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All last week, I’ve been calling around my various contacts, asking them what’s been going on in the world. I hate being in the dark, so to speak, and hate to think that I’m missing a huge news story. Well, I missed something all right. I only missed the best thing to happen to the House of Representatives since the Democrats took over! House Republicans revolted on Friday to protest when the Democrats adjourning for a five-week vacation without doing anything about the energy crisis. Pioneer Pelosi responded by having the lights, mics, and CSPAN cameras turned off. But Republicans wouldn’t be deterred.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats adjourned the House, turned off the lights and killed the microphones, but Republicans are still on the floor talking gas prices.
Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders opposed the motion to adjourn the House, arguing that Pelosi’s refusal to schedule a vote allowing offshore drilling is hurting the American economy. They have refused to leave the floor after the adjournment motion passed at 11:23 a.m., and they are busy bashing Pelosi and her fellow Democrats for leaving town for the August recess.
At one point, the lights went off in the House and the microphones were turned off in the chamber, meaning Republicans were talking in the dark. But as Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz..) was speaking, the lights went back on and the microphones were turned on shortly afterward.
But C-SPAN, which has no control over the cameras in the chamber, has stopped broadcasting the House floor, meaning no one was witnessing this except the assembled Republicans, their aides, and one Democrat, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), who has now left.
Only about a half-dozen Republicans were on the floor when this began, but the crowd has grown to about 20, according to Patrick O’Connor.
“This is the people’s House,” said Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.). “This is not Pelosi’s politiburo.”
Democratic aides were furious at the GOP stunt, and reporters were kicked out of the Speaker’s Lobby, the space next to the House floor where they normally interview lawmakers.
“You’re not covering this, are you?” complained one senior Democratic aide. Another called the Republicans “morons” for staying on the floor.
Update: The Capitol Police are now trying to kick reporters out of the press gallery above the floor, meaning we can’t watch the Republicans anymore. But Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) is now in the gallery talking to reporters, so the cops have held off for a minute. Clearly, Democrats don’t want Republicans getting any press for this episode. GOP leaders are trying to find other Republicans to rotate in for Blunt so reporters aren’t kicked out.
Update 2: This message was sent out by Blunt’s office:
“Although this Democrat majority just adjourned for the Democrat 5-week vacation, House Republicans are continuing to fight on the House floor. Although the lights, mics and C-SPAN cameras have been turned off, House Republicans are on the floor speaking to the taxpayers in the gallery who, not surprisingly, agree with Republican energy proposals.
“All Republicans who are in town are encouraged to come to the House floor.”
Update 3: Democrats just turned out the lights again. Republicans cheered.
And they’re back at it again today:
House Republicans will be back on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives again Monday to continue the unprecedented protest that began last Friday, when dozens of Republicans joined hundreds of American citizens on the House floor to protest Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) decision to send Congress home for the rest of the summer without a vote on legislation to lower gas prices and move America toward energy independence.
In an urgent memo sent to GOP Members and staff Saturday (“A Call to Action on American Energy”), Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) hailed Friday’s action, which was led by Reps. Mike Pence (R-IN), Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), Tom Price (R-GA), and others, and encouraged House Republicans to return to the Capitol beginning Monday morning to help keep the historic effort going.
“It’s not a request we make lightly. But the American people are suffering,” Boehner and Blunt said in the memo. “The consequences of continued congressional inaction on gas prices are unacceptable. We’ve called on the Speaker to call Congress back into an emergency session this month and schedule a vote on the American Energy Act. We must continue to make a stand until the Speaker complies.”
There are apparently 30 Republicans currently there… and oh, what a surprise, no Democrats. Pioneer Pelosi is too busy with her book tour to do her duty as Speaker of the House.
Message to Democrats: you should be in there with the Republicans. In the real world, we don’t get five week taxpayer-funded vacations. And when there is an honest-to-God crisis going on, and the government you control is the only thing standing between Americans and relief, you should be working every day to fix it. Your energy plan does not work, because you have no energy plan!
