Thread: The Obvious Problem

House aims to stop price gouging at the gas pump
WASHINGTON - House Democrats resurrecting a measure to punish price gouging and curb oil market speculation said Tuesday they will block Republican calls for expanded offshore drilling, an idea gaining popularity with gasoline costing $4 a gallon.

The House was scheduled to vote later Tuesday on a bill that would make gouging in the sale of oil and gasoline a federal crime and impose stiff fines and jail time for violators.

It was a repeat performance. The House passed the same anti-gouging law earlier this year and the Senate did so last year, only to have the legislation die. President Bush has promised to veto any anti-gouging measure, arguing that it's not needed.

As Democrats prepared a string of energy proposals before lawmakers depart for the July 4 holiday recess, Republicans charged that they were being blocked from getting a vote on whether to end the ban on offshore oil and gas drilling.

Last week GOP presidential candidate John McCain as well as Bush called for ending the blanket prohibition on energy development over 80 percent of the country's offshore waters. Republicans contend that the offshore bans should be ended to allow for more domestic oil and gas production, an argument that has gained support with $130-a-barrel oil raising the cost of everything from food to air travel.

The House Appropriations Committee this week postponed consideration of an Interior Department spending bill that included continuation of the offshore drilling ban. Republicans had prepared a proposal that would have ended the ban and allowed oil and gas development 50 miles from shore in all U.S. coastal waters.

"Somebody's afraid that we'll send a message" and lift the drilling ban, said Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, the ranking Republican on the appropriations panel.

The similar spending bill, which includes the offshore drilling ban, also was put off in the Senate.

Democratic congressional leaders remain strongly opposed to lifting the drilling moratorium, arguing that oil companies already hold leases to 40 million acres of federal waters that they have not moved to develop.

"One way you deal with this problem of supply ... is to force oil companies and gas companies that own permits to drill them," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, R-Ill., a senior member of the Democratic leadership.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said that legislation to lift the ban has significant support and might pass the House, but he told reporters, "If we allow drilling everywhere tomorrow, there would be no additional supply available."

Energy experts and oil geologists acknowledge it would take five to 10 years for any oil or natural gas to be produced if the ban were ended today.

"We have the votes," maintained Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., sponsor of the pro-drilling measure that would open waters 50 miles offshore to oil companies. But he said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California "will do everything she can do to stalemate it."

Emanuel, at a news conference, sidestepped questions on whether Democrats are concerned the GOP drilling measure was gaining support and that Democratic leaders were refusing to allow it to come up for a vote.

Instead, Emanuel emphasized that Democrats soon will push legislation that would require oil and gas companies to explore and develop the waters on which they already have obtained federal leases. If they don't, they will lose the leases.

Oil companies and their GOP supporters in Congress "are using this crisis as an excuse" for a grab for additional federal land and waters, said Emanuel.
Other Democratic proposals range from giving the federal government new tools to curtail speculation in oil trading markets by imposing new requirements on the amount of collateral traders must have in oil purchases and requiring a reduction in mass transit fares.

The stupid corrupt Democrats want to play micro-manager and refuses to let the nation use it's own oil, which is the only way to bring oil prices down.

They're obviously afraid that letting us use our own oil will make them look less green in the eyes of the fanatics that want us to die of heat stroke in the dark.

Obama's energy plan.....rationing

FFA why differentiate between the demican wings simply because their landlords find it cheaper to rent one side of the aisle?

Originally Posted by william the wierd

FFA why differentiate between the demican wings simply because their landlords find it cheaper to rent one side of the aisle?

Because the Republocrats want to drill in the US, and the Democans keep wanting us bent over so the Arabs can drill us instead.

Originally Posted by Freedom for All

Because the Republocrats want to drill in the US, and the Democans keep wanting us bent over so the Arabs can drill us instead.

I've wondered why it hurts to sit down.

Maybe just maybe, McCain will start adjusting his policies a little to what sensible Americans want. Like drilling for oil and deporting illegals. He has moderated both positions slightly as of late. Maybe if we speak loud enough and often enough he will change his positions still further. If he was smart he would becasue it will make political hay for him. He will not beat Obama by trying to out Obama him.

Originally Posted by justoneman

Maybe just maybe, McCain will start adjusting his policies a little to what sensible Americans want. Like drilling for oil and deporting illegals. He has moderated both positions slightly as of late. Maybe if we speak loud enough and often enough he will change his positions still further. If he was smart he would becasue it will make political hay for him. He will not beat Obama by trying to out Obama him.

Exactly right. McCain is fighting Obama for the left half of the American (voter) Pie while the right half is growing stale in the pan. When will McLame learn that you can't have Obama's pie and eat it, too?

I agree that we should drill our own oil. I also believe that at this point in time its just a gimmick that the Republicans are pulling out during an election year. This oil will not help us anytime in the near future and by the time its here our dependency on oil should be severely lessened.
I think the point the Democrats are saying is that the Republicans want to pull this stunt and say they did something instead of focusing on alternative energy. Alternative energy should be where the focus is at, not offshore drilling.

Originally Posted by Solon

Exactly right. McCain is fighting Obama for the left half of the American (voter) Pie while the right half is growing stale in the pan. When will McLame learn that you can't have Obama's pie and eat it, too?

McCain? The whole damn GOP leadership is obsessed with stealing the donkey's crapapples in the left side of the fence instead of nurturing the golden delicious crop on the right side. That's why they're so eager to have all those illegals here.

Originally Posted by metheron

I agree that we should drill our own oil. I also believe that at this point in time its just a gimmick that the Republicans are pulling out during an election year. This oil will not help us anytime in the near future and by the time its here our dependency on oil should be severely lessened.
I think the point the Democrats are saying is that the Republicans want to pull this stunt and say they did something instead of focusing on alternative energy. Alternative energy should be where the focus is at, not offshore drilling.

Know what? I think it's important that Drill Now become a campaign issue this year because it should have been a campaign issue in 2004, and that's why it's so important now. Also, the Left needs to be slapped, all four cheeks, as hard as possible and told to quit fucking with our interests.

The oil is there. We're not going to have any magical "alternative" energy in place in five years, either, so we may as well start using what we have and quit pretending we can do without it.