Shaheen’s lawyers are after the Free Enterprise Alliance, the political arm of Associated Building and Contractors’ for a radio spot they are airing that attacks Jeanne’s energy policy, something near and dear to my heart.  The rub it seems is the implication, in the ad, that Ms. Shaheen’s policy does not include any drilling. 

On August first Jeanne did use the words “increasing domestic production of oil,” but then only in reference to unloading the Strategic Oil Reserves.  I suppose that qualifies as increasing the amount of oil available from a domestic source but it’s not actually “drilling.”  But to be fair, Jeanne has implied, “goose-stepping” in line with the do-nothing democrats we already have in congress, that we should make oil companies use all existing leases, no matter whats on them, and that this will be doing something. 

This is a con game that I have already deconstructed here, (and here) so I won’t do it again now, but there is no reason to believe she means it.  Any meaningful Increase in domestic oil with long lasting production implications (say 50-100 years) contradicts absolutelyeverything else we know about her energy plans.  A woman who puts this in writing…

 

 

Reversing global warming is an economic, environmental and health imperative for New Hampshire. If we don’t act to reverse global warming, New Hampshire’s snow season is projected to shrink by almost 50 percent by mid-century, severely impacting our skiing and snowmobile industries

 

 

 

and this…

Jeanne Shaheen supports the goal of cutting carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050… [using] aggressive research and development for new energy technologies

And can’t complete a paragraph on her policy page without saying things like…

Investment in alternative energy and energy efficiency..

Jeanne Shaheen believes we need to invest in the energy technologies of the future.

Shaheen will work to establish a smart national energy policy that invests in clean, renewable energy sources

…is not even remotely interested in increasing the supply of any fossil fuel energy source that will prevent her from realizing her alternative energy eutopia.  Jeanne’s vision of New Hampshire as the ‘Renewables Capital’ will never happen anyway, (we already export more enrgy than we use) but certainly not if oil is still on the menu.    So claiming that she favors drilling simply because she is willing to force oil companies to go after dwindling, hard to reach, low grade sources, is just another choice lie. 

Shaheen spokesman Kate Beddingfield adds to the deception nicely.

“This is the fourth attempt to distract New Hampshire citizens from the fact that John Sununu has been walking in lock-step with the Bush economic agenda that has driven up the cost of gasoline.”

Yes Kate, we have watched as Republicans have marched in lock step to… 

…simplify the licensing process for Nuclear energy plants so we’ll have access to more abundant clean energy.  Increasing ethanol blending in gasoline to replace other oxygenates that are more harmful to the environment.  Increased funding for renewable technologies.  Supporitng higher fuel efficiency for domestic automobiles.  Advancing the development of coal to oil and oil shale extraction. Oh, and removing oppressive government regulations and restrictions that have made finding, extracting, and processing trillions of barrels of domestic oil and gas resources impossible; so that oil companies could actually use their existing profits to build more 7 billion dollar oil platforms and multi-million dollar drilling rigs (at their expense and not the governments)–to extract not just 46 billion low-grade hard to get at barrels of oil–but to tap many more billions of barrels of Sweet-crude ( from ANWR and the OCS), and 46 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, to make America’s economy thrive in a  competitive global energy market.

…while the Democrats have goose-stepped in unison to block almost every single effort by Bush, Sununu, and Republicans to actually enact an economic agenda that was measured, sensible, forward looking, and would actually benefit everyone, including the middle class. 

Jeanne is only pandering on drilling at the recommendation of the Democrat High Council.  She can’t even use the word in a positive context.  So while it is semantically incorrect to say she has never favored any “drilling” in reality, she has not nor will she ever favor any long range energy policy that will actually reduce our current dependence on foreign oil, and reduce energy costs to help the middle class.   So if the ad doesn’t actually use the words “Jeanne is against Drilling,” then I say run with it.