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Domestic oil refiners kept up their attack of climate legislation, saying a Senate bill under consideration could increase gas prices. Domestic oil refiners kept up their attack Wednesday of climate legislation, saying a Senate bill under consideration could increase gas prices. The group, among the fiercest critics of the measure, said the proposal could add 77 cents a gallon, or around 30 percent above today’s prices. Democrats on a key Senate panel shot back, saying the industry’s estimate is based on an inflated projection of the price of permits companies will have to hold to cover their carbon emissions. A...

Fla. House panel OKs offshore drilling Last Edited: Tuesday, 21 Apr 2009, 7:01 PM EDT Created On: Tuesday, 21 Apr 2009, 7:01 PM EDT TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A Florida House panel has approved a bill that would permit oil and natural gas drilling in coastal areas where it’s now banned. The measure would allow drilling from the water’s edge to 10 miles into the Gulf of Mexico. That’s where federal waters begin, and also where drilling is prohibited. The House Policy Council approved the Republican-sponsored bill (HB 1219) on a nearly straight 17-7 party line vote. Its next stop...

Sens. Hutchison, Murkowski, Bond Urge White House to Expedite Offshore Oil and Gas Development Domestic Sources will Relieve Stress on Americans, Reduce Dependence on Foreign Oil March 2, 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Texas’ senior Senator, along with Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Kit Bond (R-MO) today led a Republican effort, urging the White House to tap new domestic energy sources and expeditiously complete the Administration’s five-year plan for offshore oil and gas development. Sens. Hutchison, Murkowski, and Bond were joined on the letter by 32 of their Republican colleagues in the U.S. Senate.            “American...

The Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) has proposed that oil and gas Lease Sale 208 for the Central Gulf of Mexico Planning Area be held March 18, 2009. The Notice of Availability of the Proposed Notice of Sale (PNOS) was published in the Federal Register on Friday, October 3. The proposed sale encompasses approximately 6,200 unleased blocks covering more than 33.5 million acres offshore Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. This area includes 5.8 million acres, known as the 181 South Area, that will be offered for lease for the first time since 1988. "What makes Sale 208 noteworthy...

Democrats in the U.S. House want you to think that they support expanded drilling for oil and natural gas. They don't. Their vote on Tuesday proved it. New Hampshire Reps. Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes voted along with the rest of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's poodle army for what they claim is a comprehensive energy bill that responsibly expands domestic drilling off our coasts. In the Atlantic and Pacific, the bill allows drilling from 100 to 200 miles offshore. It allows drilling from 50 to 100 miles offshore with state approval. The eastern Gulf of Mexico would remain off limits. Click...

How lame is the energy bill that Speaker Nancy Pelosi had her House Democrats pass through the House on Tuesday? Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu said before the vote that Pelosi's handiwork would be "dead on arrival" in the Senate. This from a Democrat who's up for re-election in an oil-and-gas state that would seem to gain from the bill's much-ballyhooed expansion of offshore drilling? What gives? For starters, Landrieu knows that the limited drilling the House leadership allows in principle -- it opens up waters 50 miles from shore with state approval -- is made next to impossible in practice....

When Arizona Sen. John McCain accepted the Republican nomination for president, he vowed to cut America's reliance on foreign oil by opening up the nation's Atlantic and Pacific coasts to drilling—drawing cheers from GOP delegates on hand for his party's national convention. "We will drill new oil wells offshore, and we'll drill them now," McCain pledged to his faithful, who gushed with enthusiastic chants of "drill, baby, drill!" The ultimate goal, the candidate said: to "stop sending $700 billion a year (for oil) to countries that don't like us very much." No one disputes that a lot of oil lies...

Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives yesterday passed on a party line vote a drilling bill that effectively allows no drilling. She hates drilling, and this bill was solely an attempt to avoid becoming the Former Speaker of the House. The Senate bills aren’t any better. Wherever the House bill would allow limited drilling, say in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Senate bill would forbid it. The real story is that the Republicans know they are on the winning side of this issue and if they can kill this legislation, the moratorium will expire on September 30, and drilling can...

