Rep. Neil Abercrombie Heading Bi-Partisan Effort at the Pump

Congressional Panel Pledges to Fix High Prices at the Pump

Do you think that Congress can't get along and that they would never be able to agree on how to deal with the energy crisis in this country? Well, for the most part you are right, but not in the case of Rep. Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat from Hawaii and Rep. John Peterson, a Republican from Pennsylvania. Now if you're a liberal who doesn't get a chance to follow the Congress very much, you probably think, well Abercrombie is one of those Democrats who goes along with the Bush Administration position on a ton of key issues. This assumption could not be further from the truth, as noted by The Hill.

Neil Abercrombie is a staunch opponent of things such as the Bush tax cuts, most free trade agreements, the death penalty, the war in Iraq. In fact he was a main co-sponsor of the Homeward Bound Act that would basically bring our troops home within sixty days. Abercrombie consistently receives an F from most pro-business, anti-tax organizations such as Freedom Works, the National Taxpayers Union, etc. as noted on Project VoteSmart. My point is that you can't claim that Abercrombie appears to be in the pocket of corporations unless he's an awesome double agent.

The point of this article is to highlight the bi-partisan working group with which to educate on the need to drill in places like the Outer Continental Shell along with of course alternative energy sources. As I write this, the Senate will be debating a bill on oil speculation which could have an impact on the price at the pump, but I doubt it. If you look at Abercrombie he looks like the hippie professor who tied himself to a fence or a monument to protest something the other day.

The point that this bi-partisan coalition is trying to make would be that there simply cannot be a stagnant response to the supply side in the equation of supply and demand. They are here to talk about coal, oil shale, you name it and this commission will get the cost of energy down. To be fair though the working group is not promising a magic formula.