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Updated:
WASHINGTON -- "Drill, baby, drill," one of the catchier themes of the Republican convention last week, may have met its match on the steps of the Capitol today as protesters interrupted a Republican press conference with this counterpoint: "Spill, baby, spill!"
House Republicans called the 3 p.m. press conference to celebrate their historic stand during the congressional August recess. Over the month, 135 of them, including Nevada's Reps. Jon Porter and Dean Heller, returned to Washington to speak on the darkened chamber floor in favor of a House vote on an energy policy that includes more domestic drilling. Democratic leaders had prevented such a vote before the break, but now seem willing to hold one.
The press conference went something like this:
Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida opens by welcoming Democrats back to work.
Protesters: "Spill, baby, spill!"
House Minority Leader John Boehner says the time for talk on energy policy is over.
He's being drowned out by the protesters.
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan says the "deadbeat Democrat Congress" went on vacation rather than deal with energy policy.
Protesters: "Save our shores!"
And so it went.
Even with amplified sound system, the few dozen protesters overpowered the few dozen Republicans. (Porter and Heller were not on hand for the event.)
The protesters were mainly from environmental organizations. "Shame on big oil!" "Renewable is do-able!"
By 3:15, after a few questions from the press, the Republicans were done.
What a way to start the workweek.
Originally published at 9:55 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Greetings Early Liners, from the downtown office in the nation’s capital after time away for the political conventions.
As I left the Twin Cities early Friday morning, the Humphrey Terminal at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport looked like another day on the Hill.
I shared the tram to the concourse with the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, spotted Republicans Rep. Zach Wamp of Tennessee and Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia at the gate, then rode the first leg of the flight with House Minority Leader John Boehner and Utah Republican Sen. Bob Bennett.
My seatmate was a Ron Paul supporter from Texas, and you can read his thoughts about the Nevada Paul supporters’ decision to sit out the roll call on the convention floor as an olive branch after their battles with the state Republican Party.
Catch up on all our convention coverage, as well as my colleague J. Patrick Coolican’s stories from the Sun’s Western road trip, in our politics section.
No slacking into the work week with this morning’s headlines:
- Yucca Mountain is closer to reality than ever before with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s announcement this morning that it has accepted the Energy Department’s application for review.
The milestone is just what Yucca Mountain supporters had hoped for -- get the license in the pipeline before the pro-nuclear Bush administration leaves office in hopes that it would be more difficult for an anti-dump president to stop it.
Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain supports Yucca Mountain as the nation’s nuclear waste repository, 90 miles north of Las Vegas.
But Sen. Barack Obama, the democratic presidential candidate, has vowed to yank the application if elected.
The commission now begins its survey of the million pages of licensing documents, which could take at least four years.
Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, the majority leader, had hoped to avoid today’s step, but issued a statement this morning saying he “will continue my work to kill the proposed dump once and for all.”
We’ll have more after a conference call with the commission this afternoon.
- The Reno paper’s Anjeanette Damon blogs that McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, could be visiting Nevada sooner rather than later.
- If you didn’t hear the chants of “Drill, baby, drill!” then you missed one of the highlights of the Republican National Convention.
Energy policy will captivate Congress this week as the House and Senate resume after the August break, and Reid hosts a bipartisan energy summit Friday in Washington.
A compromise bill being crafted by the so-called Gang of 10 in the Senate would allow off-shore drilling in some states (not California, where many coastal residents, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are opposed) in exchange for reigning in oil company tax breaks.
We’ll see if the two sides are interested in striking a deal -- or prefer to keep striking out at one another on the campaign trail.
- Also, we’re monitoring this morning’s rescue plan for mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, hoping to bring you insight on what it means to Nevadans struggling in the worst housing market ever. Stay tuned.
- Finally, if you don’t regularly read the East Coast press, check out excerpts being published in The Washington Post from Bob Woodward’s new book, “The War Within: A Secret White House History: 2006-2008.” It details the military opposition to the 2007 troop surge in Iraq as voiced by the military chiefs at the time -- Gen. George Casey, the commander in Iraq; Gen. John P. Abizaid, the head of Central Command; and Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff -- even as Bush and others (including Nevada’s Republican lawmakers) said they were relying on the military pros, not the politicians, to lead their decision making. The series started Sunday and continues this week.
That’s it from the nation’s capital. I’ll be on the Hill later, with updates from there.
Tell Harry we need it all. Oil, Gas, Nuclear, solar, wind, everything. Quit quoting part of T. Boone Pickens quote. Yes, he said, We can't drill our way out of this. He also said we need it all. American resources for American jobs and make the dollar stronger by stopping the export of 700 billion a year. Contact Harry and tell him to Get Out Of The Way.
email link
http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm...
Las Vegas
Lloyd D. George Building
333 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Suite 8016
Las Vegas, NV 89101
Phone: 702-388-5020 / Fax: 702-388-5030
"But Sen. Barack Obama, the democratic presidential candidate, has vowed to yank the application if elected."
