Well, I’m glad someone is standing up to her royal majesty and not giving up without a fight:
House Republicans will be back on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives again Monday to continue the unprecedented protest that began last Friday, when dozens of Republicans joined hundreds of American citizens on the House floor to protest Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) decision to send Congress home for the rest of the summer without a vote on legislation to lower gas prices and move America toward energy independence.
They decided to continue protesting because they were encouraged by Obama’s move toward drilling:
GOP members say they would not be holding this debate tomorrow, if the Democratic nominee had not modified his position on off shore drilling.
They believe that with Obama and his Republican opponent John McCain, appearing to be in “agreement” about off shore drilling, then Speaker Nancy Pelosi should recall the Congress from recess, and put an energy bill on the floor in August.
Uh-oh! They’ve given Obama an opening for a bipartisan campaign ad there: “Obama lead the way to a bipartisan solution to energy independence by forcing Congress to vote on the issue.” 
posted August 4, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Unless you believe the oil companies are going to start drilling in the middle of a hurricane, there’s no reason to settle the issue of drilling this month. It won’t start for years and it won’t yield results for years, and if drilling over the next 2 to 5 years lulls us all into believing we can rely on the oil to flow forever, it’s a bad thing. Saving 20 cents a gallon 10 years from now while missing out on technology switch would be incredibly stupid (sunlight-generated hydrogen, off-peak electric, LPG, etc.) , and that seems to be the way were going.
And Obama is not superior to McCain on this issue. He’s just pandering with a different resource.
posted August 4, 2008 at 4:50 pm
And while the oil companies whine and beg for more leases for offshore tracts, they sit on the ones they currently own and do absolutely nothing. No exploration, no drilling, nothing.
If Congress decides to open up more tracts for drilling, there should be a requirement that the oil companies have five years to begin work in these tracts or they lose title to them. There should also be a requirement that every drop pumped from these tracts remains in the US, to alleviate the US consumer’s thirst for oil.
But wait, the Democrats already offered this bill. It was HR 6521 the Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act. This bill included these provisions, and would have opened up more land for drilling.
In short, it would have done EXACTLY what the GOP says it wants done. Yet the Republicans in the House voted against it. Why? Because Big Oil does not want to be forced to actually drill for oil. They want the option to sit on the leases and watch the price go up so they can make more than $15,000 per second.
This is what you are supporting, Michele, you and the other grandstanders in the GOP. How does it feel being pimped for Big Oil?
By the way, those who voted against cheaper oil and gas (most of the House GOP and 19 House Dems) that would have been provided by HR 6521 were:
Robert Aderholt
Rodney Alexander
Michelle Bachmann
Spencer Bachus
Gresham Barrett
Roscoe Bartlett
Joe Barton
Marion Berry
Judy Biggert
Brian Bilbray
Gus Bilirakis
Rob Bishop
Marsha Blackburn
Roy Blunt
John Boehner
Jo Bonner
Mary Bono
John Boozman
Dan Boren
Rick Boucher
Charles Boustany
Kevin Brady
Paul Broun
Henry Brown
Ginny Brown-Waite
Vern Buchanan
Michael Burgess
Dan Burton
Steve Buyer
David Camp
John Campbell
Eric Cantor
Shelley Capito
John Carter
Steve Chabot
Travis Childers
Howard Coble
Tom Cole
Michael Conaway
Jim Costa
Ander Crenshaw
Barbara Cubin
Henry Cuellar
John Culberson
Geoff Davis
David Davis
Tom Davis
Nathan Deal
Charles Dent
Thelma Drake
David Dreier
John Duncan
Vernon Ehlers
Jo Ann Emerson
Phil English
Mary Fallin
Tom Feeney
Michael Ferguson
Jeff Flake
Jeff Fortenberry
Vito Fossella
Virginia Foxx
