Boulder County Liberal Mark Udall Makes A Promise

Boulder County Liberal Congressman Mark Udall and Republican Senate Candidate Bob Schaffer squared off in a debate yesterday.  Today's Denver Post previews the debate that will air next Sunday on Denver Fox 31.

 

In the debate taped Monday to be televised Sunday evening on KDVR-Channel 31, [ Mark ] Udall talked repeatedly and aggressively about energy, hoping to recapture the issue. He underscored short-term fixes that include an effort by Democrats in Congress to rein in oil price speculation and force oil companies to drill on current leases or lose them.

 

For his part, Republican Bob Schaffer challenged [ Mark ] Udall to vote against letting Congress go to summer recess if it hasn't passed a new energy bill — something that's unlikely — and Udall agreed, surprising even Schaffer's campaign manager, Dick Wadhams.

 

"We'll see what he actually does" next week, said Wadhams, who said he expects the energy issue to dominate the race right up until the election in November.

 

It is unlikely that Nancy Pelosi and the Delay, Don’t Drill, Do Nothing Democrats would allow debate on an energy bill before summer recess as this would force vulnerable Democrat House members to vote against their leadership. Time will tell whether or not Mark Udall will have to follow through or renege on his promise to vote against summer recess.

 

Perhaps the saddest part of Mark Udall’s statement is his continual blame of speculators for high oil prices. The speculators are only pricing oil based upon the incomplete information that they have about future supply and demand. To a speculator, Udall’s own anti-drilling, alternative energy-only rhetoric shows that future supply will be curtailed even with increasing demand. All else being equal, if Mark Udall came out tomorrow with legislation supporting drilling, chances are that oil prices would fall. Obviously, his friends in the environmental movement would burn him in effigy for that.

 

The only question left is why Mark Udall transfers blame from his own policy decisions to supposedly nefarious speculators. Perhaps he believes the electorate to be naïve. Or, perhaps the naïve idealist is actually Boulder County Liberal Democrat Mark Udall.

 

by Civil Sense

Comments

[Allen]

The saddest part of Udall blaming "speculators" is that he can't explain exactly who they are (e.g. is he demonizing Southwest Airlines?) nor explain how it's possible that they would be manipulating the market over such a long period of time. In fact, Udall and others have no proof that speculators are doing anything other than helping the market work more effeciently than it would without them. Then again, I'm not surprised someone representing Boulder doesn't understand the markets.