Why does he need to do that?
Can't the Democratic controlled House and Senate just stop funding Yucca?
Why did last month the Democratic controlled House sub-committe fully fund Yucca?
I smell a lot of BS coming from the Democrats.
Well, I think the executive yanking the application is the quickest and easiest way to stop Yucca. Obama has a quick and painless plan.
Do you disagree, Nance?
Why doesn't McCain want to stop Yucca?
People need to understand once and for all that the president cannot arbitrarily "yank" the license application, as Obama has allegedly promised to do.
In submitting the license application (and indeed, in developing the repository itself), DOE is merely following federal law as set forth in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA). The NWPA mandates the construction of a national repository for nuclear waste. As amended in 1987, the NWPA stipulates that the repository will be constructed at Yucca Mountain.
The NWPA and the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR Part 63) stipulate very clearly what the president's role is in these proceedings, and that role does not include "yanking" the application as if it had been submitted by the White House in the first place.
The last significant presidential act mandated by the NWPA has already come and gone: it was the approval of the siting of the repository at Yucca Mountain, as carried out by President Bush in 2002 in accordance with the NWPA.
Other than that, the only other avenue at this point for any president wishing to "yank" the application would be the usual constitutional process of amending the NWPA. In other words, the sponsorship of legislation to alter the current law of the land.
So all this talk about "yanking" the license application, and the attempts to politicize the issue, are pretty much irrelevant.
More to the point are Sen. Reid's ongoing efforts to "starve" the Yucca Mountain Project into non-existence by cutting the annual project budget.
One final point to bear in mind: The proposed repository at Yucca Mountain has always enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress, all the way back to the original drafting of the NWPA. In most straight-up votes, any Yucca Mountain issue will pass with a solid majority. The real obstacles come out of the committees that control funding, especially since Congress has not followed the law in allowing the Yucca Mountain Project to be funded directly out of the Nuclear Waste Fund established by the NWPA for that purpose.
"Well, I think the executive yanking the application is the quickest and easiest way to stop Yucca. Obama has a quick and painless plan.
Do you disagree, Nance? Yes, I disagree."
According to Ardent, which seems to know a lot about the Yucca Mtn, it would be illegal for the President to "yank" the application if the scientific panel did not give him cause too.
So, I guess the President could violate the law. It would be an impeachabe offense.
I guess over time he could appoint people to the scientific panel with orders to disregard any science in favor of the Yucca. That could take many years to get enough people on the panel. I guess Clinton did not take this route.
It does not seem like the easiest way to do it. It seems very hard to do.
I think it would be easier for Congress to stop funding Yucca. It would take zero effort by the Democratic House and Senate. They would have to do nothing...just do not pass any bill that has funding for Yucca.
Why doesn't McCain want to stop Yucca? He believes, like the majority in Congress, that we need a federal waste site. Democrats must not want to stop Yucca either. They control both houses so it would be easy for not to pass a bill that has funding.
McCain also wants to invest in R & D to recycle nuclear watse at Nuclear power plants.
Let's see, take the word of an anonymous internet commenter...
Or the word of Jon Ralston, who confirmed, via email, that yes, it is theoretically possible for Obama to withdraw the application.
Hmmm. The word of Ralston, or "Ardent?"
I'll take Ralston.
anonymous internet commenter or the known liberal kool-aid maker Ralston......hmmmmmm...that is a very hard choice......not sure which one is worst...
FRIENDS OF OBAMA: IF YOU DON'T KNOW EACH OF THESE CHARACTERS BACKGROUND, YOU SHOULD, IT AFFECTS HIS JUDGMENT AND REPUTATION!!! Lone ago, my Mother taught me, "A man is known by the company he keeps." 1. REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT, sermons and frequent denunciations of "America," along with his support of black sepratist, Jew hater LOUIS FARRAKHAN; 2. ANTOIN "TONY" REZKO, Chicago bag man for OBAMA, convicted last month in federal court for mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, abetting bribery of Chicago's Democrat MAYOR; assisted OBAMA in the purchase of his mansion, next door to REZKO!!! 3. RAHSID KHALIDI, Yasser Arafat's Buddy, former PLO operative, justifiies armed aggression against Israel and rejects two state resolution. 3. WILLIAM AYERS and his wife BERNADINE DOHRM, underground terrorists, claimed responsibility of a dozen bombings 1970-74 "WEATHERMAN" terrorist founder! IF YOU DON'T KNOW THESE, YOU SHOULD
Put the waste in Yucca. It has to go somewhere and if that's the most logical and safest, let it go in. The French have been using nuclear power for 80% of their electrical generation needs and we spend Billions to foreign lands for oil instead. Who says Americans are smart.
McCain's energy policy
To oil companies: Drill, baby, drill.
To off-shore oil rigs: Spill, baby, spill.
To the planet:
Burn, baby, burn.