The Oil Drum

http://www.foxnews.com/urgent_queue/index.html#a54ef44,2008-06-18 (hat tip: Drudge front page)

My impression of that report was that this was a group of House Democrats standing at a podium talking about the days' events in the House. For Rep. Hinchey to say what he did when he did could be taken as representing the opinions of the group of speakers, which may have been representing the Democratic Party at the time--and he was not corrected by the others speaking. We would need to know more in what capacity Rep. Hinchey was speaking, etc., etc.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), member of the House Appropriations Committee and one of the most-ardent opponents of off-shore drilling (at 1115 said): "We (the government) should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market."

{...} House Democrats responded to President's Bush's call for Congress to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. This was at an on-camera press conference fed back live.

{...} Among other things, the Democrats called for the government to own refineries so it could better control the flow of the oil supply.

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Chair, Energy Independence 2020

As a companion to the post about the House Democrats plan on transportation and energy, there is the Senate Democrats plan on Energy Independence by 2020. With the Senate now definitely being run by Democrats, we might as well get a head start on what the Senate Democrats think about energy policy.

There will no doubt be much to digest over the coming weeks as the full weight of the 2006 election results are felt, but one point that should be noted early is that with the Democrats taking the House of Representatives NYC's congressional delegation is suddenly much more powerful.

"We do very well in New York in terms of chairmanships and subcommittee chairmanships in the new Congress," said Rangel, who would head the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee in a Democratic-controlled House.

With many Democrats from NYC holding their safe seats for decades, they will hold significant sway over national policy direction as well as the ability to cut through Federal red tape to get Federal funds allocated for key transportation infrastructure projects. This will also allow local activists to have a more potent voice into the political process to which the House Democrats have been shut out for the past 12 years.