Rep. Devin Nunes from California gives us a brilliant representation of the Democrats energy plan:
This is a brilliant move for Republicans. Finally, some leadership from the GOP! Now that’s change I can believe in. This is exactly what they should be doing every day for the next five weeks, or until Democrats get off their lazy asses and get back to work. They shouldn’t be afraid to pound Democrats on their refusal to act, and they should be videotaping all of it. As Michelle suggests,
House GOP members should also be spreading the word to their local newspapers and local talk show hosts in their congressional districts to assail Nancy’s gag order and hammer the “Drill now” theme home.
And where’s the RNC? How about sending someone in a chicken costume to trail Nancy Pelosi during her hiatus? As the House Republicans asked repeatedly on Friday: What’s she so afraid of?
On 8/1, the House GOP brought it on.
Keep it going, turn it up, and make sure the American public sees you at work on proactive energy proposals to bring down the Pelosi Premium during the Democrats’ vacation.
This is the best thing that the Republicans could ever have done. If they keep this up, we might not see the massacre at the polls that we’ve all been dreading in November.
Get it, Republicans? Do your jobs, stick to your principles, and be unafraid to take on Democrats, and Americans will love you. It’s not that difficult.
Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin
I R A Darth Aggie says: They’ve been revolting for years…
…too bad they didn’t bring up ending drilling bans back when they held control of both houses of Congress…
Ironwolf32 says: It is a good move by the House GOP to expose the lack of action by Speaker Pelosi.
George Stephanopoulus, former Clinton Senior Advisor on Policy and Strategy, hammered Pelosi on a Meet the Press by repeatedly asking her why she wouldn’t bring it to a vote. He asked, “Why not vote on it if you have the superior argument?”
Her responses were that she was committed to stopping global warming (“Saving the World!” – her words), lowering our dependence on foriegn oil (not sure how you do that without increasing domestic drilling) and putting togther a “real energy plan” like tapping into the Strategic Reserve. Shockingly, she wasn’t specific on the “Real Energy Plan”. She also said “…it would be 10 years before oil prices would drop 2 cents…”. She also said that offshore drilling was a “tactic” by “Big Oil”. She even threw jabs at Bush and Cheney being “Oil guys”.
New Campaign Slogan “Democrats, we will lead you back to the Stone Age!”
Baz says: This is such a red herring. 80% of our offshore reserves are already leased and have been for years, but only 20% of those leases are being tapped. I think this is a ruse to distract from oil companies’ inaction in reinvesting their recent record profits in new production.
Someone please tell me how lifting the bans on the remaining 20% would affect gas prices before even the next election cycle? No one seems to want to answer that question.
Ironwolf32 Said:
It is a good move by the House GOP to expose the lack of action by Speaker Pelosi.
George Stephanopoulus, former Clinton Senior Advisor on Policy and Strategy, hammered Pelosi on a Meet the Press by repeatedly asking her why she wouldn’t bring it to a vote. He asked, “Why not vote on it if you have the superior argument?”
Yeah, I saw that. I’ve been impressed with Stephanopolous on more than a few occasions. After asking her for (I think) the fourth time, you could see the ‘Look you ingnorant peon, because I say so’ smile on her face. Good job George.
And the Republican revolt is just brilliant. But as Darth Aggie said, too bad they didn’t come to their sense earlier, we could have avoided all this.
Baz Says:
This is such a red herring. 80% of our offshore reserves are already leased and have been for years, but only 20% of those leases are being tapped. I think this is a ruse to distract from oil companies’ inaction in reinvesting their recent record profits in new production.
Someone please tell me how lifting the bans on the remaining 20% would affect gas prices before even the next election cycle? No one seems to want to answer that question.
It won’t now, except maybe lowering the price through speculators. The point (as Darth Aggie said) was that if this happened years ago we might not have this problem now. You still have to plan for the future even if you have screwed up the present through your actions or inactions, in this case.
Oil companies (and any other company) want as little risk as possible with the most chance more profit. They want to drill where they know there is oil, not where there might be oil.
BTW I support development of nearly all forms of energy (with the exception of corn based ethanol). All of this stuff should have been taken care of decades ago.
Baz says: Someone needs to make the oil companies eat what’s on their plate before going back for seconds.
