Dems Ready to Cave on Offshore Drilling… In Face of What Pressure?

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This feels like a compromise in search of a conflict. The Democrats in Congress are ready to pass an energy bill that, in exchange for “investments in clean and renewable energies, a crackdown on oil speculators, and proof that the oil and gas companies are fully utilizing land that is already leased for exploration,” will legalize additional offshore drilling.

Really? Am I just out of touch? Has there been a public outcry in support of offshore drilling? There was a media war on the subject a while back, and I thought we were able to prove the idea is a useless pander — it won’t lower gas prices substantially, it won’t put any additional oil on the market for seven to 10 years, it distracts us from serious and long-term energy solutions, etc. And after all that, congressional Dems are just going to cede the issue? Maybe they need to include offshore drilling as a sop to the Republicans in order to get renewable energy provisions in this upcoming bill. Those better be some pretty substantial provisions…

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No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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