Dems searching their souls on drilling

[Tigermike 3,046]

Dems searching their souls on drilling

By RYAN GRIM & ERIKA LOVLEY 7/10/08 4:49 AM EST

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday that Democratic and Republican leaders are negotiating a compromise on energy legislation.

Photo: John Shinkle

In the stages of grief, denial gives way to anger and then to bargaining.

It may be an apt metaphor this week, as Democrats’ long-held opposition to expanded offshore oil drilling succumbs to the political realities of $4-per-gallon gasoline.

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday that Democratic and Republican leaders are negotiating a compromise on energy legislation. Kyl declined to say who’s doing the negotiating or what results, if any, their discussions have yielded.

But Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), a longtime proponent of increased offshore drilling, said he was seeing “a big shift, a big shift in my direction,” and it was hard to find Democrats who disagreed.

“I’m not knee-jerk opposed to anything,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “We’re willing to work. We haven’t shut our minds to anything.”

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said he sensed there were enough votes from his Democratic colleagues to expand offshore drilling into new areas — and that the eastern Gulf of Mexico “should be one of the first places we should look.”

Although Senate Democrats are slowly easing away from opposition to offshore drilling, it’s clear that the majority party is not giving it away for nothing.

One idea floated by Reid would require that whatever oil is drilled in newly opened areas would need to be sold in the United States.

Democrats also want any compromise plan to include investments in clean and renewable energies, a crackdown on oil speculators and proof that the oil and gas companies are fully utilizing land that is already leased for exploration.

“If they were showing in good faith that they were drilling on some of the 68 million acres they have now, it might change some of our attitudes,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said that he was open to drilling in new areas but opposed to “offshore drilling if there is any environmental impact.” Durbin reiterated the call for oil companies to drill in areas covered by existing leases first, but then added: “Beyond that, if there is a suggestion of some new area to go into, I’ll look at it.”

Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), fresh from his GI Bill victory, said that he is now making energy a major priority. “We need to look at all our assets,” he said, suggesting a large package including expanded offshore drilling, alternative energy, nuclear power and technology to make coal cleaner.

Webb said that he and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) decided Wednesday to meet soon to plot a compromise way forward. “On the need for a comprehensive package, he and I are in agreement,” Webb said.

The bargaining has not yet begun on the House side. “We are looking at the phone, waiting for it to ring,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). Asked if he was involved in the Senate negotiations in any way, House Majority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) gave a firm “no.”

Also left out of the discussions, at least for now, are the environmental groups that oppose additional offshore drilling. Group officials say they understand the pressures that members are facing from voters, but that they have no intention of backing down on the issue themselves.

“We have a lot of sympathy for members who just came back from recess and have really heard it from their constituents,” Sierra Club lobbyist Melinda Pierce said. “Members of Congress want to go back in August and tell constituents they’ve actually done something,”

But, she added, “Even [President] Bush has admitted that drilling isn’t the answer in the short term or even in the long term.”

Green lobbyists say they’re punching up education campaigns this week, giving top focus to members who appear to be wobbly on the drilling issue.

“The bottom line is, politicians who are trying to sell offshore drilling as a quick fix are not looking at the core of the problem — years of failed energy policy,” said Greenpeace senior legislative coordinator Kate Smolski.

Friends of the Earth is sending a similar message — the world’s demand for oil is already so great, the group says, that opening offshore drilling won’t make a dent in pump prices.

As the green groups scramble, drilling advocates are feeling good.

Warner pressed unsuccessfully several years ago to open areas off Virginia’s coast for drilling. Carper said Warner’s plan would probably pass if it came up for a vote today.

“I’m delighted to see other people of that persuasion,” Warner said.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11649.html

bull****! They're searching the polls, not their souls, and they aren't happy with what they find juxtaposed with their present position on the matter. So, as is typical of the breed, they're easing toward the more popular position.

The biggest most preposterous quote of the day:

"I'm not knee-jerk opposed to anything," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). "We're willing to work. We haven't shut our minds to anything."

Or so claims Mr. Harry "oil and gas make us sick" Reid. Instead what it means is Democrats are finally waking up to the political landmine this issue could be come Novemeber and are sliding, or slithering if you prefer, into the politically popular side of the debate.

The way you do that and still claim to be principled is to make demands while claiming it is these demands which have kept you from taking that side initially and it is all your political opponents fault for being intransigent on them.