Marty Meehan: Consistently wrong on energy policy

Yesterday I received an email from Mass. Congressman Marty Meehan announcing his next Town Hall meeting. Seeing as his last Town Hall meeting on Iraq didn’t go exactly as planned, I offer this post up to those with a strong enough stomach to attend his next charade, er, Town Hall meeting on the environment.

Here is the congressman in his email announcing the meeting,

Our dependence on Middle East oil is hurting our economy and compromising our national security. America has the resources and the technology to develop clean, renewable sources of fuel from solar power to hydrogen fuel cells. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife is not the answer. We just need to make developing clean, renewable sources of energy a priority.

It’s great see the congressman so concerned about our dependence on foreign oil. What is he doing about it?

Voted YES on prohibiting oil drilling & development in ANWR. (Dec 2005)
Voted YES on prohibiting oil drilling & development in ANWR. (Aug 2001)
Voted YES on starting implementation of Kyoto Protocol. (Jun 2000)
Preserve Alaska’s ANWR instead of drilling it. (Feb 2001)

Aha, now I understand, here is Meehan in The Boston Globe on December 13,

Obviously he’s (Mitt Romney) playing to the Republican right that would rather protect oil companies than pristine open spaces in ANWR

George Will had a few words for phony baloney enviro hypocrities like Meehan in a recent column,

Few opponents of energy development in what they call “pristine” ANWR have visited it. Those who have and who think it is “pristine” must have visited during the 56 days a year when it is without sunlight. They missed the roads, stores, houses, military installations, airstrip and school. They did not miss seeing the trees in area 1002 (where drilling is proposed). There are no trees.

Oh yes, the “pristine” wildlife refuge is too sacred to disrupt, even if drilling is proposed on 2,000 out of 19 MILLION acres. Our reliance on the Saudi’s isn’t that bad if it means ruining 1% of ANWAR. Solid reasoning congressman. Meehan would probably tell you, like John Kerry did, that the amount of oil from ANWAR would be inconsequential anyway.

Once again, George Will,

opponents say the environmental cost is too high for what the ineffable John Kerry calls “a few drops of oil.” Some drops. The estimated 10.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil — such estimates frequently underestimate actual yields — could supply all the oil needs of Kerry’s Massachusetts for 75 years.

Flowing at 1 million barrels a day — equal to 20 percent of today’s domestic oil production — ANWR oil would almost equal America’s daily imports from Saudi Arabia. And it would equal the supply loss that Hurricane Katrina temporarily caused, and that caused so much histrionic distress among consumers.

Liberals like Marty Meehan want to have it both ways when it comes to energy policy. They can’t and I hope someone at his Town Hall charade reminds him of it.

Here is a post from last fall, Liberals and the energy crisis

They say no to new refineries (last one built in 1976) to nuclear power (20+years), to more drilling in the lower 48 states, in the Gulf and in Alaska, to onshore liquid natural gas facilities and oceanic wind farms within view of their summer retreats.

At the same time, they decry our dependence on â??foreign oilâ? and sneer that it has something to do with Bushâ??s cozy relationship with the Saudiâ??s and â??big oilâ?. Itâ??s all politics to them. Liberals like Al Gore and Chuck Schumer were looking to tap the Strategic Petrolium Reserves after oil crossed $34 per barrell! Can you imagine? Good grief.

Would it surprise you that Marty Meehan was right besides Gore and Schumer calling for the strategic petrolium reserves to be tapped? Of course not. Would it surprise you that this call had everything to do with politics and nothing to do with economics? Of course not.

When was all this happening? In the fall of 2000, leading up to the mother of all presidential elections. At the time, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan called the Democrats idea to tap the reserves, “a major and substantial policy mistake.”

Marty was undeterred.

CNNâ??s Crossfire: Should the Government Release Oil From the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
Aired September 21, 2000

MATALIN: Five million gallons…

MEEHAN: Five million gallons initially, and then they’ll monitor the situation if it needs an additional 5 million. There are 570 million that are in that reserve, and if we can’t use it for a crisis like what we — what we have now, when can we use it?

MATALIN: So are you suggesting that Lawrence Summers, who would be the treasury secretary in a Gore administration, god help us, or Alan Greenspan, whom we all agree is, you know, the word on high — this is what they said to the vice president or to the president, who’s thinking about the release.

Quote: “Chairman Greenspan and I believe that using the strategic petroleum reserve at this time, as proposed by the Department of Energy, would be a major and substantial policy mistake.” Larry Summers also says it would set very bad precedent.

MEEHAN: Mary, that was an internal memo months ago. The fact is today…

MATALIN: This is last week, congressman.

OUCH!

While we should applaud the congressman for his consistentcy, he should be reminded at this meeting that he is part of the energy problem, not the solution. He is more interested in posturing that he is protecting the environment against the evil Republicans and their friends in big oil than he is on reducing our dependence on foreign oil. He’s a phony and fraud on energy policy.

We all know that Ted Kennedy has many problems.

Finding a bartender that will not overserve him = problem

Counting calories = problem

Monogamy= problem

Not lying his ass off for partisan political purposes = problem

The FACT remains that Ted Kennedy is a unconscionable LIAR.

We, the voters of Massachusetts, get what we deserve. Only 10 months after Mary Jo Kopechne died in his Oldsmobile, Kennedy was re-elected with 70% of the vote. What kind of message does that send?

Well, here we are 35 years later, and Kennedy is still in the Senate, still holding onto power, and still LYING his ass off.

