A 180 on Drilling in Alaska
Yesterday, CongressNow reported that House Democrats will soon schedule a bill that calls for expanded oil and gas production in Alaska. Strange, because for months we've heard that increasing supply won't drive gas costs down and that actually procuring our own oil resources would be damaging the environment. What gives?
"Turning the tables on daily calls by the Bush administration and Congressional Republicans to expand domestic oil and gas production, House Democrats today said they will soon schedule a vote on an energy bill that aims to expedite drilling on millions of acres of public land in Alaska. 'Democrats support increasing the domestic production of petroleum and other energy resources,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said this morning in announcing the bill, which Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said may be brought up under suspension of the rules as early as next week. An aide later said the debate could slip to a later date but would be 'soon.'"
It looks like the pressure for the Democrat Leadership to actually do something has become too much to handle. While I'm hopeful that the Democrats will push legislation like this forward, I'm not holding my breath and I'll be most interested in seeing their text. Stay tuned...