In 1995, Bill Clinton had the opportunity to sign a bill that would’ve allowed drilling on ANWR’s Coastal Plain. He vetoed the bill, creating the mantra of not ruining the “pristine wilderness’ found in ANWR. Among other things, Bill Clinton took other oil-laden federal lands offlimits via executive order. The simple truth is that this is a well-planned ‘crisis’ of choice. We all remember Obama’s saying that $4 a gallon gas wasn’t too expensive; it’s just that it reached that price faster than he would’ve liked.
This ‘crisis’ was completely avoidable. Democrats chose this crisis because they supported policies that put huge known oil reserves offlimits.
During the 2004 presidential election, John Kerry promised that he’d filibuster any bill that permitted drilling in ANWR. That’s been the Democrats’ position for at least a decade.
Which leads us to today’s high gas prices. Clinton could claim, feebly in my opinion, that ‘ruining’ ANSWR’s pristine wilderness wasn’t worth it when oil was being traded at $10 a barrel. Since oil isn’t being sold at $10 a barrel anymore, doesn’t it seem wise to change policy? I posted a quote from John Maynard Keynes in this post:
When asked why he changed his position on an issue, John Maynard Keynes said: “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?â€
The Democrats have given us their answer. Unfortunately, they aren’t as smart as Mr. Keynes. The facts changed, Democrats didn’t.
BTW, that pristine wilderness that Bill Clinton and Democrats after him don’t want destroyed isn’t as pristine as they’d have us believe. Certainly, we’ve seen pictures like this:
Or perhaps you saw this picture instead:
To be fair, those are pictures of ANWR. The truth is that they aren’t pictures of where the drilling would actually happen. Here’s a more accurate picture of the drilling site:
That isn’t quite as pristine as Democrats want you to believe, is it? Well, that’s their story and they’re sticking with it:
Democratic leaders were not subtle about their plans to use the vote against Republicans in November. “Of everything they have done so far in terms of obstruction, this is the politically most damaging,” said New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who heads the Democrats’ Senate campaign committee.
Sen. Schumer’s shills might not get hurt this year but his House colleagues will be hurt by the Senate Democrats’ obstructionist ways. Polling shows overwhelming support for opening up the OCS and ANWR. People want a solution. ASAP. They’re convinced that a windfalls profits tax won’t make gas a penny cheaper at the pump, either.
Klobuchar is backing a bill that would give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission additional authority to investigate the energy markets. Republicans, in a comprehensive energy plan presented Thursday, made a similar proposal.
“The experts tell us that a good amount of the money we now pay at the pump is going into the bank accounts of financial speculators,” Klobuchar said last week at a meeting with business leaders in Minneapolis.
During last week’s blogger conference call, Rep. John Peterson talked about the fastest way to put speculators in their place. Rep. Peterson noted that there was a gap of about 9 million barrels a day when oil was selling for dirt cheap. He then said that today’s margin was about a million barrels a day. Rep. Peterson is exactly right in saying that the fastest way to put speculators in their place is to increase production.
Democrats don’t want that. More accurately, the environmental extremists don’t want that. When the environmental extremists say jump, Democrats ask how high. Until they abandon the extremists, we’ll be stuck with high gas prices. It’s just that simple.
Here’s a thought worth pondering: Democrats say conserve, conserve. How does an OTR trucker conserve? How does a farmer working his crops conserve?
When you have the answer, let me know.
Technorati: Gas Crisis, Chuck Schumer, Amy Klobuchar, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Environmentalists, ANWR, OCS, John Peterson, Oil Speculators, Election 2008
Cross-posted at California Conservative