In what has become an annual rite of the past few summer’s President Bush blamed the Democratic Congress for the energy crisis for not allowing offshore oil drilling. “The President’s proposal sounds like another page from the Administration’s Energy Policy that was literally written by the oil industry: give away more public resources to the very same oil companies that are sitting on 68 million acres of federal lands they’ve already leased,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said.

She also pointed out that the House has passed legislation to help increase supply, “In just the last year, Congress has promoted energy independence by raising efficiency standards for vehicles for the first time in 32 years, investing in American-grown biofuels, and forcing President Bush to increase gas supplies by suspending government purchases for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. We have provided enforcement tools to go after those who are speculating on oil and manipulating the price and we will continue to push for solutions that end our dependence on foreign oil.”

If anyone wants to blame the Democrats for this, they need to ask themselves, if this legislation is so important why didn’t the Republicans pass it when they were in control of both Congress and the White House from 2001-2006? Even Republicans know that more offshore drilling won’t help. Plus, it is opposed by the coastal governors.

Even if the oil lease was written so that the oil had to stay in the U.S, the 21 billion barrels of oil that the president claims are there would last for 3 years, and would not be available for another decade. Does this sound like a real solution to the current crisis to you? We should have been working on developing alternative fuels years ago. Instead of trying to politicize the issue, let’s see the GOP come up with an answer that isn’t a gift of more profits for the oil companies.

Pelosi Statement