ENERGY
Wells Of Mass Deception

Note: The team that brings you The Progress Report is heading to the Netroots Nation conference in Austin, TX this week. There will be no Progress Report July 16-18, but we will resume again on Monday, July 21. In the meantime, check out our blog ThinkProgress.org for news and updates throughout the day. (By the way, if you're planning to be in Austin, please join us for our media training workshop, "The Pundit Project: How To Outtalk The Talking Heads," on Thursday at 9:00 AM or 1:00 PM CST. Members of The Progress Report team, along with progressive commentators Cliff Schecter and Matthew Yglesias, will be hosting the session.)

Yesterday, citing the "squeeze of rising prices at the pump," President Bush rescinded the presidential moratorium on offshore drilling. The moratorium on lease sales in the Outer Continental Shelf was established in 1990 by his father, George H.W. Bush, in response to the devastating Exxon Valdez oil spill and extended by President Clinton. Bush's action pressures Congress to follow him in "capitulation to the oil companies" by lifting their moratorium, which must be renewed annually. In response, Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) said at a press conference that Bush "is invoking the specter of another WMD: wells of mass deception." At the Huffington Post, activist Martin Bosworth wrote, "Americans are smarter than we are often given credit for, and many of us do realize that destroying precious environmental resources and wildlife reserves to allow more domestic drilling is a psychological panacea -- a placebo to make us feel like 'something is being done.'" However, polls show increasing support for expanded offshore drilling. Conservatives are preying on Americans' concern over skyrocketing gas prices by propagating false myths that drilling for oil off our coasts will allow us to "pay less" at the pump, that it's "environmentally safe," and that drilling is already underway by communist China. Because "only real beneficiaries will be the oil companies that are trying to lock up every last acre of public land," their political allies must resort to selling falsehoods.

MYTH #1 -- 'DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW, PAY LESS': Newt Gingrich's 527 organization, American Solutions, is promoting a "Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less" campaign, collecting over one million signatures on its petition to Congress to "act immediately to lower gasoline prices" by "authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves" off our coasts. American Solutions is funded by right-wing Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who wants Americans to place another bad bet on oil drilling. As the Energy Information Administration (EIA) has explained, "access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030." But because United States demand for oil far outstrips production -- we consume 25 percent of the world's supply but have two percent of the proven reserves -- further exploitation of domestic resources will not have a long-term impact either.  After 2030, the EIA found, "any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant."  There are numerous ways to immediately affect prices, from use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to improved oversight of the oil markets. Over the long term, we must fight global warming and break our addiction to oil through modern technology like plug-in hybrids and smart growth planning.

MYTH #2 -- CHINA ON OUR COASTS: Conservatives from Rudy Giuliani to Dick Cheney have repeatedly claimed that the United States needs to start drilling for off-shore oil because China is taking "American oil" off the coast of Cuba, just "60 miles off the coast of Florida." Cheney exhorted, "Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply." That same day, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) wrote that Castro was allowing drilling "45 miles from the Florida keys." Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) have also raised the specter of Chinese drilling just off U.S. shores. However, this modern invocation of the Red Scare the claim is completely false. As Cheney was forced to acknowledge, "no Chinese firm is drilling" off Cuba's coast. Talking Points Memo has recorded the large number of conservatives hyping the false story.  The Washington Post’s Ben Pershing said the China/Cuba oil drilling claim is the "myth that keeps on giving," calling it "just too juicy not to repeat."

MYTH #3 -- 'NOT A DROP WAS SPILLED': Offshore drilling advocates know that the specter of oil-slicked beaches would doom their campaign, so they are desperate to wish its environmental impact away. Yesterday, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) claimed "not a drop of oil was spilled during Katrina or Rita." This myth has been told again and again by the likes of Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Mike Huckabee, George Will, and Bill O'Reilly. There were, in fact, major onshore and offshore spills due to the hurricanes. According to the official Minerals Management Service report, the hurricanes caused 124 offshore spills for a total of 743,700 gallons, six spilling 42,000 gallons or more. The largest of these spills dropped 152,250 gallons, well over the 100,000 gallon threshhold considered a "major spill." In addition, the hurricanes caused disastrous spills onshore throughout southeast Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Coast as tanks, pipelines, refineries and other industrial facilities were destroyed, for a total of 595 different oil spills. The nine million gallons reported spilled were comparable with the Exxon Valdez's 10.8 million gallons, but unlike the Exxon Valdez, they were distributed throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and other Gulf Coast states, many in residential areas.

Under the Radar

HEALTH CARE -- BUSH SETS NEW ABORTION CONDITIONS FOR FEDERAL HEALTH AID: A draft of a new proposed rule by the Bush administration would require state and local governments and medical facilities to sign "written certifications" pledging to "not refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and even certain types of birth control" before receiving any federal money. The proposal states that the rule is needed to prevent "morally coercive or discriminatory practices or policies in violation of federal law" and to protect doctors from being forced to perform abortions -- even though such practices are already prohibited by law. But the proposal's expansive definition of "abortion" -- as any procedure "that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation" -- is so broad that is could cover even oral contraceptives and emergency contraception. Mary Jane Gallagher, the president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, told the New York Times, "We worry that under the proposal, contraceptive services would become less available to low-income and uninsured women." In March, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt wrote that OB/GYNs with objections to abortion should not have to refer patients to different doctors, contravening American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists ethics guidelines.

