Americans Still Want Offshore Drilling

A recent Rasmussen Reports* national survey of 1,000 likely voters reveals that close to 70% agree with Senator McCain that the ban on offshore drilling should be lifted to ease the price of oil. Leading Democrats are still trying to prevent oil companies from offshore drilling, even with the high poll numbers against them.

Led by Speaker Pelosi, Democrats are ignoring what the public is calling for. They claim drilling for oil would take too long, and that oil companies are not drilling on land already leased to them. Americans have heard these excuses, and we still want offshore drilling. We want drilling because it makes sense to exploit our own resources instead of paying for oil elsewhere. There is a way to accomplish this goal without losing sight that renewable energy is the way of the future. Pelosi apparently has other things on her mind when determining whether offshore drilling is good for the country.

“The president of the United States, with gas at $4 a gallon because of his failed energy policies, is now trying to say that is because I couldn’t drill offshore,” Ms. Pelosi said in an interview. “That is not the cause, and I am not going to let him get away with it.”

New York Times –Washington, By Carle Hulse

Published: July 17, 2008

Speaker Pelosi is once again playing politics with the American people. She is blaming President Bush for high gas prices just as she blames the President for every societal ill. Using her reasoning, because high gas prices are the President’s fault, we should not drill for oil offshore. Even if I thought that the President’s energy policies have failed as Pelosi asserts, it is not a good enough reason to resist and actively prevent smart offshore drilling policies.

Coastal Plain at ANWR

The Politico (Politico.com, July 10, 2008) reports that despite Pelosi’s leadership role, a compromise may be under way that allows for offshore oil drilling, and satisfies Democrats calls for investment in renewable sources of energy.

Although Senate Democrats are slowly easing away from opposition to offshore drilling, it’s clear that the majority party is not giving it away for nothing…Democrats also want any compromise plan to include investments in clean and renewable energies, a crackdown on oil speculators and proof that the oil and gas companies are fully utilizing land that is already leased for exploration.

Most Republican officials understand the need for offshore drilling and alternate sources of energy. Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House has been collecting signatures to remind Congress that Americans have a say in how our country uses its own natural resources.

One way for Americans to jump start Congress to act in favor of drilling is by contacting your elected officials, and demand they stop pandering to a select group, and do what is right for America.

If your elected officials are not listening to you, vote them out of office!

*National Survey of 1,000 Likely Voters
Conducted July 11, 2008
By Rasmussen Reports

Question:

John McCain favors drilling in offshore oil wells to help reduce the price of gas. Barack Obama opposes offshore oil wells and says it would not reduce the price of gas. Should drilling be allowed in offshore oil wells off the coasts of California, Florida, and other states?

Answer:

67% Yes

25% No

8% Not sure

The following is a list of the House of Representative for New York State and their position on drilling:

District	Representative	Area	Party	Support Offshore Drilling?
1	Tim Bishop	South Hampton	Democrat	NO
2	Steve Israel	Huntington	Democrat	NO
3	Peter King	Seaford	Republican	YES
4	Carolyn McCarthy	Mineola	Democrat	NO
5	Gary Ackerman	Jamaica Estates	Democrat	NO
6	Gregory Meeks	Queens	Democrat	NO
7	Joe Crowley	Queens /Bronx	Democrat	NO
8	Jerry Nadler	Manhattan	Democrat	NO
9	Anthony Weiner	Brooklyn	Democrat	NO
10	Edolphus Towns	Brooklyn	Democrat	NO
11	Major Owens	Brooklyn	Democrat	NO
12	Nydia Velazquez	Brooklyn	Democrat	NO
13	Vito Fossella	Great Kills	Republican	YES
14	Carolyn Maloney	Manhattan	Democrat	NO
15	Charles Rangel	Harlem	Democrat	NO
16	Jose Serrano	Bronx	Democrat	NO
17	Eliot Engel	Bronx	Democrat	NO
18	Nita Lowey	Harrison	Democrat	NO
19	John Hall	Dover Plains	Democrat	NO
20	Kirsten Gillibrand	Greenport	Democrat	NO
21	Michael McNulty	Green Island	Democrat	NO
22	Maurice Hinchey	Saugerties	Democrat	NO
23	John McHugh	Piermont Manor	Republican	YES
24	Michael A. Arcuri	Utica	Democrat	NO
25	James Walsh	Syracuse	Republican	YES
26	Thomas Reynolds	Springville	Republican	YES
27	Brian Higgins	Buffalo	Democrat	NO
28	Louise Slaughter	Fairport	Democrat	NO
29	Randy Kuhl	Hammondsport	Republican	YES

