Hope & Shame

Bad energy policy news, but not unexpected:

The House approved a package of energy initiatives yesterday, including measures that would allow oil drilling as close as fifty miles off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and finance the long-term development of alternative energy sources.

In the first substantive votes since gasoline prices rose above $4 a gallon this summer, the House divided largely along party lines, 236-189, with most Republicans rejecting the Democratic-sponsored legislation because it would prohibit exploration of much of the known oil reserves closer to the coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico.

As they reversed their long-held opposition to more offshore oil exploration, Democrats said the increased taxes on oil companies in the bill and the collection of royalty payments from the drilling would yield billions of dollars to help finance the development of cleaner, renewable energy sources.

“We’re not trying to give incentives to drill, we’re giving incentives to invest in renewables and natural gas that will take us where we need to go,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) told reporters before the vote.

In other words, the Dems haven't reversed their long-held opposition to more offshore oil exploration. They've just slapped a "Drill, baby, drill" sticker on its front bumper and hope voters don't notice what the sticker is attached to. It's the most dishonest and cynical fig leaf imaginable, but they believe they've done enough to cover themselves through November, after which they'll return to their full, glorious anti-energy nakedness and sentence us to a permanent, government-imposed energy crisis.

Surely the Senate, which is similarly predisposed in nausea-inducingly bipartisan fashion, will put the Pelosi plot on the fast track to passage before the Donks' precious offshore drilling ban expires at the end of this month, right? Not necessarily:

• Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC): “We’re trying to be more aggressive on drilling,” said South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham – Congressional Quarterly
• Senator John Thune (R-ND): “If they’ve already passed the tax extenders, the sense of urgency about passing an energy bill lessens,” Senate Chief Deputy Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) said. Thune added that the tax deal increases the likelihood that no energy bill reaches a filibuster-proof sixty-vote threshold.” — Roll Call
• Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL): Durbin agreed that the outlook appears bleak for Senate passage of any of the four energy measures on which Reid has said he would allow votes. “I think it’s a reach,” Durbin said. “Try to add up sixty votes on any one of these.” — Roll Call

On the bright side, no energy bill means no BAD energy bill. On the, well, mixed side, no energy bill means one of two things, depending upon whether Republicans are willing to fight to the death on this wedge issue: either Democrats get the blame for obstructing the immediate domestic energy exploration that 70% of the American public wants, or the Dems put over the outrageous fiction that "We tried to pass a drilling bill, but the Republicans did the bidding of their Big Oil friends and stood in the way." As though "Big Oil" doesn't want to drill for more oil.

Though the GOP has made great strides in closing their generic Congressional deficit, it's difficult to escape the creeping conclusion that with oil prices down almost 40% from their early-summer highs, enough urgency has bled off the energy issue that that ridiculous fig leaf might just be enough.

Which makes this look like a Michael Moore cannonball in the deep end of the PR pool:

The Democratic-controlled Congress, acknowledging that it isn’t equipped to lead the way to a solution for the financial crisis and can’t agree on a path to follow, is likely to just get out of the way.

Lawmakers say they are unlikely to take action before, or to delay, their planned adjournments — September 26 for the House of Representatives, a week later for the Senate. While they haven’t ruled out returning after the November 4 elections, they would rather wait until next year unless Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who are leading efforts to contain the crisis, call for help. One reason, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday, is that “no one knows what to do” at the moment.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is panic. At least I don't know any other explanation for this pell-mell retreat. If Crazy Nancy and Dirty Harry thought there was a political advantage to their party in keeping Congress in session to investigate the "Wall Street Meltdown" and come up with a pre-election legislative fix, even a fricking bandaid, you know they'd be all over it. C'mon, the chance to sock President Bush in the groin one more time and slap down John McCain at the same time? You might as well try to confiscate the Kennedy family still.

No, they know that their party's fingerprints are all over the financial mess, and the more scrutiny is centered on the it, the more it will redound to their detriment and the Republicans' benefit. Far better to slink out of D.C., keep as low a profile as possible, and let Barry and Joe keep "spewing invective on the Bush Administration" out one side of their mouths while demanding that those same Bushies fix the problem out the other. That way any blowback will land on them, and at worst they'll simply rejoin an expanded Donk Senate majority to go with an at least surviving Donk House majority to make peace with the Lieberman Democrat in the White House that will unmask himself, much to the angry dismay of the GOP base that got duped into backing him, after Election Day.

Hey, seven presidents have come and (as of next January 20th) gone since Joe Biden has been in the U.S. Senate. His party knows where the REAL power is. Or, to modify yet another old saying, "Diamonds are forever, and so is the Democrat Congress." And then their "fun" will REALLY begin.