ETHICS -- DHS AND HOUSE COMMITTEE OPEN INVESTIGATIONS INTO PAYNE'S CASH-FOR-ACCESS SCANDAL: Stephen Payne, a longtime Bush associate who was recently revealed to be selling access to top Bush administration officials, is now under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) -- where Payne serves on the Homeland Security Advisory Committee -- and the the House Oversight Committee. A spokesman for DHS called the revelations a "horribly unfortunate story" and said the department is currently "looking into the facts." House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) wrote to Payne, "If true, this raises serious concerns about the ways in which foreign interests might be secretly influencing large donations to the library." Yesterday, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington explained the legal basis for a criminal investigation of Payne: "By offering to serve as a conduit to deliver contributions to the Bush library in exchange for meetings with administration officials, Mr. Payne may have violated federal law." Though Payne has admitted that his actions could be "perceived to be bribery," he insists they are legal. Both Payne and the Bush administration deny that he had "top-level access" to the White House. Noting the six-figure sums Payne solicited, CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said, "He wouldn't get paid that way if he couldn't deliver."

IRAN -- BOLTON CLAIMS HE HAS 'ALWAYS SAID' ATTACK ON IRAN WAS 'UNATTRACTIVE':Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton has long pushed vigorously for the Bush administration and Israel to attack Iran. But when asked on Fox News last week if  his past statements advocating military action against Iran still represent an "accurate reflection" of his views, former U.N. ambassador John Bolton said "no," adding: "I have always said...that the use of force against Iran's nuclear program is deeply unattractive." The claim is false. Bolton, for example, in May claimed a U.S. strike on Iran is "really the most prudent thing to do" and in June said that Israel attacking Iran after the presidential elections in the United States "makes a lot of sense." Just one day later, also on Fox News, Bolton claimed Iran's missiles "pose a threat" to the U.S. mainland. But seeming to recognize that Iran's missiles do not have the capability to come anywhere near the United States, Bolton backtracked, saying that Iran would put the missiles on steam ships and "sail" them "up the East or the West Coast" to put them in range.

Think Fast

Lawyers for Canadian detainee Omar Khadr have "released excerpts of videotaped interrogations” today, "providing a first-ever glimpse into the secretive world of questioning enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay. In the 10-minute video, Khadr is often weeping, "pulling at his hair," chanting "Help Me," and even tells agents that he was tortured while being held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

Taliban insurgents who attacked a remote American-run outpost near the Pakistan border on Sunday outnumbered allied forces almost three to one and "some breached the NATO compound in a coordinated assault that took the defenders by surprise." The attackers were eventually "driven back in a pitched four-hour battle."

The euro has jumped "to a new all-time high versus the dollar, surging as high as $1.6036, according to FactSet, as the greenback saw a broad decline against major currencies on intensifying credit worries."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said "that he would not allow a vote on an amendment giving states new authority to seek oil off their coasts" when he brings an energy bill to the floor later this month. "We want oil and gas companies to drill on the leases they’ve been given," Reid said.

The Bush administration's misguided drive to extract Colorado's oil shale "carries none of the Western wisdom acquired over the past century," warns Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO), in a Washington Post op-ed today. Oil shale development would require massive amounts of scare Colorado water, and "energy companies are still years away" from knowing whether it can cost-effectively produce oil on a commercial scale.

"House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel is soliciting donations from corporations with business interests before his panel, hoping to raise $30 million for a new academic center that will house his papers when he retires."

The "staff director for the House ethics committee has reportedly resigned," leaving the committee "somewhat paralyzed." As a result, "both the House and Senate ethics committees may be operating without a permanent staff director in the runup to the national political conventions," the Hill reports.

And finally: In an NBC interview on Friday, basketball star Charles Barkley curiously told NBC, "My game is like a blog." The blog Deadspin, which interviewed Barkley the day earlier, caught up with him and asked him what he meant by the phrase. Barkley replied, "When I talked with you on Thursday, and you said your were blogging my rounds, I didn't know what that was. What's a 'blog?' ... So when they asked me on television how to describe my golf game, I told them 'My game is like a blog.' Because I don't know what a blog is, but it don't sound good."

Good News

The House has hired its first Hispanic reading clerk, Jaime Zapata, according to an announcement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

State Watch

IOWA: Immigration reform advocates "will descend on a small Iowa town this month for a rally in support of workers arrested in a large raid at a meatpacking plant."

MISSOURI: A lawsuit seeking missing e-mails from Gov. Matt Blunt's (R) office might soon have new life.

MASSACHUSETTS: Study estimates that gay marriage in Massachusetts would pump $111 million into the economy and yield another $5 million in marriage license fees and sales and occupancy taxes.

Blog Watch

WONK ROOM: Elizabeth Edwards on Tony Snow: Let's find common cause in stopping cancer.

BRIEFING ROOM: Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA): President Bush's new WMD = oil "wells of mass deception."

FP PASSPORT: Defense lawyer drops his pants to demonstrate mistreatment at Guantanamo Bay.

Daily Grill

"To say you're going to get out [of Iraq] on a certain schedule...is the height of absurdity."
-- Brookings Institution's Michael O'Hanlon, 7/15/08

VERSUS

"Set a date to pull out."
-- O'Hanlon, 5/18/04