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 599(Democrats in roman; Republicans in italic; Independents underlined)       H R 6899      RECORDED VOTE      16-Sep-2008      10:04 PM      QUESTION:  On Passage      BILL TITLE: Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act Ayes Noes PRES NV Democratic 221 13   1 Republican 15 176   8 Independent         TOTALS 236 189   9 ---- AYES    236 --- AbercrombieAckermanAllenAltmireAndrewsArcuriBacaBairdBaldwinBeanBecerraBerkleyBermanBerryBishop (GA)Bishop (NY)BlumenauerBorenBoswellBoucherBoyd (FL)Boyda (KS)Brady (PA)Braley (IA)Brown, CorrineBuchananButterfieldCapuanoCardozaCarnahanCarneyCarsonCastleCastorChandlerChildersClarkeClayCleaverClyburnCohenConyersCooperCostaCostelloCourtneyCramerCrowleyCuellarCummingsDavis (AL)Davis (CA)Davis (IL)Davis, LincolnDeFazioDeGetteDelahuntDeLauroDicksDingellDoggettDonnellyDoyleEdwards (MD)Edwards (TX)EllisonEllsworthEmanuelEngelEshooEtheridgeFattahFosterFrank (MA)GiffordsGilchrestGillibrandGonzalezGordon Green, AlGreen, GeneGrijalvaGutierrezHall (NY)HareHarmanHastings (FL)HayesHerseth SandlinHigginsHillHincheyHinojosaHironoHodesHoldenHondaHooleyHoyerInglis (SC)InsleeIsraelJackson (IL)Jackson-Lee (TX)JeffersonJohnson (GA)Johnson, E. B.Jones (NC)KagenKanjorskiKapturKennedyKildeeKilpatrickKindKirkKlein (FL)KnollenbergKucinichLaHoodLangevinLarsen (WA)Larson (CT)LeeLevinLewis (GA)LipinskiLoBiondoLoebsackLofgren, ZoeLoweyLynchMahoney (FL)Maloney (NY)MarkeyMathesonMatsuiMcCarthy (NY)McCollum (MN)McDermottMcGovernMcIntyreMcNerneyMcNultyMeek (FL)Meeks (NY)MelanconMichaudMiller (NC)Miller, GeorgeMitchellMollohanMoore (KS)Moore (WI)Moran (VA)Murphy (CT)Murphy,...

The House introduced new energy legislation late last night. Finally…right? The House also wants to bring the 290-page bill, which can be found here, to the floor today. You think the 435 Members in the House of Representatives are going to meticulously read all 290 pages? A bill that makes fundamental changes to thousands of pages of earlier energy bills as well as the tax code. Please. This isn’t Harry Potter. You can’t just cruise through something as complex as energy policy in one short night. It’s true that Congress should craft an energy policy as expeditiously as possible to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats sought on Saturday to drum up support for compromise legislation on offshore drilling, challenging Republicans to break from Bush administration policies that neglect development of alternative energy sources.

Be sure to READ THIS!!Please continue prayers for Jim Robinson and TrueblackmanPalin Video on Drilling!Randy Evans LIVE from RNC talks Palin and Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less!!Randy wants to get you the answers! Freepmail me if you would like Randy to talk to anyone as the Conventionfor information or any quesitons you may have. He will be joining us LIVE all week.Poll: 74% Support Drilling CONGRESSMAN MIKE PENCE Joins Bill Collier of DontGo on BTR!Today, Tuesday, August 26th at 4:30 pm EDT!DON'T MISS THIS SHOW!  Brokaw, Pelosi and Pickens"Media" Tries to Downplay Pelosi's Abuse of PowerBut the REAL Media Says "NOT...

Be sure to READ THIS!!Please continue prayers for TrueblackmanPoll: 74% Support Drilling CONGRESSMAN MIKE PENCE Joins Bill Collier of DontGo on BTR!Today, Tuesday, August 26th at 4:30 pm EDT!DON'T MISS THIS SHOW!  Brokaw, Pelosi and Pickens"Media" Tries to Downplay Pelosi's Abuse of PowerBut the REAL Media Says "NOT SO FAST!"  DON'T STOP FOLKS!!JUST SAY NO TO GANGS!!Congressman John R Carter of Texas says Gang of 10 a "Bad Deal"Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed a total lack of our "Establishment Media/Misinformation Socialist Monarchy" reporting on the price of gas and food for the past 2 weeks?New FTC Rule Could Apply...

