One Voice...Two Messages....

Our esteemed Congressman, Travis Childers, sent out to the households of the First Congressional District a Special Report on Energy. In this report Congressman Childers espouses that he is “working to provide immediate relief from high gas prices and long-term solutions to our energy crisis.” In this flier Childers lays out his Six Point Plan, two immediate Relief bullet points and four Long-term Solutions to our energy crisis.
The first point Congressman Childers six point plan is to stop speculation and price gouging. Propping up his vote for what has been called the “NOPEC” bill which threatened lawsuits against Middle Eastern Countries and Speculators for price Gouging. Let me take a moment to educate not only the United States Congress as well as any of you that think this was a smart idea. First and foremost, oil is traded on the free market and in free markets, you have cycles and the high price of oil is driven up on the free market simply because demand is high, not just in the United States, but all over the world and supply is low. Standard economics, high demand, low supply, equals higher prices. Period.
And while yes, it would be wonderful if the OPEC nations would increase supply. It would be simpler in both the short term and long term to increase domestic oil supply by drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, and in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR), and while we do this, we also as Congressman Childers puts it in point number five of his six point plan, “invest in research and development in alternative fuel sources.” A great idea!
The United States has the brightest most innovative people in the world. Though you would never know it from the tone of most politicians, you would think that the United States is just a bunch of lazy good for nothing, environment hating idiots. But look back at all of the innovations the American people have given to the world. The light bulb, the telephone, electricity, the microwave, the combustible engine, the airplane, penicillin, the ability to go into space, we walked on the moon, the internet (of course, this may have been Al Gore, though he is an American), and countless other innovations. And yet, we are dependent on foreigners to supply our energy. Come on!
Congressman Childers’s no doubt gave much time and effort to put together his Six Point Energy Plan and at tax payer expense have that plan sent to each of us. However, his voting record doesn’t back up what he claims to be stand for. Nine times, that is right; nine times there have been votes in the House of Representatives dealing with energy and energy exploration. And 9 times, our esteemed Congressman has voted against these energy bills. The most recent coming on July 25th when he voted against the American Energy Act of 2008 (HR 6566), a bill he claims to have co-sponsored in the mail out his constituents received. Now I am no Congressman, but I am a thinker, and if I were claiming to those who elected me that I co-sponsored a bill that would, 1. Open the Arctic Coastal Plain and our deep water resources to drill for oil and natural gas, 2. Allow development of our nations shale oil resources, 3. Easing refinery restrictions to increase domestic production, 4. Promote coal-to-liquid technology (a completely environmentally safe option), 5. Permanently extend the tax credit for alternative energy production, and 6. Eliminate barriers to the expansion of emission-free nuclear power production; I think I would make sure I voted in favor of debating that bill.
Now I have nothing personal against Congressman Childers, he won by a majority of the votes cast and that makes him the Congressman for every soul in the First Congressional District, but what I do expect and you should expect as well is for our newly elected Congressman to act like the “conservative” he ran as. I expect him to put his money where his mouth is and vote the way the majority of the First Congressional District would want him to vote. Or perhaps he believes that Nancy Pelosi is going to help keep him in Washington, if he will only vote the way she wants him to vote. Just an idea. After all, Speaker Pelosi has said there will be no debate on energy bills on the floor of the House of Representatives. No debate on drilling, no debate on increasing our refining capacity, because as she has said she wants to save the planet.
Well as for me, I want the Congress to pass an energy bill that will side with 75% of the American people who want to start drilling and drilling now, so we can have lower gas prices! The Earth has been her for millions of years, and honestly, there is not really anything that mankind is going to do or not do that is going to effect the natural cycles of mother nature…….