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Van Hollen Blitzes Blitzer
DCCC Chairman and Congressman Chris Van Hollen showed this Sunday how futile is the GOP talking point that equates drilling for oil in Alaska with gasoline price reduction. The transcript is HERE, and I'm impressed with how nimble Van Hollen was in deflecting Wolf Blitzer's apparent determination to get Van Hollen with GOP talking points.
BLITZER: Why not start drilling? There areBlitzer tries again to make a point, playing a video clip of REP. ROY BLUNT, R-MO.:
enormous amounts of oil right here in the United States on the coast,
on the East Coast, the West Coast and Alaska. That could dramatically
increase supply and as a result reduce the price per barrel and the
price at the pump. What is wrong with that?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, we are drilling. We have lots of oil companies in the United States that are
drilling. ... And in fact, there are 60 million acres of federal land
that are currently leased to the oil and gas companies that are sitting
idle. They're not drilling. They like the status quo. They like the way
things are going. We're going to have legislation that is going to be
considered shortly that is "use it or lose it". If you are going to hold
up these 68 million of federal lands, you've got to start drilling for
oil or else somebody else should have an opportunity to do it.
"Who's to blame are policies that wouldn't allow
us to use our own resources. Every other country in the world looks at
their natural resources and sees them as an economic asset. Democrats
in Washington look at our natural resources and see them as an
environmental hazard. That's a mistake."
BLITZER: All right. What do you say?
VAN HOLLEN:
Facts are stubborn things. Sixty-eight million acres of federal lands,
currently leased to the oil and gas industry, sitting idle. We're going
to say to them, "Use it or lose it. Get pumping."
The issue
isn't whether or not we should use our natural resources. The issue is
exactly where. And what you're saying is, when you've got 68 million
acres of federal lands already leased, you should use that before you
start looking elsewhere.
BLITZER: They say they can drill in Alaska in an environmental safe way. You just heard Congressman Boehner say that.
VAN HOLLEN: As John McCain said, there are already areas where they can drill. We shouldn't be drilling there.
And let me point out that the Department of Energy, our own department
of Energy, has said, if you drill in Alaska, first of all, you won't
see any results at the pump for 10 years. And after 20 years, you might
see a reduction of two cents per gallon.
Game, set and match to Van Hollen. Well done, and these are key talking points we should always have at hand when addressing this issue. Oil companies have been granted the right to drill in huge tracts of public land. Oil is at record prices. If they still can't turn a profit developing their existing leases, they should lose them. Giving them more leases makes no sense. They are already essentially in default regarding their agreement to develop American oil resources.
The "20 years until we see 2 cents a gallon benefit" is a great line too.
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Comments (17)
Apologies for the formatting problem. I'll manually get rid of those extra line breaks next time.
June 16, 2008 6:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's no need for apology - this is a great post. I made the same case to my Dad yesterday, citing the dry holes already drilled in Alaska.
June 16, 2008 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you, GreenDreams, and of course thank you, Donal...I know how hard you work at posting about energy.
I don't understand why this isn't in the news more. I don't understand why Dems in Congress aren't shouting about the fact that there is already leased land in America that is supposed to be put to use for drilling and it isn't being used.
Where was the break down? The lack of communication?
June 16, 2008 7:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great post.
I suffer through Blitzer in the Situatino Room simply because I want to know what issues they bring up and listen to the talking heads there. But Blitzer brings me out in emotional hives!
June 16, 2008 11:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lis, you're exactly right. I hope that Van Hollen's pitch on CNN heralds the start of Democrats speaking up with the facts on this issue. That 68 million acres of undeveloped land we have already turned over to the oil companies should be pointed out every single time someone tries to claim that the solution is to drill more. Democrats and "tree huggers" have not held back that development. The oil companies themselves have.
June 17, 2008 12:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Van Hollen is smart and well spoken, and at the center of the Dem's recent success in congressional races. It's no surprise that he is so well prepared, and Blitzer such a complete nimnut. CNN makes me want to puke 90% of the time these days. Blitzer is a total hack - a real disappointment.
June 17, 2008 1:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
'Drill now!' and 'suspend gas tax!' are nothing more than pandering to an uninformed electorate. It's all the Repubs have, all they have ever had.
As I have said before, and I didn't invent the phrase, 'to get to the facts of any issue: follow the money'. Who makes money from the high cost of fuel? Republicans and the companies their lobbyists tell them to support.
If you wish to reverse the high cost of oil it is a simple matter of re-capping commodity speculation. In 1999 bush overturned a regulation (I can't find what it was any more, if anyone knows please remind me) which has allowed uncapped commodity speculation. That is the primary reason we are where we are today.
June 17, 2008 5:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
1999 would have been the Clinton Administration, though they were some deregulating fools as well.
Here is a link to a story about the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department all deciding that despite huge failures by certain types of trading companies, more oversight was not needed.
They have been planning and executing this shit under republicans and democrats alike.
June 17, 2008 8:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Observe how they talk right past each other. Van Hollen responds that there's no need for more drilling, there's land right here leased for that purspose that's not being used. Blitzer goes to a tape and repeats his question, as if he didn't hear Van Hollen's point, forcing him to repeat himself.
This is why I no longer watch television news programs. Who the hell is their audience? Neanderthals?
June 17, 2008 7:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Van Hollen is my representative...thank you very much! And yes, he rocks!
June 17, 2008 10:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wolf Blitzer is one guy on the news that makes everyone feel good about themselves. I mean here he is a big time news guy and everyone listening is 15 times smarter than Wolfie
June 17, 2008 10:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
So true.
His leading questions are so often met with compliance that whole discussions on CNN frequently sound like a well rehearsed script from a badly acted film. I guess those who say what's expected are asked back more often and thus promoted as the real "experts" of the MSM?
Nice when somebody is capable of beating him at his own game.
June 17, 2008 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
heheh, good one johnnyboy.
CNN is old school and Blitzer has his "gotcha" video clips all queued up and he IS going to use them. Van Hollen defused the whole argument from the outset. Then when Wolf tries to "get" him again, Van Hollen gets re-emphasize his point, plus add in that McCain also disagrees with drilling in Alaska and the DOE says it's not going to have a meaningful impact anyway.
Blitzer looks dumb, but the bigger point is that Van Hollen slaughtered the entire argument about drilling, gasoline prices and Alaska. Twice. I'll bet both Boehner and Blunt now wish they hadn't been featured. They both look dumb and out of touch with the facts and their own candidate's position. And their own energy department. Great political theater.
June 17, 2008 12:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great post. Rec'd. The argument is also completely spot-on. Doesn't it kinda create problems for McCain's environmental policy?
June 17, 2008 1:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
And policy on oil dependence...
June 17, 2008 1:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Blitzer cut his air time in half and increased his prep time by half, he might not be such a half-wit.
June 17, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent post.
Anyone know the viewership of Blitzer's show?
I would guess about 200,000.
June 17, 2008 4:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
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