Just one look in this mornings Post will show you the boiling rage Americans have with Pelosi’s politicization of this issue. With gas at $4 a gallon, how can democtarts say they care about the American people or fighting our enemies. The most important issue is becoming energy independedt by means of drilling and all other means available. off shore drilling is the fastest and cheapest with analysts saying we can get oil rigs on line in less than a year, while Hydrogen and Solar cars may take 7-10 years. Nuclear power is another way which the dems are blocking.

I checked on the list and my Congressman Gary Ackerman says NO to offshore drilling. But contacting him is absolutely useless. I’ve tried writting, emailing and calling for the past 5 years and never got an answer. I am so frunstrated by this corrupt liberal congressman, that I am putting all my strenght into kicking him out of office this coming Novemebr with a new fresh candidate Liz Berney. Myself as well as many others are so fed up that we vow to get her in office.

If your Dem congressmembers are just as incorrigible, then the same goes for everyone, do whatever you can to kick them out. Congreess has one of the lowest approval rating in our history. It’s time to get off our duff’s and start acting!

By Phil O on Jul 18, 2008

The Democrats are going to lose in November if they do not get on board with drilling. It infuriates me that they keep going on and on with their talking points!

I have the same problem with my Congressman, Hinchey. That’s why I’m voting for Republican George Phillips. He offers real solutions to real problems!

Incumbent Democrats in Congress spend most of their time dragging in former politicians in the Bush administration for questioning. On what, or why, I have no idea!

By Raquel on Jul 19, 2008

We have to realise that new energy sources take decades to develop. If camera batteries explode, how many product liability suits will hamper hybrids? The other problem is oil crises are cyclical (every quarter century – ignore global warming and peak oil pinkos) and the paranoia about “price gouging” (our own Pirro) only prevents proper investment (in the 1970s it led Exxon to make Z80 microprocessors instead of new refineries). The varmint mental geopagans have hampered new refineries and drilling in the USA. The short term solution now is what it was last time (Mundell, Dollar & Policy Mix, Princeton Ess Intl Fnc, 1971): while drastically cutting taxes, we need to raise fed funds to ten percent immediately – that will bring Iran, China & Russia (and oil prices and McMansion liberals) crawling. Unfortunately, no fed chairman is ever going to raise rates so close to an election. In the long term, there are many great opportunities (clients of mine are working on making alkanes from cellulose and also on quantum effect solar panels) but we can’t readily predict which will work and where problems will arise. Petroleum is still relatively the cheapest energy source (ironically, even for ethanol) and the infrastructure that would have to be replaced is mindboggling. The left is blinded by their own arrogance and ideologism in not seeing how complicated the problems are. The totally phoney GOP in this part of the country is only too willing to comply. Furthermore, inflation (cf Phil Kagan’s dissertation under Milton Friedman) causes paranoia to spiral, which only leads politicians to ever wronger solutions (eg: local Birchers in Flushing disappeared in the 1990s but recently reappeared; also customer service is optimal and inventories are lowest in times of slight deflation – something lost on the Barney Franks and Hubert Humphreys of this world).

By Vasos Panagiotopoulos on Jul 24, 2008

“The varmint mental geopagans have hampered new refineries and drilling in the USA.”

You got that right! I also agree with you that what needs to transform in this country is tremendous and complicated in regards to developing new energy sources.

Democrat members of Congress, who think “global warming” is more dangerous than nuclear weapons, cannot assert one good reason not to drill for oil.

I don’t understand how raising fed funds would be a short term solution exactly.

Alkanes from cellulose? How does that happen.

Local Birchers in Flushing? I’m from Flushing, I ran for City Council in 05 on the Conservative Party line. Are you from Queens also?

By Raquel on Jul 25, 2008