Failure to expand oil production caused by Democrats

From James B. Edwards, former Secretary of Energy under Ronald Reagan:

... The Democrats in Congress have blocked every attempt to drill offshore and in ANWR. Let's review that history:

-- 1984: Reagan recommended that we drill in ANWR and offshore, but a filibuster by Senate Democrats kept the measure from coming to a vote.

-- 1995: Republicans prepared to take up the battle again, and included a provision for ANWR in the federal budget. President Clinton, a Democrat, vetoed the entire budget and expressed his intention to veto any other bill that would open ANWR to drilling.

-- 1998: The U.S. Geological Survey estimated that there was significant oil in ANWR, mostly in the western part of the "1002" area. Estimates ranged from 5.7 to 16 billion barrels.

-- 2000: George W. Bush pushed to perform exploratory drilling for oil and gas in and around the refuge. The Republicans in the House of Representatives voted in mid-2000 to allow drilling. In April of 2002, the Democratic Senate rejected it.

-- 2005: The Republican-controlled House of Representatives again approved drilling but the House-Senate Conference Committee later removed the provision.

-- 2005: The Republican-controlled Senate passed Arctic Refuge drilling as a part of the federal budget resolution for fiscal year 2006. The provision was removed due to Democrats in the House of Representatives who signed a letter promising they would oppose any version of the budget that had Arctic Refuge drilling in it.

-- 2005: Republican Ted Stevens attached an Arctic Refuge drilling amendment to the annual defense appropriations bill. A group of Democratic senators led a successful filibuster of the bill on Dec. 21, 2005, and the language was subsequently removed from the bill.

-- 2008: President Bush pressed Congress to reverse the ban on offshore drilling in ANWR, in addition to approving the extraction of oil from shale on lands owned by the federal government. Congress has done nothing. In three Western states, it estimated that we have 80 billion barrels of oil recoverable from shale. We also have proven technology to extract this oil. Congress won't allow it.

The congressional moratorium on offshore drilling was first enacted in l982 and has been renewed annually. The Democratic party is owned and directed by radical environmental groups. The National Resources Defense Council is one of the groups that has brought the suit to block the refineries from expanding and also has fought the construction of new refineries. This is one of the same groups that have kept us from building any more nuclear generating facilities in America. Some of the same groups are trying to block the use of coal for electrical generation.

All this is going on while we import more and more oil. ...

Inflating our tires isn't a bad idea by itself, but Barack Obama implying that it can solve our need for more domestic oil/energy is completely ridiculous. We need to drill in ANWR ...through a caribou's skull if necessary! I don't see why it would be, but it makes a good point.