The Democratic and Republican conventions have arrived amidst a litany of calls for government-sponsored energy projects on the level of Apollo. Despite progress in fields from solar to wind and batteries to biofuels, Popular Mechanics’ editor-in-chief says Americans should be careful what we wish for—scientists have more to offer than politicians.By James B. MeigsPublished in the October 2008 issue. (Illustration by Josh Cochran) Suddenly, everyone has a plan. Veteran oilman T. Boone Pickens is spending millions promoting his proposal to replace foreign oil with massive wind farms and increased natural-gas production. Sen. Barack Obama proposes spending $150 billion over the...

Oil fields aren't new in Los Angeles. But with the price of crude beyond $100 a barrel, it is cost-effective to start drilling there again, in both old and new wells. And that has made some residents very unhappy. "What we have is a world class oil field sitting below a world class city," said John Martini, manager of governmental affairs for Plains Exploration and Production Co., or PXP. The Texas oil company does extensive work in the Inglewood oil fields. Now, the company is seeking government approval to tap as many as 50 new or existing wells a year...

Congress suffers from a crude sense of timing when it comes to oil. When it was time to act, it did nothing for decades. Now it’s desperate to be seen doing something at the precise moment when the time has come to do nothing. On October 1, the congressional ban on extracting oil from the 1.76 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf will expire. The ban has been renewed annually for decades. If Congress simply does nothing, the ban will expire, uncorking significant new supplies of oil and gas, and sending a message to world energy markets that the...

For weeks (since the House abruptly adjourned for the summer), Republicans have been in Washington demanding Speaker Pelosi to allow an up or down vote to free America’s own energy from the Democrats’ embargo and ease the pain that Americans currently face at the pump. Rather than offer solutions, Speaker Pelosi continues to insult the intelligence of hardworking Americans struggling to pay historically high energy prices. Members of Congress ought to do the jobs they were sent to do and remain in Washington until a solution to the country’s energy crisis is passed. Instead, Speaker Pelosi adjourned the House of...

The last few days have seen left wing anti-energy Democrats scrambling to find a survivable position. When we first launched the Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less petition drive at American Solutions, left wing anti-energy Democrats were deeply and decisively opposed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced that she was "saving the planet" by stopping drilling. Senator Obama made fun of drilling and announced that inflating your tires would increase energy availability as much as drilling. Congressman Mark Udall (D-CO), a hard line environmental extremist and anti-energy Democrat (and the author in the House of the ban on developing oil...

Smart Republicans like Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Jeb Hensarling of Texas are starting to recognize their party holds the ultimate trump card in the current energy debate. In 41 days, the long-imposed moratorium on offshore oil drilling and domestic oil shale production is set to expire -- gone. This happens automatically and can be stopped only if Congress votes to re-establish the ban. Lifting the moratorium might free up as much as 100 years' worth of oil and gas for domestic consumption. But keeping domestic energy supplies off limits is something Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid...

Republican John McCain is scheduled to make it today to an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico to promote his energy policy -- and bash Democratic rival Barack Obama. The Democratic National Committee is handing out "ExxonMcCain '08" bumper stickers to reporters today, along with a stress reliever shaped like an oil drum. The antiwar advocacy group MoveOn.org is planning protests across the country, including one at noon today at Republican Party offices in Boston. "Senator Obama opposes new drilling," McCain plans to say, according to excerpts released by his campaign. "He has said it will not 'solve our...

The Perdido spar will bring production in from three fields—Great White, Silvertip and Tobago—with a production design of 130,000 boe/day. The Shell-operated Perdido Regional Development Spar has arrived in the ultra-deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and is currently being secured to the seafloor in 7,816 ft (2,382 m) of water, a process that will take about one month. Perdido will be the deepest oil development in the world, the deepest drilling and production platform in the world and have the deepest subsea well in the world to date. Other partners in the joint venture are BP...

US drilling continued to increase the week ended Aug. 15, with 23 more rotary rigs for a total of 1,990 working, up from 1,795 during the same period in 2007, said Baker Hughes Inc. Land operations accounted for the week's increase, up 25 units to 1,895 drilling. Inland water activity was down 2 rigs to 29 still working. Offshore drilling in US waters was unchanged at 66 rigs working, despite a loss of 3 to 63 in the Gulf of Mexico. Of the rigs working, 395 were drilling for oil, 8 more than the previous week. There were 1,586 rotary...