Trent Franks
Rodney Frelinghuysen
Elton Gallegly
Scott Garrett
Jim Gerlach
Phil Gingrey
Charles Gonzalez
Virgil Goode
Bob Goodlatte
Kay Granger
Sam Graves
Gene Green
Ralph Hall
Doc Hastings
Dean Heller
Jeb Hensarling
Wally Herger
Ruben Hinojosa
David Hobson
Peter Hoekstra
Kenny Hulshof
Duncan Hunter
Bob Inglis
Darrell Issa
William Jefferson
Timothy Johnson
Sam Johnson
Walter Jones
Jim Jordan
Ric Keller
Peter King
Steve King
Jack Kingston
Mark Kirk
John Kline
Joseph Knollenberg
Randy Kuhl
Ray LaHood
Doug Lamborn
Nick Lampson
Tom Latham
Steven LaTourette
Bob Latta
Jerry Lewis
John Linder
Frank Lucas
Dan Lungren
Connie Mack
Donald Manzullo
Kenny Marchant
James Matheson
Kevin McCarthy
Michael McCaul
Thaddeus McCotter
Jim McCrery
Patrick McHenry
John McHugh
Howard McKeon
Cathy McMorris Rodgers
Charles Melancon
John Mica
Jeff Miller
Candice Miller
Dennis Moore
Tim Murphy
Marilyn Musgrave
Sue Myrick
Randy Neugebauer
Devin Nunes
Solomon Ortiz
Ron Paul
Stevan Pearce
Mike Pence
Thomas Petri
Charles Pickering
Joseph Pitts
Todd Platts
Ted Poe
Jon Porter
Tom Price
Deborah Pryce
Adam Putnam
George Radanovich
Ralph Regula
Dennis Rehberg
Rick Renzi
Silvestre Reyes
Tom Reynolds
Ciro Rodriguez
Harold Rogers
Mike Rogers
Dana Rohrabacher
Peter Roskam
Mike Ross
Edward Royce
Paul Ryan
Bill Sali
Jim Saxton
Steve Scalise
Jean Schmidt
James Sensenbrenner
Peter Sessions
Christopher Shays
John Shimkus
Bill Shuster
Michael Simpson
Adrian Smith
Lamar Smith
Vic Snyder
Mark Souder
Cliff Stearns
John Sullivan
John Tanner
Lee Terry
Mac Thornberry
Todd Tiahrt
Patrick Tiberi
Michael Turner
Fred Upton
Tim Walberg
Greg Walden
James Walsh
Zach Wamp
David Weldon
Lynn Westmoreland
Ed Whitfield
Heather Wilson
Joe Wilson
Rob Wittman
Frank Wolf
Don Young
C.W. Bill Young
posted August 4, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Wow! If a Dem wants the oil barons to work the leases they already have, its bad but if the GOP wants them to have more leases to sit on and not allow any drilling it is good.
Who’s the bad guys and who are the good guys?
And as far as congress is concerned, GET TO WORK, you lazy bums!!!!
posted August 4, 2008 at 10:18 pm
“Unless you believe the oil companies are going to start drilling in the middle of a hurricane, there’s no reason to settle the issue of drilling this month. It won’t start for years and it won’t yield results for years, and if drilling over the next 2 to 5 years lulls us all into believing we can rely on the oil to flow forever, it’s a bad thing. Saving 20 cents a gallon 10 years from now while missing out on technology switch would be incredibly stupid (sunlight-generated hydrogen, off-peak electric, LPG, etc.) , and that seems to be the way were going.”
It’s amazing to me that you guys think that we can’t look for new sources of energy and still drill for oil. What the Republicans are proposing are incentives for alternative energy and drilling. Something we’ll need because we can’t end our oil dependence for the foreseeable future.
posted August 4, 2008 at 11:26 pm
If you read the above, they HAVE tons of places to drill for oil that they haven’t even bothered to. Leases they already have, that they haven’t USED.
That they sit on, so they can just wait until not the need, but the price is right. Indeed, as also noted above, there was a bill that would require those leases to be USED in a certain amount of time (to prevent sitting on leases just to prevent other companies from having them) and the oil reserved for use by the US.
If you read above (once more), you see who voted AGAINST that bill. The exact proposal you gave, when you first started talking about drilling ANWR.
posted August 5, 2008 at 12:49 am
Of course the Repubs are making a show in Congress. They are proving Twain’s dictum that an honest politician is one who, once bought, stays bought.
Or perhaps we’ll find out later that the oil companies are paying them by the hour.
They can certainly afford to.
posted August 5, 2008 at 2:30 am
Hess oil associates give more than $300,000 to McCain, GOP after drilling switch
i don’t know about “by the hour” but certainly by the verbal vote.