House Democrats are bypassing renewal of the offshore oil drilling ban by including the entire Pelosi “drill nothing” energy bill in a draft of a Continuing Resolution. HUMAN EVENTS obtained a copy of the most recent House draft CR this morning.
The Pelosi bill, HR 6899, fails to open more than a miniscule part of the available offshore drilling areas and - even worse - it establishes permanent bans on development of most other domestic energy sources (natural gas, oil shale, etc.) and does nothing to develop nuclear power. It passed the House earlier this month and is now languishing in the Senate as a separate measure.
As one member of Congress said last week, it’s got more incentives for bicycle riding than for nuclear power.
Now, the House leaders have included the “drill nothing” bill in a new draft Continuing Resolution. According to the document we obtained, Section 152 of the draft CR says:
[FEDERAL OIL AND GAS LEASING; INTERIOR]
SEC. 152. Notwithstanding section 101, the terms and conditions for Federal oil and gas leasing set out in title I of the Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 6899), as passed by the House of Representatives on September 16, 2008, shall apply in lieu of the terms and conditions in sections 104, 105, and 433 of division F of Public Law 110–161.
Congress must pass a continuing resolution before September 30 in order to prevent a government shut-down for lack of funding.
(The Democratic leadership has managed to do what hasn’t been done for about 70 years: go through an entire year without passing a single appropriations bill. Without appropriations measures, government agencies lack funds to operate. The CR will include measures to keep all agencies going at least until congress returns either later this year or when it reconvenes next year.)
Senate sources tell HUMAN EVENTS this draft is dead on arrival.
However, there is every reason to believe that this maneuver will be repeated later this week, and that the House and Senate Democrats will make it a part of any deal with the President on his financial bailout package.
Stay tuned. This is getting uglier by the moment.
