I think some of you have missed one of my points.
Pelosi is telling Democrats to show independence by calling for drilling when they really don't support it.
Pelosi has scripted this so that nothing will get done until they have a new President and a new Veto-proof Congress.
So basically she's been delaying any energy bills until she can get a more favorable end to the process.
If you have to take out a loan to heat your home this winter thank Nancy Pelsoi.
Quote:
"The reality is we will have a new president in three months, and what Bush and the Republicans are trying to do amounts to a land grab for the oil companies,” said one senior House Democratic aide involved with party strategy. “I don’t think we have to give in at all pre-election — we have many more options postelection.”
It’s a reality that Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-W.Va.) personally delivered to President Bush recently.
Rahall spent more than an hour last week talking to the president about energy. Bush spent the entire flight aboard Air Force One, and much of a subsequent limousine ride, grilling the West Virginia Democrat about legislative solutions to the high price of gasoline, Rahall said last week.
So, does the president think Congress can get anything done this year?
“No,” Rahall replied in a short interview with Politico. “He’s realistic about it.”
Asked if Congress will produce a comprehensive energy bill in September before Congress adjourns again for elections, Rahall replied, “This year? No.”
Instead, the chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources believes Democrats are all about 2009.
“We’ve laid the groundwork this year,” Rahall said.
Democratic House aides say the energy agenda has been carefully gamed out in strategy sessions, and Pelosi always intended to take heat on gas prices while tacitly encouraging more vulnerable Democrats to publicly disagree with her and show their independence.
Freshman Democrats like Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania and Don Cazayoux of Louisiana have taken her up on the offer.
Altmire has said a drilling vote “will happen,” while Cazayoux, hoping to hang on to his seat in a conservative Baton Rouge-area district, on Friday sent a letter to Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) demanding a vote on more domestic oil exploration.
“There will be a vote,” said Altmire, who faces a rematch with former GOP Rep. Melissa Hart this fall in the Pittsburgh suburbs.
Indeed, Congress must vote before Sept. 30 to renew the annual moratorium; otherwise, it will lapse on its own, giving states the right to decide whether private companies can search for potential drilling sites three miles offshore. .
Pelosi: At-risk Dems back drilling - Martin Kady II and Patrick O'Connor - Politico.com
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So don't count on anything being done about fuel prices until next year. Gas prices rose sharply this Spring and nothing was done, and now we can expect another 7 months for the Dems to even begin to act on anything. They will have wasted a over a year without voting on energy. I suspect their solution isn't going to make anyone happy, but if the election goes the way they predict.....we won't be able to do anything about it.