Sunday, August 24, 2008

'Big' Nancy Pelosi Gets the Drilling Bug

Update: 'Big' Nancy says she puts her money where her politics are because she has invested in independent oil man T. Boon Pickens' Clean Energy Fuels Corp. Based on required disclosure filings, the investment is less than $100,000 which for Nancy is chump change. It i equivalent to giving 4 minutes at the podium of the Democratic Convention to an unknown Stump Town venture capitalist who allegedly "specializes" in clean energy development. Because the free market cannot achieve social goals that we are in this dire strait. Somebody should tell the Speaker that natural gas (mostly methane, CH4) is a fossil fuel that when burned creates CO2. Wackydoodle sez: Nancy can light my fire, anytime!

Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced last week while on recess that she would allow some offshore drilling if action were also taken on alternative energy development. The compromise, also endorsed by Senator Obama, seems reasonable enough so it was immediately rejected by oil's man in the House, Minority Leader Boehner. The Speaker should know better, but politics is a game played while divorced from reality. The Energy Department's own studies show domestic offshore oil would have little or no impact on a price that is set in someplace like Djbouti. Ending speculation in oil commodities would have more effect on the price of oil than polluting our coasts. The spike in dollar value is primarily responsible for the recent oil price decline since it is a commodity priced internationally in dollars [chart]. What is driving the concession on oil drilling is political horse trading. One of the areas slated for exploration is off the the Virginia coast, and the bankrupt idea of more drilling is popular in the state. Democratic politicians are trying hard to turn Virginia blue. So away with a bipartisan moratorium that has been in place for twenty years to protect our coastlines from what Santa Barbara experienced in the sixties. Wackydoodle sez: Ole Virginy will not only be blue, but black and blue!