Conservatives Derail Energy Compromise In Senate; Drilling Ban Expires in 8 Days

Last week, the House passed a compromise bill with more coastal drilling and more clean energy without the support of conservatives.

The Senate had been expected to follow suit -- since it was the "Gang of 10" group of Senators who had the original idea of such a compromise, and the Gang had expanded to 20.

But The Hill [1] and the The Politico [2] (via Gristmill [3]) have reported that the bipartisan Senate group has given up and won't introduce a bill.

Whining conservatives -- who despite being in the Senate minority continue to block popular legislation with filibuster threats -- tried to make the Senators rewrite the original compromise so it wasn't, in the incredulous words one, "on the left of Nancy Pelosi."

You know Speaker Pelosi, the one who just got passed the "All of the Above" legislation that conservatives disingenuously claimed they wanted. The Daily Show probably has the only accurate (but not entirely work-safe) report on what happened in the House last week.

But there was no way to appease the temper-tantrum throwing conservatives [4], who have proven themselves completely uninterested in an "All of the Above" compromise [5], without having the rest of the Congress join conservatives under the covers in bed with Big Oil [6]. So, the Gang isn't bothering with a bill at all.

That leaves open the question of what will happen to the current ban on most coastal drilling, which is set to expire in eight days.

With no spending bills passed to keep our federal government functioning through the next fiscal year, a "continuing resolution" allowing for stopgap financing is expected this month.

In that bill, congressional leaders could completely cave and let the current coastal drilling ban expire. Or they could renew the ban, or modify as the House did in its compromise, forcing conservatives and President Bush to either accept it or block the legislation and prompt a government shutdown in the middle of a financial crisis. (In a stopgap financing bill, a modifying of the ban may not come with closing tax breaks for Big Oil and new investment for clean energy as was present in the House bill.)

Of course, with conservatives exposed as completely in bed with Big Oil, opposed to any compromise that would give consumers choices besides buying increasingly expensive oil, and unable to accurately argue that more drilling for negligible amounts of oil would actually lower gas prices, their credibility should be shot.

That would give congressional leaders an opportunity to shift the political dynamic around energy, though with so much focus on Wall Street and with the Senate compromise killed so quietly. it's harder to draw attention to that message. Conversely, conservatives may want to think twice before forcing a government shutdown in the midst of such financial anxiety.

The showdown is coming to a head. If you don't want Congress to cave and keep us dependent on Big Oil, time to make your voice heard.