One major problem with politics -- as we've all probably figured out by now -- is that politicians view every human challenge as political in nature, meaning, particularly these last few years. Objective No. 1 in the political trade is sticking to it The Other Party. What else could explain Democratic obstinacy and obfuscation over offshore oil drilling? The national interest certainly couldn't explain it. A basic principle of oil exploration is that you look for oil where it is, instead of where you'd like it to be. Assuming, in the Democrats' case, there's any place they would like it...

Still Blocking Vote on the American Energy Act, Speaker Pelosi Crafts “No Energy” Bill Loaded With Poison Pills Dow Jones News: Instead Of Allowing Vote on All-of-the-Above Energy Reforms, Speaker to Load Bill With Killer Provisions “Dooming the Election-Year Effort to Failure” Washington, Aug 18 - All year long, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has blocked a meaningful vote on the “all of the above” energy reforms the American people want – and she’s still blocking one. Congress’ five-week summer break continues to drag on – and there’s been no indication from the Speaker that she will allow an honest...

Republican presidential candidate John McCain says that he's taking another look at the possibility of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, and as part of that assessment McCain says that he plans to talk to the nation's most prominent advocate of drilling in ANWR, Alaska governor Sarah Palin. McCain has opposed drilling in ANWR. In the past he's compared it to drilling in the Grand Canyon. But as energy prices climbed over the past several months, he has been careful to avoid locking himself into an anti-drilling position. In late June, McCain told voters in...

Republicans lambasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) energy plan Saturday advising her to “get out of the way” if she was not going to accept GOP solutions to the energy crisis. In her Saturday radio address Pelosi announced that Democrats would consider opening up parts of the outer continental shelf for drilling as a part of a broad new energy plan that will be unveiled in the coming weeks. The Democratic initiative will also seek to release oil from the 700 million barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve, require oil companies to pay billions of dollars Democrats believe they owe to invest...

Republicans are threatening to block the annual extension of the ban on offshore oil drilling, claiming to be building support for an effort that Democrats say smacks of a threat to shut down the government.Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has announced that 36 of the 49 GOP senators had signed a letter to Senate leaders supporting the designation of Oct. 1 - the deadline for renewing the ban for the 28th straight year - as "American Freedom Energy Day" and opposing the extension of the prohibition.The letter, addressed to both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell,...

Deming - Today, Congressman Steve Pearce discussed the extreme environmentalists and the use of lawsuits to prevent America from increasing our domestic supply of energy on KDEM-KOTS Radio in Deming. "Tom Udall sides with the small group of extremists who are locking up our public land and putting it off limits with endless lawsuits," said Pearce. "They are the ones who say we can't drill for more oil, we can't cut the dead trees out of our forests, and we can't use the land for grazing." Tom Udall, a former lawyer, has taken more than $700,000 from lawyers and law...

Support for more U.S. oil drilling is on the rise, despite the opinions of many analysts who say the potential supply is too small to significantly lower the price. Government estimates assume that drilling off the eastern and western coasts offers just over 1 million barrels a day. Even John McCain - who has made offshore drilling a cornerstone of his energy platform - doesn't dispute that figure, which is dwarfed by worldwide production. Currently world production stands at about 73 million barrels of oil each day. Drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could kick in another million barrels,...

In the showdown between House Republicans and Speaker Nancy Pelosi over an up-or-down vote on increasing American oil supply by opening up offshore drilling, Pelosi blinked before a national TV audience on Larry King Live Monday night. When asked by King about bringing Congress back into session for a vote, Pelosi responded in part, “[Republicans] have this thing that says drill offshore in the protected areas. Well, we can do that. We can have a vote on that.” Before her book tour flopped, Pelosi haughtily informed Republicans that they needed to “imagine” a vote. As monumental as that capitulation to...

The mantra from Barack Obama and congressional Democrat leaders is that they represent "change" - and when it comes to gas prices, they certainly have a point. The cost to heat and air-condition American homes is certainly "changing" in very negative ways for the American consumer, as is the cost of getting to work or taking a trip with the family.    Regular readers of this column know that I have been critical of Republicans' performance on many issues. But on energy today, the GOP on Capitol Hill has shown that it understands that oil supply must be increased, and...

