Now it is quite clear why the We campaign so enthusiastically embraced Newt Gingrich for an advertisement sitting next to Nancy Pelosi. Yes, that Newt Gingrich who is working so hard for [false] “American Solutions for Winning the Future”. We would think that might actually include thinking seriously about moving forward on Global Warming legislation. Yet, Newt’s misleading and deceptive calls on people to support efforts to “Drill Here” and “Drill Now” also includes a broadside against the Lieberman-Warner Climate (in)Security Act that could have come straight out of the mouth of a polluting industry spokesman. (On reflection, perhaps it did). Gingrich’s truthiness about solutions to gas prices is potentially inticing but misleading, at best, and, fundamentally, false.
Advertised as “tri-partisan”, Gingrich is seeking to wrap himself in some form of post-partisan sainthood, a repackaging enabled by the We Campaign’s embrace.
Gingrich’s DRILL! DRILL! DRILL! mantra argues that by blocking action on Global Warming and opening up all of America for drilling, gasoline prices would be magically reduced. Hmmm … let’s consider some facts, Newt:
In this discussion, of course, is nothing about real solutions, about things that might actually have an impact in the near terms. These include efficiency measures (properly inflated tires, more efficient driving style, to buying more efficient tires to a more efficient car) to changed behavior (such as riding public transport, driving less aggressively) to policy programs (such as supporting plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, increased/improved rail, electrification of rail). These forms of measures would have a far greater impact on the suppply of liquid fuel over the coming decade than Gringrich’s siren’s call of DRILL! DRILL! DRILL!
Of course, Newt doesn’t get into a discussion of the catastrophic climate change implications of a path that focuses on feeding the addication rather than curing it.
As per David Roberts, Grist,
the We campaign people and all the other earnest politicians and enviros out there trying to convince us that climate and energy are bipartisan issues should wait until they are actually bipartisan before celebrating. Gingrich is using a green fig leaf to push the same corporate-friendly policies the GOP has been pushing for decades, and rather than getting smacked down, he’s being helped by greens. It’s stupid.
It is not enough for someone to mouth words admitting to reality. Wow, Newt Gingrich acknowledges that there is such a thing as Global Warming and human action is contributing to it. Time for a standing ovation? Absolutely not. Unless he is willing to come to the table with serious paths for solving the problem, Gingrich remains part of the problem.
Hat tip David Roberts, Grist; and, just after I posted, Joe Romm posted an excellent piece on “eco-Gingrich’s new energy strategy for America”.
the Administration’s own Energy Information Administration explained in 2004 how ineffectual this strategy is. In a 2004 Congressional-requested “Analysis of Oil and Gas Production in ANWR”:
It is expected that the price impact of ANWR coastal plain production might reduce world oilprices by as much as 30 to 50 cents per barrel [in 2025].
As Joe reminded Gingrich: “There are 42 gallons in a barrel.” Yup. Newt’s strategy might (MIGHT) lead to up to a 1.2 cent per gallon reduction in the price of gasoline. McSUV drivers: don’t spend your savings all at once.
31 responses so far ↓
1 Get Energy Smart! NOW!!! » Blog Archive » Lying to Drill the Hole Deeper // Jul 14, 2008 at 7:05 am
[…] push is on, big time. The solution to all of America’s problems, evidently, is to drill, drill, drill. This is now the Republican mantra as they seem to believe that they have found a winning […]
2 Get Energy Smart! NOW!!! » Blog Archive » Offshore Drilling: We Can Choose Simple Confusion or Outright Lies // Aug 2, 2008 at 9:48 am
[…] Gingrich has put forward a campaign calling for Drill Here! Drill Now! Pay Less! The campaign aims to gather millions of signatures for a petition to deliver to Congress, amid much […]
3 Kenny // Aug 21, 2008 at 6:15 pm
You Liberals are a bunch of idiots when it come to energy “Independence”. Wake up!. Probably most everyone on this blog is a Obama or Pelosi supporter, and that makes me sad.
We can become energy independent by not having such a tunnel vision approach. The visionary republicans, democrats & independents want to approach this energy from a try all approach. Start drilling our own oil; give incentives to create alternate energy sources(not like Hussein Obama and hope that a solution might just surface, which it probably won’t because he will be taxing the daylights out of the companies that could more than likely find the solutions); build nuclear power plants,etc…
I find all this negativity about us becoming energy independent hard to believe. This just isn’t the American way. We can’t continue to be at the whims of these foreign oil cartels. If our oil supply gets cut dramatically, then you are looking at a war of wars. We must have oil to function and we will get it one way or the other. But of course all you Liberal Obama supporters, can just continue to hope that a solution might just be found and pay $10/gal while you wait. You Liberals are so negative because it is a great idea, a Republican idea and they can’t stand it.
4 A Siegel // Aug 22, 2008 at 5:52 am
Kenny,
Nice to see your rational engagement.
Hmmm … “Drill Here! Drill Now! Pay Less! (Maybe, a quarter century from now)” was not proposed, in any way, as a “do everything, try all approach”. To suggest it was is to, well, engage in deceit.
This site is about solutions, real solutions. Newt Gingrich saw a political tool/device, this was not presented as a real solution, but a political gambit.
5 Taking Deception to Extremes: “Drill Now! Pay Less! Vote Republican!” | Get Energy Smart! NOW!!! // Sep 15, 2008 at 3:21 pm
[…] 3. Pay Less? Okay, the analysis suggests that opening up drilling would contribute to a to about a 1.2 cent reduction in gasoline prices … twenty years from now. […]
6 Vote Grand Oil Party! Multi-layered deception coming to a street corner near you - The Seminal :: Independent Media and Politics // Sep 16, 2008 at 1:27 pm
[…] 3. Pay Less? Okay, the Department of Energy analysis suggests that opening up drilling would contribute to a to about a 1.2 cent reduction in gasoline prices … twenty years from now. […]
7 Vote Grand Oil Party! Multi-layered deception coming to a street corner near you | Get Energy Smart! NOW!!! // Sep 16, 2008 at 2:26 pm
[…] 3. Pay Less? Okay, the Department of Energy analysis suggests that opening up drilling would contribute to a to about a 1.2 cent reduction in gasoline prices … twenty years from now. […]
8 DC // Oct 3, 2008 at 2:46 pm
ANWR can be drilled and brought to production in less than 5yrs. That’s a fact.
9 Reid on Fox News: “Coal makes us sick …” // Dec 17, 2010 at 5:23 am
[…] the Republicans didn’t continue their their efforts to dig the hole deeper with the dishonest “Drill Here! Drill Now! Pay Less!” 20 years from …. They doubled down in their climate denial and embrace of fossil-foolish ways — even in the […]
10 Bob // Sep 1, 2011 at 5:43 pm
Drill Here, Drill Now does NOT prevent anyone from seeking alternative energy solutions. It is part of the “All of the Above” approach.
If we used the absured “10 year” argument in the 60’s, we’d have never made it to the moon. Even so, there would be instant job creation there too (again, assuming the 10-year excuse for the sake of argument…which is invalid).
We are not going to eliminate oil from the U.S. economy — probably ever. However, we are far more likely to have serious impacts — in the 1, 2, 3, … 10, 20, 30 year periods — from energy efficiency and substitution options than from drilling.
There is much misleading going on here…but not from Newt.
11 The Republican Agenda To Raise America’s Gas Prices // Mar 16, 2012 at 9:09 am
[…] “Drill, Baby, Drill” will have minimal impact in the mid-term while raising prices in the long-term […]