Baz Says:
Someone needs to make the oil companies eat what’s on their plate before going back for seconds.
But they cannot always tell where the oil is and in what quantity, it would be great if everywhere they had a lease, there was oil. But there isn’t. If you’re in business you are going to go for the surest option that guarantees the most profit. To do anything else is…well kind of stupid. Yes, it is all about about money. Nobody goes into business to be poor. Not my mom (who makes homemade soap) nor nor a CEO of a big oil company.
Sassy says: IMO, nothing short of dispelling the myth that oil, coal and natural gas are “fossil” fuels and the fact that there is no such as peak oil and that oil is a primordial, terrestial phenomenon will drive down the price of energy. I plead with all to read The Deep, Hot Biosphere by Thomas Gold.
When it is thought of logically, how is it that oil is being found sometimes thousands of feet under the earth’s surface, whereas they are finding dinosaur and plant fauna fossils near the earth’s surface all over the globe, it makes almost no sense that animals were buried so deep in the earth and turned into oil.
There is no such thing as peak oil or fossil fuels, when that is realized and proven to John Q. Public, oil speculation will virtually end and market forces will take care of the price of oil, as it has in the past.
Baz says: If you’re in business you are going to go for the surest option that guarantees the most profit. To do anything else is…well kind of stupid.
You’re absolutely right. No argument there. But when I say 80% of our offshore reserves, I’m talking about 80% of our *proven* reserves. The oil is there. It may not be in the most profitable locations, but they would still make money, and it would be a small price to pay for using less foreign oil, creating jobs for Americans, and keeping more of our fuel money in the US economy rather than exporting it.
Still, supply hasn’t changed much, global demand has gone up only slightly with China’s new thirst, so what’s changed that causes $150/bbl oil? I suspect it’s the speculative trading, of the same type that gave us $200/kwh electricity in California a few years back. If you stop that, you’ll see oil prices drop like a rock. But no one in Congress or the White House has the stones to stand up to the oil lobby like that. Sigh.
Baz,
I agree with you that the oil price increase seems to be because of speculation (if anyone has data to the contrary, please enlighten me) but speculators speculate on future trends, demand is going to go up (dramatically I think) in the next several years. China and India’s auto industries should be online then cranking millions of cheap cars for their populations. So yeah, right now there isn’t much of a difference, although there is some, there will be in the forseeable future.
The electricity crisis in CA a few years back was indeed almost entirely engineered by the energy companies, I am not so sure about the oil crunch we are going to face soon.
As for drilling where there is oil, but it is harder to get at, imagine if someone said to you “This job that you do, you have to do it in a worse environment under harder condtions. With a chance for less payoff.”
You would probably balk too. I know I would.
Baz says: Yep, totally agree with you about the near future.
As for profitability, I don’t know the details about how big a challenge the current leases are, but if it’s the difference between 6% ROI and 9% ROI, I’d say someone is a little spoiled. If oil today is $120/bbl, at what price point does it become worth their while?
My frustration is that no one is covering this angle, so we don’t know if it really is that difficult or if the oil industry is just pushing for lower hanging fruit. I think someone ought to be doing this kind of investigative journalism. I guess there’s too much money to be made as a fight promoter in the battle royale Right vs. Left. Don King, eat yer heart out.
WayneB says: Well, with lawsuits like this one, it’s kinda hard for the oil companies to drill in their current leases.
I love people saying, “Well, the oil companies aren’t drilling in the leases they already have!”, when they would be the same ones STOPPING them from doing so.
The “oil companies need to eat what’s on their plate before going back for seconds” myth is shattered here.
“Oil companies are sitting on 68 million acres of oil leases and refuse to drill.”
This is yet another slander of “Big Oil” by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — one that has become a major talking point for Democrats in Congress. It’s completely dishonest.
Oil companies have spent billions of dollars for those leases. Drilling has increased by more than 66% since 2000. They are searching for oil even as you read this. Some parts of those 68 million acres will have oil, some won’t. But at $145 a barrel, you can bet oil companies have plenty of incentive to find it.