Republicans may be planning a crude surprise for Democrats this October. I mean crude in the sense that it will involve unrefined petroleum. Since the House recessed earlier this month, Republicans have been demanding that Speaker Nancy Pelosi call it back into special session to vote on whether to allow new offshore oil-drilling. The Republicans know Pelosi won't do that. So, what do they really want? Let's start with some sense of the oil resources America could develop if Congress would allow it. In 2006, the Interior Department estimated that about 85.9 billion barrels of "undiscovered technically recoverable" oil sits...

THE NATURAL Resources Defense Council Action Fund has taken out full-page ads in this newspaper and others to decry offshore drilling for oil as "George W. Bush's Gasoline Price Elixir" that is "100% Snake Oil." The environmental group calls on supporters "to stop the giveaway of our coasts." It is urging visitors to its Web site to send a pre-written letter to their members of Congress that says, "I am not buying the lie . . . that sacrificing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and America's coastal waters to oil drilling would make a real difference in gas prices --...

This morning, Republicans will return to the dimmed floor of the House of Representatives to continue to fight on behalf of American families hurting from high gas prices. It has now been ten days since House Democrats turned off the lights and breezed out of Washington for a paid vacation without any meaningful action to bring down energy costs. For months, the American people have demanded more energy production, yet this Democrat majority found the pleas of their constituents just a petty annoyance. But as Speaker Pelosi - off on her self-promoting book tour - has found, when House Republicans...

"Your Wallet: The Only Place Democrats Want to Drill"The Tennessee Republican Party has released a new bumper sticker designed to help motorists express their disapproval of the Democrat Party’s refusal to approve increased drilling for oil in our own country in order to combat high gas prices and our dangerous dependence on imported oil. The TRP releases the bumper sticker, and reiterates its endorsement of the grassroots Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less campaign, at the same time that Democrat leaders such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are blocking all attempts by Republican lawmakers...

The federal moratorium on offshore drilling has to be renewed every year and, failing that, it expires. President Bush can come out at the beginning of September, welcome Nancy and Harry and all the kids back from their summer vacation, and tell them that October 1, 2008 is America's Energy Independence Day. The president will proclaim that despite months of cajoling, he could not get the Democrats to help the American people through this energy crunch, so he will throw open for careful, environmentally safe drilling, all of America's offshore areas that were previously off limits. Any attempt to extend...

Rasmussen: 81% Say Finding New Energy Sources is Urgent National Need Thursday, August 07, 2008 Email to a FriendAdvertisement Americans overwhelmingly believe there is an urgent national need to find new sources of energy, and this need is more important that reducing current energy usage, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. With energy issues taking center stage in the presidential campaign, 81% of Americans see development of new energy sources as an urgent priority. Only 9% disagree. For nearly two-thirds (65%), finding new sources of energy is more important that reducing the amount of energy Americans now...

There’s a very odd mood among House Republicans this week. Rebelling against Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s adjournment of the House last Friday, Reps. Mike Pence (R-Ind) and Tom Price (R-Ga) had a sort of Howard Beale moment. Beale, the mad newscaster in “Network," asked his audience to throw open a window and shout, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.” Pence and Price refused to leave the House floor and began the open revolt against Nancy Pelosi’s “Drill Nothing” Congress. Five days into the revolt -- as I saw yesterday in the Republican cloak room...

WASHINGTON -- Let's see: housing meltdown, credit crunch, oil shock not seen since the 1970s. The economy is slowing, unemployment growing and inflation increasing. It's the sixth year of a highly unpopular war and the president's approval rating is at 30 percent. The Italian Communist Party could win this election. The American Democratic Party is trying its best to lose it. Democrats have the advantage on just about every domestic issue from health care to education. However, Americans' greatest concern is the economy, and their greatest economic concern is energy (by a significant margin: 37 percent to 21 percent for...

While President Bush and Republicans are beating the drums daily for more oil and gas production, Democrats are finally starting to crack and offer compromises, with even Democratic standard-bearer Barack Obama softening his position. Democrats see the polls and they know that this is the one issue that threatens their otherwise commanding position heading into the elections. Conservatives may be tempted to accept a compromise for the sake of an important policy victory, but they can do better. A full, no-compromise victory is now less than two months away, if supporters of domestic energy production can just stick together and...

