Fighting for Oil

Humberto Fontava (never heard of him before) had an interesting column in WorldNetDaily Wednesday about oil spills. He begins by quoting several news items about a spill a week ago. Here's one:

"An oil spill that closed a long stretch of the lower Mississippi River on Wednesday undercut his (McCain's) message that offshore drilling was desirable and safe." Elizabeth Bumiller, New York Times, July 25.

Sounds pretty damning, doesn't it? Maybe we shouldn't be drilling offshore for oil , after all...

But wait!

In fact, the 419,000 gallons that spilled into the Mississippi river on July 23 consisted of fuel oil (not crude oil) from a barge that picked it up from a local fuel merchant. As it happened, this fuel oil-laden barge collided with a tanker, the Tintomara, but this tanker was also not carrying crude oil. It transported styrene and biodiesel. But the Tintomara has carried (foreign) crude oil in the past and could easily carry (foreign) crude oil in the future.

The Mississippi River below and above New Orleans typically carries a heavy traffic of tankers transporting (foreign) crude oil to refineries in this area. And accidents occur. So here, I'll help you senatorial and media greenies establish the premise your sloppy research and wishful thinking caused you to botch on this spill. Here ya go … softly and right over home plate:

"An oil tanker, the Westchester, lost power and ran aground 40 miles south of New Orleans, spilling more than half a million gallons of (foreign) crude oil into the Mississippi River. The spill was the largest in U.S. waters since the Exxon Valdez disaster in March 1989." New Orleans Times Picayune, Nov 29, 2000.

So here's a bona-fide oil tanker, carrying bona-fide oil and causing a bona-fide oil spill, as you eminent journalists concocted last week. Well, this type of spill is the very thing that more domestic oil drilling will prevent. The transportation of foreign oil to American refineries by tankers – not the production of domestic oil, which is transported to refineries via pipeline – causes most oil spills. (emphasis added)

So, if we want to help the environment (not to mention help the economy and reduce our funding of terrorists), we need to develop our domestic supply of oil and eliminate as much importation of foreign oil as possible. But the Democrats, who are in the pockets of the environmental lobby, don't quite see it the same way normal people do. No, they refuse to allow offshore oil drilling, because oil might spill. In fact, they're so hard-set against drilling for oil that they've gone on August recess without addressing offshore oil drilling.

Democratic leaders have been resolute in blocking new offshore exploration, even as oil patch members and moderates in the party support the idea. It's clear that if a vote were allowed, new offshore drilling plans would be allowed.

"Congress shouldn't leave its business unfinished while American wallets are drained at the pump," said Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla.

Democrats believe they can weather the criticism since voters are hardly sympathetic to the big oil companies pressing to lift the drilling restrictions. They perform better than Republicans in opinion polls on energy—despite the shift in opinions favoring offshore drilling—as well as on most other issues.

But all is not lost yet. Michelle Malkin is reporting today on a Republican revolt in the House.

Just got this heads up from a Hill staffer. The Democrats may have gone on vacation, but House Republicans are on the floor today, working on behalf of taxpayers to push energy proposals forward. Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, is busy hawking her miserably performing book–currently ,1726 on Amazon.com:

From: Stipicevic, John
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 11:39 AM
Subject: WHIP FLOOR UPDATE
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 camera’s 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.

There are plenty of updates, including a letter sent by the Republican Study Committee calling for President Bush to convene a special session of Congress to deal with gas prices, as well as a list of the Congressmen who are participating in the oil-drilling revolt (ODR). My Congressman wasn't in the list, so I called his office here in town and told them I wanted him to get over to the House and start fighting for me.

Meanwhile, the ODR has sparked a reaction from the Don't Drill Democrats (DDD) leader, Nancy Pelosi. Michelle Malkin has the story with continuing updates.

Until C-SPAN turns the cameras back on, we’ll have to rely on GOP staff to get out video of their bosses’ speeches. (Flip has an e-mail link to contact C-SPAN. Go here.)

The Washington Post calls the GOP House revolt “bizarre.”

No. “Bizarre” is Democrats whining about high gas prices and then taking a vacation and doing nothing, nothing, nothing to solve the energy crisis about which they whine.

Guess a 14 percent approval rating isn’t low enough for them.

Nancy Pelosi got the Capitol police to shut down the building to tourists, who were cheering in the gallery, so the ODR leaders will be holding a press conference.

Stay tuned. This is getting fun!

Update (Saturday morning):

Congressional Quarterly has a more detailed report of the ODR festivities. I like the part at the end where Congressman Nunes (R-CA) says they may hold more of these sessions throughout the August recess. Keep preachin' it, Brother!