The Discerning Texan
All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.
-- Edmund Burke
-- Edmund Burke
Monday, November 28, 2005
Disgraceful and unprecedented behavior
The outrage caused by the "Limosine Liberal" Democrats is becoming palpable. By their obstructionism they are bleeding dry the very poor people they purport to "care" so much about so much--because of the high energy costs they themselves are causing. The irony is that they could easily take steps that would lessen our dependence on oil from the Middle East. And so it is becoming a national discrace. What is happening is clearly documented for to anyone willing to open up his or her eyes. For example, see the highlights below of a story by John Fund in today's Wall Street Journal:
After Hurricane Katrina temporarily knocked out 30% of America's oil refinery capacity and caused gasoline prices to spike, it became dramatically obvious that the nation needed to build more refineries away from the vulnerable Gulf Coast. But when a bill to streamline the permitting process and provide incentives to build refineries on closed military bases was headed for the Senate floor, Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R., R.I.) joined with every Democrat on the Senate Environment Committee and blocked the bill.
Mr. Chafee says he opposed the bill only because it lacked provisions to develop alternative fuels and raise fuel-economy standards, although he offered no amendments to that effect. But even if conservation takes center stage in the future, existing energy sources must be expanded now before the economy's health is jeopardized. A just published report by the New England Energy Alliance warns that "energy shortages could be acute soon--by 2010 at the latest" if policy makers in the region don't act aggressively. Unfortunately, Mr. Chafee and other senators appear more concerned about fending off the aggressive criticism of the green lobby. Mr. Chafee's spokesman noted there is strong local opposition in Rhode Island to using two shuttered military bases to add refinery capacity.
Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, chairman of the Environment Committee, says he personally urged Mr. Chafee to back his bill, noting that the nation hasn't built a new refinery since 1976. "He sweats a lot," Mr. Inhofe told Human Events, referring to his fellow Republican's re-election battle next year. "He said, 'I just can't do that. I have to win that election. Right now I have a perfect record with the environmentalists.' "
Mr. Inhofe then approached some committee Democrats who he knew were under pressure from home-state businesses to vote for the bill. They rebuffed him too. Noting that a House-passed bill to streamline refinery permitting also failed to get even one Democratic vote, Mr. Inhofe concludes the nation's refinery policy is now being held hostage to partisan politics. "In the next election, high gas prices will be one of the Democrats' big campaign issues."
Then, further down:
In reality, high energy prices are often the direct consequence of misguided government policy. After House leaders were forced to remove natural gas drilling provisions from the budget, Jack Gerard of the American Chemistry Council said he was "flabbergasted that some in Congress continue to live in a fantasy world, in which the government encourages use of clean-burning natural gas while cutting off supply, and then they wonder why prices go through the roof." Natural gas prices recently spiked at $14 per million BTUs, the highest in the world and the equivalent of $7 a gallon gasoline.
Not only will such price spikes increase the cost of heating homes this winter, but they are already costing jobs. Andrew Leveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, testified before Congress this month that high energy prices were a major reason that Dow has closed 23 of its plants in North America, shedding 7,000 of its 25,000 U.S. jobs. Out of 120 chemical plants currently under construction around the world, only one is being built in the U.S. More than 50 are going up in China, where natural gas costs half of what it does in the U.S.
If that is not disgraceful, what is?
Here is what I have to say to the Democrats:
After Hurricane Katrina temporarily knocked out 30% of America's oil refinery capacity and caused gasoline prices to spike, it became dramatically obvious that the nation needed to build more refineries away from the vulnerable Gulf Coast. But when a bill to streamline the permitting process and provide incentives to build refineries on closed military bases was headed for the Senate floor, Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R., R.I.) joined with every Democrat on the Senate Environment Committee and blocked the bill.
Mr. Chafee says he opposed the bill only because it lacked provisions to develop alternative fuels and raise fuel-economy standards, although he offered no amendments to that effect. But even if conservation takes center stage in the future, existing energy sources must be expanded now before the economy's health is jeopardized. A just published report by the New England Energy Alliance warns that "energy shortages could be acute soon--by 2010 at the latest" if policy makers in the region don't act aggressively. Unfortunately, Mr. Chafee and other senators appear more concerned about fending off the aggressive criticism of the green lobby. Mr. Chafee's spokesman noted there is strong local opposition in Rhode Island to using two shuttered military bases to add refinery capacity.
Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, chairman of the Environment Committee, says he personally urged Mr. Chafee to back his bill, noting that the nation hasn't built a new refinery since 1976. "He sweats a lot," Mr. Inhofe told Human Events, referring to his fellow Republican's re-election battle next year. "He said, 'I just can't do that. I have to win that election. Right now I have a perfect record with the environmentalists.' "
Mr. Inhofe then approached some committee Democrats who he knew were under pressure from home-state businesses to vote for the bill. They rebuffed him too. Noting that a House-passed bill to streamline refinery permitting also failed to get even one Democratic vote, Mr. Inhofe concludes the nation's refinery policy is now being held hostage to partisan politics. "In the next election, high gas prices will be one of the Democrats' big campaign issues."
Then, further down:
In reality, high energy prices are often the direct consequence of misguided government policy. After House leaders were forced to remove natural gas drilling provisions from the budget, Jack Gerard of the American Chemistry Council said he was "flabbergasted that some in Congress continue to live in a fantasy world, in which the government encourages use of clean-burning natural gas while cutting off supply, and then they wonder why prices go through the roof." Natural gas prices recently spiked at $14 per million BTUs, the highest in the world and the equivalent of $7 a gallon gasoline.
Not only will such price spikes increase the cost of heating homes this winter, but they are already costing jobs. Andrew Leveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, testified before Congress this month that high energy prices were a major reason that Dow has closed 23 of its plants in North America, shedding 7,000 of its 25,000 U.S. jobs. Out of 120 chemical plants currently under construction around the world, only one is being built in the U.S. More than 50 are going up in China, where natural gas costs half of what it does in the U.S.
If that is not disgraceful, what is?
Here is what I have to say to the Democrats:
- You cannot be both the party of isolationism and the party of self-immolation by on the one hand preventing oil companies from building refineries that would ease our Gasoline shortages--while at the same time blocking the taking advantage of our own rich oil source in Alaska -- oil that would drive prices down and strengthen our self-reliance in national emergencies.
- Stop howling about oil company profits: profits are exactly what enables the energy companies to invest in alternative technology research AND build refineries (if the Democrats in Congress would let them).
- Stop besmirching the image of the United States by prancing around like a bunch of excited roosters and exhibiting to the world your shameless and unprecedented attempts to completely shut down our government--all because someone in your party isn't running it. Filibustering high court nominees and pulling publicity stunts by turning out the lights in the Senate is not the best way to focus our governmental resources in a time of war. And it makes our form of government a laughingstock to the rest of the world--at the very time we are attempting to promote democracy abroad. How about pulling for the HOME team for a change?
- Quit playing lip service to "supporting our troops" and actually support them. You can start by not second-guessing the Commander in Chief's war strategy, how many troops he has deployed, and by ceasing your ridiculous attempt to re-invent history and pretend that you didn't go along with giving this President the authority to invade Iraq.
- Speaking of Iraq--it is hardly "support" to jeopardize those left behind in Iraq by calling on or publishing pre-mature pullout timetables--when the very same rhetoric emboldens our enemies to "wait us out" and in the meantime ratchet up the killing even more innocents--all so you will howl even louder and play even more politics with the blood of our men and women. The vote on the Authorization for the President to go to War is there for anyone to look at--as are the massive number of quotes and videotapes of Democrats telling the world how dangerous Saddam was (and you were right...then...).
- It is past the point of second-guessing. It is now to the point of: you are either a traitor to your country while it is at war, or you are not. Everyone with an IQ above 50 knows that it would be a catastrophe to pull out of Iraq and to watch it become another Taliban, supported by an equally-hostile, equally fundamentalist, nuclear Iran. We simply cannot allow that to happen. So cut the shit. Stop the below-the-belt politics and do what is right for your country and for your children. (Or do they matter to you, either?). Isn't it time to set the partisanship aside and get behind the good guys for a change?
