Pelosi backs off drilling, supports alternatives so she profits big dollars

[DougMD]

This piggbacks another thread where it is shown that she owns shares in CLNE, a company involved in alternative energy sources. Why drill when she can make big dollars on her investment by blocking drilling, forcing energy to come from alternatives? Such conflict of interest should have her seeking employment at Burger King! And to think she said she was going to bring integrity and ethics to government!
Pelosi won't limit vote to offshore drilling[/align]Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Friday, August 15, 2008
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(08-14) 19:07 PDT -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday firmly rejected the idea of a House vote solely on the issue of offshore oil drilling, calling it "a hoax on the American people" backed by oil companies.
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Instead, she said, she wants Congress to tackle a compromise comprehensive energy plan that would include alternative energy sources and curtailing tax breaks for oil companies.
"You want to drill? We want the royalties for the American people, and we want that to pay for renewable energy resources," the San Francisco Democrat said in an interview for KQED television's weekly news show, "This Week in Northern California." "We want to connect all that together."
Pelosi also said she supports a roll-call vote at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this month. Supporters of former presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton had been pressing to have her name put into nomination to recognize the millions of votes she received during the primaries.
Clinton and presumed nominee Barack Obama agreed to do that Thursday, but the mechanics of a roll-call vote are still to be worked out. Pelosi argued that the roll call is a tradition and would be good for the party.
And Pelosi also said she hopes U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein runs for governor of California in 2010, predicting that she would be an excellent chief executive for the state.
"She'd be great. I wanted her to run during the recall," Pelosi said of the 2003 special election. "I didn't succeed."
Still, she noted, "Sen. Feinstein is in position right now in the Senate - she's chair of the rules committee. ... It would be hard to see her walk away from that, because she's certainly a respected leader in our country."
Pelosi appeared on the show as part of a tour to promote her new book, "Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters."
Pelosi was heckled and interrupted later Thursday at an event at the Cowell Theater, where she was being interviewed by KQED talk show host Michael Krasny. About 100 protesters advocating impeachment of President Bush interrupted the speaker, who remained calmer than many angry listeners who shouted down the hecklers. Several people were removed, but there were no arrests.
Pelosi said she wants to end what she called the failed energy policies supported by "two oilmen in the White House," referring to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, former oil company executives.
"They want us to do more of the same," she said. "So they've come up with this gimmick, this hoax" that says if drilling is allowed in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore, "it's going to bring down the price at the pump."
"Ten years, 2 cents," Pelosi said, arguing that 10 years would be the time needed to reap a small benefit to most Americans. "Even the president has said it isn't a quick fix. ... I can't allow a hoax to come to the floor."
But she would consider a vote on drilling "in the context of a fuller, more comprehensive energy package" that would include ending some of the oil companies' current tax breaks.
Big Oil, she said, wants to drill and "not pass their royalties to the taxpayer. They want us to subsidize the drilling."
That's why alternative energy - solar, wind, oil released from the strategic energy supply and natural gas, which is clean and abundant - should be mandated as part of the plan, she said.
Pelosi, who will be chairwoman of the Democratic National Convention, which begins Aug. 25, said she does not believe that sexism played the overriding role in the end of Clinton's campaign.
"There was sexism, but that plays a couple of ways. ... Being a woman in politics is a giant plus," she said.
"There's all kinds of analysis of how their campaign prioritized the races," she said, but added that the fact that Obama was against the Iraq war from day one "made a big difference in giving him the opportunity that he had. ... It was a factor that was important."
She noted that in her own district, she is facing a challenge from anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan.
"I'm so glad that Cindy Sheehan got the signatures" to run, because it would have been a controversy if she hadn't, Pelosi said.
But Pelosi said she is confident of her re-election, noting that she won 80 percent of the vote in the Eighth Congressional District in her last race.
She acknowledged that some progressive voters are disappointed because "they want the war to end ... and I'm with them on that," she said, but she added she is certain that Obama - whom she predicts will be the next president - will make that happen.
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[Arthur P]

Instead, she said, she wants Congress to tackle a compromise comprehensive energy plan that would include alternative energy sources and curtailing tax breaks for oil companies.

Whether or not Pelosi is in line to grab some money - I smell windfall profits - that is a plank in the Democrat's platform. Democrats want it, Republicans have shot it down repeatedly, and now they want to drill. So, good old Congressional politics come into play. Do you want to drill bad enough to give us what we want too?

Oddly enough, McCain is also saying we need to expand alternative energies. In fact, the only difference between McCain's plan and Obama's is that McCain wants to drill before he gets the alternative energy program in place and Obama wants alternative energy in place before drilling. That's it, total difference between them. So... It makes one wonder why it's such a problem for Republicans to vote for it.

[Fieldmouse]

What is a "Windfall" profit?


At least there are some Senators who understand we need to drill now!!!!!


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121884425915245955.html?mod=opinion_main_review_ and_outlooks

The Chambliss Shimmy
August 16, 2008;PageA10
Congratulations to the Gang of 10. No, not that "bipartisan" group of U.S. Senators who recently garnered headlines with their misguided energy "compromise." We refer instead to 10 GOP Senators who are proving good policy is good politics by pushing for more drilling in the Arctic.
Those 10 Republicans recently sent a letter asking President Bush to issue an executive order to conduct an immediate, state-of-the-art seismic survey of oil-and-gas resources in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The signers include Senators Pete Domenici (N.M.), Jim Inhofe (Okla.), Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn (Tex.), John Warner (Va.), David Vitter (La.), Mel Martinez (Fla.), Thad Cochran (Miss.) and Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowksi (Alaska).

