Act Now on Energy

With energy prices spiraling out of control, and Congress thus-far failing to take any corrective action on problems their policies brought about in the first place, many organizations are stepping up the pressure on lawmakers and the president to deal with our energy price problems immediately. Minnesota Majority is among them and is launching a statewide ad campaign and a new website, ActNowOnEnergy.com.

Gas prices remain near $4 a gallon and home energy costs have jumped shockingly just ahead of the home heating season. Consumers can expect to pay 25% more for natural gas and up to 50% more for electricity in the coming months. All this price “gouging” is the result of policies ostensibly motivated by environmentalism and brought about by Congress. Some representatives have seen the damage caused and are moving to attempt swift amends.

Last week, many lawmakers were ready to vote for the American Energy Act (H.R. 6566), a bill that would have expanded access to all of America’s energy options and bring relief at the gas pump, the grocery store and on home energy bills. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had other ideas.  Fearing that her agenda of restricting America’s energy supply would be upset should this bill come to a vote on the House floor, Pelosi turned off the lights and went on a national book tour, pushing her new book, “Know Your Power.” She seems keen to wield hers.

Rather than debate what has become a serious problem for many American families, Pelosi and her anti-energy cohorts abruptly adjourned session. It should outrage Minnesotans that the majority of our congressional delegation voted to adjourn rather than address America’s energy crisis (click here to see how Minnesota Representatives voted).

When pro-energy lawmakers refused to leave the House chamber and continued to debate the issue, Speaker Pelosi ordered the lights, microphones and cameras turned off to stifle the pro-energy message being espoused. Despite the darkness and lack of CSPAN coverage, over 50 lawmakers remained in the chamber and pitched their energy plan to tourists or whoever happened to come through the Capitol. These determined representatives remained at this vigil for days, calling on Speaker Pelosi to reconvene session or for the President to force Congress back to work on the energy problem by calling a special session. The protest was at first largely ignored by the media, but the ad-hoc event quickly gained momentum in alternative outlets like talk radio and the Internet until it couldn’t be ignored any longer and exploded onto TV sets around the nation.

Pelosi was called on to account for her actions in an interview on ABC, and she explained that her “flagship issue” is global warming. She went on to justify killing debate on American energy, deriding calls for an up or down vote on the American Energy Act as a “parliamentary tactic when nothing less is at stake than the planet, the air we breathe, our children breathe.”

Yesterday, the president met with the Coalition for Affordable American Energy, an organization just established in June to combat high energy prices. In his remarks at the meeting, the president said, “Last month I acted and I lifted an executive branch restriction on offshore oil exploration. And then I called on Congress to join me and to lift the legislative ban — to end the legislative ban. Unfortunately, the Democratic leadership in Congress decided to go on a five-week vacation, a recess, rather than act on behalf of the American consumer, the American small business owner.

“Members have now had an opportunity to hear from their constituents, and if they listen carefully I think they’ll hear what I heard today, and that is a lot of Americans from all walks of life wonder why we can’t come together and get legislation necessary to end the ban on offshore drilling. And so today I join House Republicans in urging the Speaker of the House to schedule a vote on offshore oil exploration as soon as possible.”

There are numerous organizations now behind the push to address America’s energy issues. The people of this country are rising up and demanding immediate action. Minnesota Majority helps in that push with it’s ad campaign and Take Action Tools like the petition at ActNowOnEnergy.com which makes it easy for constituents to contact their elected officials.