Congress Needs To Get Off It's Duff or We Will Be In BIG TROUBLE!

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This is a one-part of the transcript of the Glenn Beck Show on Headline News July 10, 2008.  Glenn is on vacation and Ben Stein (Mr. Common Sense) has replaced him today:


STEIN: Hello. No, this is not a James Bond movie rerun. I`m Ben Stein, in for the perpetually vacationing Glenn Beck.

And after many years of alarms and excursions, it`s finally happening. According to a survey commissioned by Discover Financial Services, 62 percent of Americans -- that`s close to two-thirds -- changed their Fourth of July plans because of high gasoline prices, and 15 percent canceled vacations altogether.

This week, gasoline prices hit yet another new high, and the price at the pump has been over $4 a gallon for more than a month. The Energy Information Administration says if gas consumption is down 3.3 percent from last year, more supply, less demand. That could mean lower prices eventually, but what about big-picture solutions?

Congressman John Peterson of Pennsylvania is a big proponent of off- shore drilling.

Congressman, are you there?

REP. JOHN PETERSON (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Yes, sir. I`m here.

STEIN: Let`s talk about this for a minute.

PETERSON: Surely.

STEIN: We`ve got an incredible amount of oil off the shores of the United States in the Outer Continental Shelf. Why aren`t we drilling for it? We need it desperately. It`s not doing the fish any good down there. What is stopping us?

PETERSON: Well, we have had three presidents that have not shown leadership on this issue in a row. We`ve had 14 Congresses that have locked it up. It`s locked up legislatively with a presidential moratorium and a legislative moratorium. And we have been attempting to lift that.

We now have the Pelosi lockdown. She`s trying to prevent any kind of legislation.

We were set up two weeks ago -- three weeks ago to amend the interior bill which would have removed the prohibition from 50 miles to 200 for both gas and oil, and they pulled the bill. So, so far, they`re trying to prevent us from amending the interior bill, so we`re not actually doing anything with appropriations because they`re afraid of our amendment.

STEIN: But I don`t understand. Why? I mean, it can be done environmentally safely, as far as I understand. There hasn`t been a major spill from offshore drilling in a very, very long time. I`m not sure there`s ever been a really major oil spill from offshore drilling.

Why are we not doing it? What are people afraid of that`s keeping us from doing it?

PETERSON: Well, The Wilderness Society, The Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and many more, are in lockstep with the Democratic Party. They have outlined a platform of no drilling. They want no fossil fuels.

Now, here`s the problem. We all want renewables. We all want wind and solar and hydro and geothermal, and all the good stuff, but it`s not ready yet.

And, you know, if we double wind and solar, we`re less than three- quarters of one percent. But they have locked down fossil fuels. They`re going to force us to change.

I think Obama, the candidate, said it well. The problem is, it`s not the price so much, it just went up too fast. They believe it`s a religion, that we should pay much more for energy, like Europe, who taxes it really heavily, and that then we`ll force people not to use energy and to use other fuels.

You can`t force them to use something that`s not ready. We don`t have alternatives that are ready to fill a car, to drive a car or transport a truck. We don`t have alternatives.

STEIN: But Representative, what would be the psychological imperative that would make these people want to slow down or break the United States economy? Why would they want to see their fellow citizens suffer?

I mean, we`re all brothers and sisters in this great country. Why would they want us to suffer from a shortage of energy? We would do better when there`s more energy, not when there`s less. Why would they want people to suffer?

Is pure Phariseeism?

PETERSON: Well, they really -- it`s a religion with the environmental community. And they have made the decision that we -- they must force this country off of fossil fuels when we don`t have a replacement.

STEIN: But why? Why do they want do that to their own country? Why would they want to hurt their own country this way?

PETERSON: So they misunderstand this issue. I don`t think they realize the crisis would develop.

I have been predicting this for six years. I thought it was going to hit last year.

We didn`t have a storm in the Gulf. We didn`t -- you know, this has all happened. These high oil prices have happened without a storm in the Gulf, without a country tipping over, a major -- you know, most of the oil- producing countries are not -- they`re dictatorships and they`re unstable governments. And we have got a terrorist attacks on the energy system. Any one of those three will spike energy prices overnight, and one of those are liable to happen.

We`re probably -- we went two years in a row without a storm in the Gulf. We`re probably going to have one this year. That will spike energy prices further.

STEIN: You are talking about people who are doing extremely dangerous things to this country.

PETERSON: That`s correct.

STEIN: And let us hope and pray that they see the light.  Congressman, thank you so much. We do not want to -- we do not want to see this happen.