Pelosi's Planet

Pelosi's Planet
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, July 30, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Politics: "I'm trying to save the planet," declares House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which is a lot for one person. Maybe she should just try to save herself from the embarrassment that comes with spouting such inanities.
When challenged in an interview with Politico.com about her bullheaded refusal to let Republicans submit energy policies for approval, Pelosi resorted to risible hyperbole to justify her iron-fisted rule of the House parliamentary process.

"I'm trying to save the planet; I'm trying to save the planet," she responded. "I will not have this debate trivialized by their excuse for their failed policy."

If the San Francisco Democrat's magisterial narcissism isn't off-putting enough, her intent should be. She's saying that her importance to the survival of Earth transcends our system of open government, elections and power-sharing. Because she's trying to save the world, she can't be challenged and dissent will not be tolerated.

Pelosi's arrogation of power is not unlike that of the monarchs of old who claimed a divine right to rule. And, just as queens had kings, the speaker has a male imperial sitting on the adjacent throne: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Obstructionism by Reid, D-Nev., who freely uses the trite phrase "we cannot drill our way out of the problem," is also costing Americans at the pump.

By blocking proposals for using more of our own energy resources, Pelosi and Reid are going hard against the grain. Our IBD/TIPP Poll shows 64% of Americans support offshore drilling while only 25% oppose it. They also favor drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by 47%-43% (the rest aren't sure). And a whopping 73% believe that fuel prices are a bigger challenge to the country than global warming.

Pelosi is probably no more interested in those numbers than she is in admitting that the planet does not need saving and is, in fact, doing well without her help.

By any objective standard, Earth is not in trouble. Indeed, the environment is greatly improved. Our skies, rivers and land are cleaner than they were at the dawn of the environmental movement.

Credit economic progress. It has moved the developed world from smokestack industries to more benign activities and has cleaned up, through technology that heavily depends on economic growth, the industries that still pollute.

It's clear that richer is cleaner. To be richer, we need access to cheap fossil fuels. It's a simple equation, one that even the deluded who think they need to save the world can understand.