That corner of Alaska hasn't been surveyed since 1983, and in the intervening 25 years the industry has developed far more advanced technology to scope oil-and-gas reserves. A new survey could show that the area boasts far more oil than today's estimate of 10.4 billion barrels, a discovery that would bolster public sentiment for drilling.
All this is better than the approach recently announced by the other "Gang of 10." Five Republicans -- Lindsey Graham (S.C.), John Thune (S.D.), Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson (Ga.) -- agreed to join five Democrats and endorse $84 billion in energy subsidies plus higher taxes in exchange for allowing more drilling in a portion of the Eastern Gulf and offshore of only four states.
Senator Chambliss told Rush Limbaugh last week that the deal was necessary to get 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster. But this is the mentality that has undercut sound GOP positions in the past. Democrats are on the defensive over their opposition to new oil-and-gas supplies, which means the GOP has a legitimate shot at finally forcing a sound national drilling policy. Mr. Chambliss's shimmy gives political cover to liberals who want new drilling kept to a minimum.
Current law prohibits any "exploration leading to development of ANWR," but that prohibition is aimed at exploratory drilling. Seismic testing involves the equivalent of 3D photography and is environmentally benign, so Mr. Bush is well in his rights to issue the order. It's time to get serious about drilling, and a new survey is a useful first step.

[Arthur P]

What is a "Windfall" profit?

You missed the irony that it's Democrats that want windfall profits and I was applying the concept to the Head Witch of the Democratic Party, which you might have figured out if you weren't so quick to want a friggin' argument. So, chalk up another thing that zoomed right over your head without even leaving skid marks.

[Fieldmouse]

ORIGINAL: Arthur P

You missed the irony that it's Democrats that want windfall profits and I was applying the concept to the Head Witch of the Democratic Party, which you might have figured out if you weren't so quick to want a friggin' argument. So, chalk up another thing that zoomed right over your head without even leaving skid marks.

No I was trying to get that defined. However here is another good article backing up what I have been saying what drilling for our own oil would mean to us and several states in the red.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121884488543246049.html?mod=opinion_main_comment aries





OPINION










Let's Drill Our Way
To Lower Taxes
By ANDREW MOYLAN
August 16, 2008;PageA9
[/align]As the tide of public opinion seems to shift in favor of House Republicans' demand for a vote on domestic energy exploration, one supporting argument has yet to be discussed: drilling as a way to lower your taxes.
Opening our vast domestic resources, both on- and off-shore, to responsible oil and gas development would produce an influx of tax revenue from additional lease sales and royalties, as well as from income and excise taxes. These additional collections could be used, for example, to offset the alternative minimum tax (AMT).
The Congressional Research Service recently estimated the potential federal revenue from Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) oil development at $191 billion over 30 years -- roughly $18.36 per barrel, based on projections of recoverable reserves. Applying that formula to the 107 billion-plus barrels of recoverable oil that federal agencies estimate is in ANWR, the nearby National Petroleum Reserve and offshore tells us that sensible drilling could yield nearly $2 trillion in overall revenue over 30 years, or an average of about $65.5 billion per year.
Meanwhile, the "cost" in lost tax collections of protecting 22 million families from the AMT this year stands at about $62 billion. That figure is sure to balloon in the future as more and more Americans are ensnared by the complex system. Tax-hungry politicians defend the AMT by pointing to all the federal revenue that would be lost by ending it. (Never mind the fact that AMT revenue is ill-gotten in the first place, or that the estimated "costs" of its repeal to the federal budget ignore the benefits to economic growth and resulting additional revenues.) While oil and gas development won't fill government's coffers overnight, it will provide a down payment in the near-term, and big windfalls in the out-years that can help deal with some of the most intractable tax problems we face.
We helped create our energy supply problem by putting resources off-limits. Let's develop those resources and use the revenue to help alleviate tax burdens in this difficult economy. More supply, lower gas prices, greater energy security, and lower taxes. What are we waiting for?
Mr. Moylan is government affairs manager for the National Taxpayers Union.

[Arthur P]

windfalls

There's that nasty term again, FM, that thing you don't want taxed. Define windfall, please. [8D]

[Fieldmouse]

ORIGINAL: Arthur P

There's that nasty term again, FM, that thing you don't want taxed. Define windfall, please. [8D]

Windfall Tax - The current US Tax code.

[Arthur P]

Arthur's got him by the shorthairs and he, once again, chooses to deflect rather than to answer. LOL

[Fieldmouse]

ORIGINAL: Arthur P

Arthur's got him by the shorthairs and he, once again, chooses to deflect rather than to answer. LOL

How do you figure? Is webster ok for a definition?

Windfall - unearned gain

US Taxes - money stolen from everyone at gun point then redistributed according a few in congress through making back room deals. Sure sounds like windfall to me!

[Arthur P]

Very good, FM. Now you know what windfall profits are and, by extention, what windfall profits taxes are. I'd been wondering if you'd ever heard of a dictionary.