Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi wants to "save the planet," and therefore will not allow an up or down vote in the House to open up offshore oil drilling. Apparently, Madame Speaker agrees with Crazy Harry Reid that "we're hurting the planet" by using oil, and we ought to "stop using fossil fuels."

How do we "stop using" antifreeze, anesthetics, anything plastic, bandages, basketballs and candles? Detergents, dice or epoxy glue? Paint, guitar strings or insect repellent? Lipstick, life jackets or roofing? Shaving cream, shower curtains or toilet seats? These and hundreds of other common everyday items in our lives are made, in whole or part, with oil.

If they mean "stop using gasoline," that's only 19.5 gallons in a 42 gallon barrel. The rest of that barrel is spun into nearly everything you see around you from medicine to furniture to clothing – everything that makes our standard of living possible. "Stop using" oil makes no sense. This is shrieking madness.

Over the last 30 years, Congress has put off limits to drilling one oil rich area of our country after another. As a consequence, domestic production has declined. Despite every conservation measure and our much more efficient use of oil, demand for oil in the U.S. continues to grow because we know how to use oil in thousands of creative ways.

So, we import the oil we use. Almost 70 percent of the oil we use so creatively comes from a foreign country – typically, a foreign country that envies our success and /or dislikes our freedom. We are financing the countries that finance terrorism.

(Column continues below)

If Pelosi and Reid were serious in their goal to "stop using fossil fuels," they would pass a law forbidding imports of oil. That would end our dependence on foreign oil and force "alternatives" in a hurry. No such law has even been talked about. Why? I think because these "leaders" are not as interested in solving the interrelated problems of high gas prices and dependence on foreign oil as they are toadying to the radical enviro left.

Ironically, these "leaders" have blocked drilling in the U.S. where the environmental protection laws are the most stringent. Their policy condemns the planet to more drilling in countries that couldn't care less about the environment. The big, "evil" oil companies know how to do it right.

Look at Louisiana. Offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is a $70 billion shot in the arm for Louisiana's economy, employing more than 325,000 people in good paying jobs. When Katrina hit the Louisiana coast, it shoved big off shore oil platforms right up onto the beach. Was there a big oil spill to compound the tragedy of Katrina? No.

Look at Texas. In the last 12 months, employers in Texas have created 245,000 jobs. The Texas unemployment rate is 4.4 percent. The national jobless figure is 5.6 percent; California's is 6.9 percent. Texas does offshore drilling and onshore drilling. They allow drilling wherever the oil is. The state government will run a $10 billion surplus this year.

Sen. Barack Obama wants us to check our tire pressure, asserting that correct tire pressure would save the need to drill any more oil off shore. Nonsense. Tire pressure should be checked every so often. Maintaining the right pressure does save a little mileage and extends the life of the tire – but the savings nationally would amount in a year to maybe two days production at Prudhoe Bay in Alaska.

The Republicans in the House are holding a "People's Session" after Pelosi adjourned for a five-week vacation without taking a vote on any of the pending energy legislation. The Republican House members want an up or down vote on offshore drilling – and so does the public. Tired of Democratic inaction on high gas prices, Americans are demanding action.

Pelosi still calls offshore drilling a "hoax" and the Republican "People's Session" "the dance of the handmaidens of big oil." How out of touch with the American people can you be and remain in office?

Related special offer:

""Drill for American oil NOW!" bumper sticker