Oil shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing organic matter from which oil may be produced. The regulations would provide for a thoughtful, phased approach to oil shale development on public lands in the West. [Photo Credit: Argonne National Laboratory] WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of the InteriorÂ’s Bureau of Land Management today published proposed regulations to establish a commercial oil shale program that could result in the addition of up to 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from lands in the western United States. In keeping with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Mineral Leasing Act...

For years, hyperactive environmentalists have burned votive candles to the spirit in the sky, hoping she'd levitate energy prices high enough to make alternatives to oil economically feasible. That day has come. Result: The oil has hit the fan. With gasoline over $4 and with life as they love it in the suburbs being shut down, did people call for the windmills? Nope. A heavy majority want to drill the bejeezus out of anywhere in America we can find familiar black slop.

There has been much discussion (and justifiably so) the last few days regarding the energy crisis, namely the efficacy of drilling versus tire inflation.Indeed, over-inflated tires do help with fuel economy (as McCain has noted on numerous occasions), however it is no substitute for an “all of the above,” cumulative energy agenda – one combining sensible off-shore drilling, nuclear power, clean coal, wind, etc.House Democrats, evidently, have even less to offer than Obama’s “tire gauge” approach. While Democrats remain on their five-week, tax-payer funded vacations, their Republican counterparts stayed on the House floor (in the dark, thanks to Madame Speaker)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr7dhQcPyWo&eurl=http://www.freedomswatch.org/

How Obama and the Democrats Screwed Up on Drillingby Steve Kornacki August 6, 2008 The Democrats are supposed to own the issue of energy, if only because they've mastered the art of tarring Republicans as the party of Big Oil. It's a caricature that the G.O.P., with its mocking scorn for conservation, addiction to corporate tax cuts and unkickable habit of nominating oil men for national office, has done nothing to refute. Of course, the Democrats are also (supposedly) the masters of the blown political save, experts at devising new and ever more elaborate means of snatching electoral defeat from...

After forty years of Democrat led legislative blockades on domestic oil exploration and production, why are Americans shocked to find their country 70% dependent upon foreign oil and why are they still listening to Democrats who promise to make matters even worse? The self-proclaimed Messiah of Hope and Change, Barack Obama, is scrambling to come up with a marketable energy policy that will calm the nerves of American voters, while providing cover for fellow Democrats responsible for creating the crisis over the last forty years. Following the Marxist lead of Speaker Pelosi and Senate leader Reid, he is proposing that...

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she is not impressed by Republican efforts at reducing energy prices, or their attempts to publicize them. Several GOP House lawmakers this week have taken the chamber by storm as Congress is officially on a five-week break and Democrats are out of town. The show continued Wednesday, its fourth day, with an appearance by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The GOP members say it is to bring attention to Democrats' blocking a vote on offshore oil drilling legislation, an issue Republicans say would be a winner if it actually made it to a...

House Democrats are not just hearing about offshore drilling from Republicans who have taken over the House floor for a recess revolt; the conservative advocacy group Freedom’s Watch is going up with radio and TV advertisements against Democratic candidates in a dozen races around the country. The ads, scheduled to be aired beginning Wednesday against incumbents seeking re-election and Democrats vying for open seats, echo the theme Republicans are sounding on the floor: Democrats left town for August without allowing a vote on lifting a ban on offshore oil drilling. “No to offshore drilling. Yes to a vacation for Congress,”...

Since offshore drilling has become a top tier issue in this campaign, I've encountered more than a few readers who hold up the Energy Information Administration report like a protective talisman and declare, "No oil would be produced until 2017! No oil would be produced until 2017!" Obama himself mentioned it in his speech. As I've noted, that report assumes nothing happens until 2012. Beyond that, offshore drilling skeptics haven't offered anything to refute the report that some California oil deposits could be accessed within one year; probably because refuting it would mean acknowledging it, and it's easier to win...

<p>Speaker of the House returns to show Nancy what Leadership Looks Like!</p> <p>NEWT GINGRICH JOINS OUR CAUSE!</p> <p>REAL LEADERSHIP Returns to the People's House to Represent the American People!</p> <p>“More than 1.4 million Americans have signed a petition demanding that Congress pass legislation to lower gas prices and increase production of American-made energy" Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH).</p>