Sunday, August 17, 2008

House GOP Rejects Dems Disingenuous Offer of Compromise

Hot Air - Ed Morrissey
Unlike some of their colleagues in the Senate, House Republicans have rejected a minimal effort to compromise offered by Nancy Pelosi on energy policy. After floating a proposal that would have allowed very limited drilling in exchange for windfall-profits taxes and depletion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Pelosi got the door slammed in her face by the GOP members participating in the House Oil Party this month. Their message — follow or get out of the way.
Two important points. Why we should not use the SPR.
That notion belies the entire underpinning of the Democratic policy on domestic production. They claim that we “cannot drill our way out of this crisis,” and yet the SPR release would temporarily do what expanded domestic production would do for decades. If one cannot produce one’s way out of a supply crisis, then what effect would an SPR release have? At the same time, with a war in the Caucasus and Americans fighting in two theaters in Asia, not only would a reduction in the SPR make the military more vulnerable to supply disruptions, it would require us to replace what gets depleted. If we’re not producing our own oil to do that, we’ll only raise prices again as we stoke demand.
And why we need to stop supporting the bad guys.
And now we have yet another reason to start producing our own oil. Vladimir Putin has rebuilt his empire-hungry nation’s military strength on the high price of crude oil and natural gas — prices we support with our demands on the international market. Any long-term strategy of containment regarding Moscow has to include a deep cut to the price supports for crude oil. The best way we can effect that is to vastly increase our own production (and refinement) of oil, and get out of the international market. Prices will drop dramatically, and Russia, Iran, Sudan, and other problem nations will suddenly have a lot less cash with which to make trouble.

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