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House Dems embrace “Drill, baby, drill”

The AP reports:

Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in an month-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.

Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election….

Democrats had clung to the hope of only a partial repeal of the drilling moratorium, but the White House had promised a veto, Obey said.

Amazing, really. Would Bush have shut down the government before the bailout bill was passed — assuming the Democrats had been smart enough to do the stopgap spending bill (with limits on drilling plus a renewable tax credit extenstion) first?

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I doubt it, but we’ll never know. If someone can explain to me why the House Democrats went all the trouble of passing a big Energy Bill with far less drilling last week, I’m all ears.

I have repeatedly asked Congressional Dems and enviros what their end-game strategy was. Turns out they never had one. They should have immediately embraced and passed the original Gang-of-10 compromise.

Lousy messaging and no strategy means failure is inevitable. I can hardly wait for the 2009 debate over cap-and-trade.

Sad.

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