Growing the Gang

The Gang of 10 - 5 Democrat and 5 Republican senators who were pushing a bipartisan plan to break the impasse in Congress on offshore drilling, has now grown to 16 senators. Three more Democrats and three more Republicans have joined the effort.

The AP focuses heavily on the Republicans who have joined this group, but that's their editorial choice. I'm going to focus on the three Democrats who defected from the no-drilling mandate.

The three Democrats, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Tom Carper of Delaware and Ken Salazar of Colorado, are all in states that Democrats have hopes of carrying in the November election and if they can get the energy issue off the table, angry voters might be favorable to the Democrats. They want to get the energy issue out of the way because Democrats need it to go away.

The problem is that the Democrats across the board are against offshore drilling. Nowhere is that more prevalent than here in New Jersey, where Senators Menendez and Lautenberg both oppose offshore drilling. Lautenberg is up for reelection this year, but this being New Jersey means that he's going to win handily despite the unpopular position he has taken and how high energy prices are sapping the local economy. His stubborn refusal to allow drilling to take place means higher energy prices and no new jobs that could come within the energy industry inside New Jersey - despite the fact that there are potentially significant finds offshore that could generate severance tax revenues (if New Jersey decided to impose such taxes), and corporate and personal income taxes from those working in the offshore oil fields.

Those are jobs that hardworking New Jersey residents are missing out on - along with the money that would flow into the local communities because they refuse to allow for energy production domestically.

The Republican defections take some of the steam out of the sails of the rest of the Republican contingent in Congress who have a killer app issue. Democrats are seriously vulnerable on the issue because they refuse drilling across the board, and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid both look like Luddites in the process. Energy is an issue on which Republicans could sweep back into power if they play their cards right, but this group is going to undercut that possibility from happening.

However, even as the Gang of 16 tries to come up with bipartisan legislation on opening up offshore drilling, the Democratic party leadership continues to hold US domestic energy policy hostage to the eco-left and zero-growth strategies that will undermine the US economy for years to come.