From Byron York on The Corner,

In his opening statement, Sen. Ted Kennedy said, “In an era when America is still too often divided by race and by riches, Judge Alito has not written one single opinion on the merits in favor of a person of color alleging race discrimination on the job. In fifteen years on the bench, not one.”

Moments ago, Republicans released a list of four opinions — Reynolds v. USX Corp., Zubi v. AT&T Corp., Smith v. Davis, and Goosby v. Johnson & Johnson — in which, GOP senators say, Alito ruled for employees claiming racial discrimination

A few minutes later, York provides an update, some clarity if you will, on the Senator’s remarks,

From the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, an e-mail on Ted Kennedy’s statement that “Judge Alito has not written one single opinion on the merits in favor of a person of color alleging race discrimination on the job.” “The operative word here is ‘written,'” the e-mail says. So it appears that the Kennedy argument is not that Alito has not voted in favor of minority rights in cases of persons of color alleging race discrimination on the job — Republicans have cited four cases in which that happened — but that he has not written those opinions.

I know that Judge Alito was sworn in this morning, held his hand on the bible, and swore to tell the “whole truth”. Shouldn’t that standard apply to the people asking the questions?

In case you were wondering how long it would take Democrats to blame George W. Bush for the deaths of the coal miners in West Virginia, the answer is, predictably, a matter of minutes. No word yet on Mama D’s next press conference telling us how Bush blew up the mine like he did the levees in New Orleans.

From today’s Boston Globe story,

Jubilation, then horror

Democrats say the Bush administration’s enforcement of mining safety and environmental regulations must come under scrutiny. The administration has called for cuts to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, and the agency has shed about 120 coal-industry enforcement jobs since 2002, according to statistics compiled by Democratic congressional aides.

After President Bush took office in 2001, the administration pulled back a series of regulations proposed under President Clinton, including the requirement to upgrade miners’ emergency respiratory devices and to add more mine rescue teams.

Three years ago, the White House wanted to increase the legal level of breathable dust that miners could be exposed to, but it backed away in the face of congressional opposition. And Democrats have criticized Bush administration officials for going after relatively small fines against offenders; of the 208 citations issued at Sago Mine, nearly half carried the minimum fine of $60, and none amounted to more than $900.

Aside from the naked partisanship, does anything jump out at you in this exerpt? The adminsitration “pulled back a series of regulations proposed under President Clinton”. Hmmmm, that seems to ring a bell…regulations proposed by Clinton…hmmm…they weren’t inacted, only proposed. . Hmmm….

This wouldn’t have been during his pathetic final hours in office would it? You remember don’t you? Clinton spent his final evening in office pardoning international cocaine dealers and billionaire tax cheat Marc Rich, wife of Clinton crony Denise Rich. What else was Clinton busy doing? He was rewriting numerous environmental regulations in his final hours because he knew the new administration, the Bush administration, would have to reverse them upon taking office. It was a parting political gift for the limping Democrat party he and his cigar left behind.

Remember one of the first kerfuffles of the Bush administration? He wanted to increase the amount of aresenic in our water supply, allegedly. The enviro wackos went nuts, Democrats said it was a sign of his awful enviro policies. Well, we soon learned that the standard that had been in place for years, 50 parts per billion, was lowered by Clinton on his final night in office, to 10 parts per billion. Bush didn’t actually want to have more arsenic in our water, he simply wanted to maintain the 50 parts per billion standard that had stood for years, until the final evening of the Clinton administration. If you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe the LA Times,

WASHINGTON–EPA Administrator Christie Whitman on Tuesday rescinded a Clinton administration decision that would have significantly reduced the amount of arsenic allowed in the nation’s drinking water.

Outraged environmentalists said the move, combined with other recent actions, signals a new tendency by Bush administration officials to appease industry rather than safeguard public health and the environment. Current regulations allow arsenic at a level of 50 parts per billion in tap water.

The Clinton administration ruling lowered that level significantly, to 10 parts per billion. Congress required the EPA to set a new standard for arsenic in tap water in 1996, but the Clinton administration issued its ruling in the last days of the administration, along with a flurry of other eleventh-hour rule changes.

I wonder how many of these “eleventh-hour rule changes” had to do with regulation of coal mines?

FACTS ON MINE SAFETY

Coal mine production reached the highest levels in history in recent years. In 2004 coal mining fatalities were near the lowest level in history with 28. Even with the recent high production, MSHAâ??s accident reduction efforts helped to keep the annual fatality totals nearly 50% lower in recent years compared with totals recorded in the early 1990s.

1. Clinton’s last year in office, 2000, there were 48 deaths in coal mines. In 2004, there were 28

2. The injury rate in 2000 was 6.64, in 2004 it was 5.00

3. Citations for safety violations in 2000: 58,285; Citations for violations in 2004: 64,635 (this would indicate to me more rigorous enforcement under Bush, especially after having cut back on coal industry enforcement jobs as the Democrats claim. Sounds to me like the Clinton administration was asleep at the switch)

The moral of the story….Democrats cannot be trusted. Democrats are all about partisan politics. Democrats have ZERO agenda for America. Democrats will continue to blame George Bush for everything that goes wrong in this country. He will get credit for nothing. He could cure cancer tomorrow and they would criticize him for taking too long, or for ignoring AIDS because he is hostile to gays.

Sometimes this stuff is just stupid partisan politics, and other times it just pisses me off. This is one of those ‘other’ times.

UPDATE: Here is what the Daily Kos is running with,

The Republican Mine Disaster: Blood on their Hands

From Dick Cheney,

“America has been protected not by luck but by sensible policy decisions by decisive action at home and abroad and by round-the-clock efforts on the part of people in law enforcement, intelligence, the military, and homeland security.”