Hell -- otherwise known as Congress -- has officially frozen over. For
the first time since the 1950s, Members will skip town today for the
August recess without either chamber having passed a single
appropriations bill. Then again, Democrats appear ready to sacrifice
their whole agenda, even spending, rather than allow new domestic
energy production.
Or even a mere debate about energy. The Democratic leadership is
stonewalling any measure that might possibly relax the Congressional
ban on offshore drilling. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid know that they
would lose if a vote ever came to the floor, and they're desperate to
suppress an insurrection among those Democrats who are pragmatic about
one of the top economic issues. Behind this whatever-it-takes
obstructionism is an ideological commitment to high energy prices. The
rulers of the Democratic Party want prices to keep rising.
A good gauge of the radicalism of their energy blockade is the lowest
common denominator of this energy fight: The effort to blame
"speculators" for $4 gas was promoted by both Barack Obama and John
McCain, as well as nearly everybody else in Washington. Sure enough,
the House voted 276-151 on Wednesday for a bill that would have driven
oil futures trading overseas.
But the legislation actually failed to become law -- by design. It
needed a two-thirds majority because Speaker Pelosi suspended the rules
to prevent Republicans from offering amendments, drilling among them.
Ms. Pelosi had decreed that she would not permit a roll-call vote under
any circumstances, even if it stopped her own goal of wrecking the U.S.
futures market.
Meanwhile, the Senate is locked down over its own antispeculation bill.
Majority Leader Reid briefly agreed to allow four amendments on GOP
policy alternatives, but he withdrew the offer after he was subjected
to the fury of the environmental lobby and Ms. Pelosi. To prevent a
vote on offshore drilling this week, Senate Democrats also let fail a
bill providing home heating assistance for the poor. Same thing for tax
subsidies for wind and solar energy.
Other liberal inspirations, including suing OPEC and a windfall profits
tax on the oil industry, also ended up in the Congressional dumpster.
And of course Democrats long ago shut down the normal budget process in
both the Senate and the House to avoid any vote.
Normally, the spending hiatus would be a useful byproduct of
Congressional bickering. But in this case the shutdown is malign
neglect. Surging energy prices act like a huge tax increase on the
economy, since energy demand is relatively fixed over the short term.
The price spike is imposing genuine hardships on middle-income and
working-class voters across the country.
The Democratic leadership isn't oblivious to this man-at-the-pump
reality. But Al Gore's vision of the apocalyptic tides of climate
change perfectly expresses their mentality: Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid see
soaring prices as a public good -- the mechanism that will force energy
enlightenment on the U.S. If anything, they think the price of gas is
too low. As recently as June, the Senate debated a multitrillion-dollar
carbon tax-and-regulation scheme that was designed to boost energy
costs. A new version will be a priority in the next Administration.
If nothing else, this summer's oil drilling stonewall is giving voters
an insight into this ideology, which recoils at any oil, natural gas or
coal production -- oh, and nuclear besides. That puts 93% of all U.S.
energy off limits for expansion. Back in the real world, and barring a
cold fusion or other miracle, the U.S. will remain dependent on fossil
fuels for decades. A fresh round of domestic oil-and-gas exploration
would ease the long-term pressures that supply and demand are exerting
on prices, plus bolster energy security.
And those not bound by anticarbon theology are coming around. Broad
margins of the American public -- now even a slim majority of
Californians -- favor increasing domestic production. Many
Congressional Democrats are working below the radar to craft a
compromise that couples drilling with conservation and programs to prop
up renewable alternatives.
But the leadership won't bend even a bit, and so Ms. Pelosi and Mr.
Reid have spent the summer using every parliamentary deception to evade
debating the issue that the American public cares most about. Short of
cutting off the air conditioning on Capitol Hill, Democrats won't get
the message until voters make them -- perhaps in November.
