders to take action. House GOP leaders, citing a new poll showing that a slim majority of Californians now favor offshore drilling, issued a release Thursday saying “even (Pelosi’s) own California neighbors oppose her efforts to block new drilling far off American coasts.” GOP lawmakers are so disgruntled they’re urging Bush to deny Congress its August break by calling a special session on energy.

Even some Democrats are getting antsy, fearing the party’s stance could hurt them in the fall elections. But Pelosi, who has opposed offshore drilling throughout her two decades in Congress, insists opening new areas to drilling won’t lower gas prices in the short term. She believes a vote would only help the GOP blame Democrats for high gas prices.

“I will not … give the administration an excuse for its failure,” Pelosi said at an end-of-session roundtable interview Thursday…

Pelosi drew derision from her critics for telling the Web site Politico this week that she was blocking a vote on offshore drilling because “I’m trying to save the planet.” But she elaborated on that theme Thursday, saying she sees energy independence and fighting global warming as “my flagship issue.” She said she will use her power to resist a policy that could increase the country’s oil dependency.

“I’m not going to be diverted for a political tactic from a course of action that has a big-picture view - a vision about an energy-independent future that reduces our dependence on fossil fuels … and focuses on those renewables that are protective of the environment,” she said…

Some Democrats have already started to shift their views. Rep. Tim Holden, D-Pa., who voted two years ago against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and for a federal ban on offshore drilling, told a hometown paper last weekend he now wants to “drill everywhere.”

A new CNN/Opinion Research poll released this week found that 69 percent of Americans favor more offshore drilling, while 30 percent oppose it. But the poll found the public was split over whether more coastal drilling would lower gas prices, with 51 percent saying yes and 49 percent saying no.

But the poll’s more interesting finding was about who Americans blame for $4-a-gallon gas prices: About two-thirds said oil companies and foreign countries that produce energy were the major causes. Just over half blamed the Bush administration, the war in Iraq and the moratorium on offshore drilling. But only about 1 in 3 - 31 percent - blamed Democrats in Congress for high gas prices…

When Ms. Pelosi ascended to the position of Speaker of the House we knew we were in for trouble.

But even we underestimated her hatred for this country and the unbelievable damage she has tried to wreak upon it.

She and Harry Reid are two of the most despicable public figures in the history of the country — and that is really saying something given the number of Democrats who have held office.

And just imagine what a triumvirate they will make with Mr. Obama as President.

A new CNN/Opinion Research poll released this week found that 69 percent of Americans favor more offshore drilling, while 30 percent oppose it.

By the way, note what the DNC’s CNN calls “a slim majority.”

But only about 1 in 3 - 31 percent - blamed Democrats in Congress for high gas prices.

Gee, how could that be?

Well, have a nice (five week) vacation, Congress.

We’ll be thinking about you — every time we gas up.

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