Nancy Pelosi's Summer Break, Part II

In addition to “saving the planet” here is what Nancy Pelosi said yesterday at an end-of-session roundtable in defense of her not allowing a vote on drilling:

"I will not ... give the administration an excuse for its failure."

Now that’s funny. The Bush administration has produced a balanced and thoughtful energy strategy that has a strong commitment to alternative energy along with appropriate use of traditional energy sources. The Democratic controlled Congress has refused to even consider it. I have read it, but I doubt if Nancy Pelosi has bothered.

The Bush administration has accomplished more regarding alternative energy research than any administration in history. Certainly very little was done by Clinton/Gore. Speaker Pelosi’s answer - go after evil speculators and drive the oil futures market off-shore, confiscate “windfall profits” from oil companies so they’ll have less money to fund exploration, release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, sue OPEC, promote corn-based ethanol, count on alternatives that are decades away from prime time, block nuclear power, and on and on.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Pelosi has been holding votes on measures aimed at addressing gas prices, such as legislation to crack down on speculators in energy commodity markets and a measure to force Bush to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But here's the catch: The bills have won majority support, but failed to get the two-thirds backing needed to pass under special rules Pelosi has used to keep Republicans from offering a drilling measure on the House floor.”

These bills have been passing by a wide majority but aren’t going forward due to the two-thirds rule. It is the only way she under congressional rules can block the GOP from offering any amendments.

Some democracy, huh? Shouldn’t the House at least be allowed to vote on this stuff? Now a group of democrats are defying Pelosi by working with the GOP on a compromise bipartisan bill to increase domestic production and also accelerate conservation and alternative energy sources. But with Nancy banging the gavel today to adjourn for 5 weeks, I guess it will have to wait.

Some in the GOP are so frustrated that they have asked President Bush to call Congress back into emergency session, which he can do under Article II of the Constitution, to deal with the energy issue. No summer break until Pelosi/Reid actually do something!

From FoxNews.com:

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) said, “I just saw one of the Democrats interviewed on television. The question was, if [gas] was $10 a gallon and you knew exactly where to get it in Alaska or on the coast, would you drill there, and there was no answer."

I’d like to know which Democrat that was. I’ll bet he was like a deer caught in the headlights. Nancy Pelosi's desperate maneuvers are only reinforcing that Congress is the cause of much of our energy crisis, not the White House.