That said, 68 million acres is in fact a minuscule amount. Some 94% of federal lands — 658 million acres — remains off-limits to exploration. Another 97% — or 1.7 billion acres — of federal offshore properties likewise remains off-limits. These lands contain tens of billions of barrels of recoverable oil. It’s there for the taking, now.
How much energy is there? Federal lands, according to the American Petroleum Institute, hold 651 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to fuel 60 million households for 160 years. They hold at least 116 billion barrels of oil, maybe more. That’s enough to fuel 65 million cars and provide fuel oil for 3.2 million homes for 60 years.
As such, it’s the height of irresponsibility for Congress to leave these lands off the table. It ensures we remain vulnerable to pariah petrostates like Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iran and others who wish us ill.
My question is this:
Let us pretend, as a hypothetical, that what is summarized above is not true. Let’s take the Pelosi propaganda at face value. Oil companies are sitting on 68 million acres of perfectly good land, and have decided, for whatever reason, not to drill there. They want more land. Just like the people Chris Crocker is yelling about they always want more more more more more! LEAVE THE CARIBOU ALONE!
++cough++ Sorry, I digressed. Anyway.
So they have all these millions of acres they don’t want to drill.
What’s wrong with giving them another plate when they haven’t chowed down on the first one yet? How does that hurt? Let’s open up two hundred million acres. Three hundred million. Why not?
In fact, what’s the dirty rotten creepy business scheme to make more of a profit by not doing your job? How’s that work, exactly? Because the last time I checked, they were “oil” companies…not “sit on land and not do anything with it” companies.
In fact, is it even the democrat party position that gas prices should come down? I have to ask that as well because, since Pelosi’s comments about a “common sense plan” more than two years ago, I haven’t even heard a democrat say they want to bring the gas prices down.
docjim505 says: Baz (August 4, 2008 • 3:26 pm) – “My frustration is that no one is covering this angle, so we don’t know if it really is that difficult or if the oil industry is just pushing for lower hanging fruit. I think someone ought to be doing this kind of investigative journalism. I guess there’s too much money to be made as a fight promoter in the battle royale Right vs. Left. Don King, eat yer heart out.”
I agree. The MSM does a lousy job of keeping us actually informed on this (and many other) issues. Their “reports” are usually not much more than recycled soundbites from politicians and “experts” who usually have their own axes to grind. I suspect that the average reporter doesn’t understand the issue, anyway, so how can he be expected to explain it to the rest of us?
Morgan K Freeberg (August 4, 2008 • 6:17 pm) – “… what’s the dirty rotten creepy business scheme to make more of a profit by not doing your job? How’s that work, exactly? Because the last time I checked, they were ‘oil’ companies…not ‘sit on land and not do anything with it’ companies.”
Good point. I’ve heard the oil companies complain that they DON’T do much drilling on the land they have leased because (1) there is no oil there and (2) getting permission from myriad federal, state and local agencies to actually start sinking a well is time-consuming, expensive, and often impossible.
MKF – “… is it even the democrat party position that gas prices SHOULD come down? I have to ask that as well because, since Pelosi’s comments about a ‘common sense plan’ more than two years ago, I haven’t even heard a democrat say they want to bring the gas prices down.”
Another good question. Based on the evidence, I’d have to say that the answer is “no”. There is actually a certain hard logic to this: if we aren’t allowed to use oil, we are forced to come up with an alternative. O’ course, those alternatives may not be quite as wonderful as people think. CFL’s use less electricity… but you risk contaminating your house with mercury if one breaks. And I’d love to see the effects on the already stretched California power grid if a significant fraction of Californians start driving electric cars. And how will we make that electricity, anyway? Maybe The Annointed One can make another national goal: end the age of electricity within our time.
Sign me up for that. 😛
Baz says: Ah, the old long-suffering oil companies chestnut. I guess that’s why they get the millions of dollars in subsidies every year to supplement their record profits. Poor kids.
MKF: They hold at least 116 billion barrels of oil, maybe more. That’s enough to fuel 65 million cars and provide fuel oil for 3.2 million homes for 60 years.
Except that we currently use 20 million barrels per day, which using quick math comes out to less than 16 years’ supply.
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