Pelosi CLEAR Act Adds Billions in New Taxes: CLEAR TakeOver of State Authority on Permits: Pelosi Bans Oil Spill Investigation

Nancy Pelosi has said no to a House and Senate "independent" investigation of the BP Gulf oil spill. Her CLEAR Act poised to be voted on this Friday passed the House on July 30th. It adds billions in new taxes, a federal takeover of a state's authority to issue pertinent permits within their state, and builds a $500 million annually, slush fund for the Interior Secretary. That slush fund is provided by $22 billion in new taxes over ten years, which settles at $3 billion-per-year after the ten years. Are these people evil, or what? Have you heard anything coming from Republicans about this? I have not.

Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama

Connie Hair at Human Events has another blockbuster report. As the administration's illegal moratorium on drilling marches on, Pelosi wants no Republicans or petroleum experts sticking their noses into the disaster or how it was handled. Louisiana's Republican congressmen Cassidy and Fleming, are livid about CLEAR's new drilling standards, laws and regulations "that have nothing to do with offshore drilling," but everything to do with "unrelated" federal programs to spend billions on solar, wind and nuclear power. Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) says Pelosi's move is intended to protect Obama.

 Both the House and the Senate have already approved an independent commission, with unanimous bipartisan votes:

Unlike the commission set up by President Obama -- packed only with environmental activists and no petroleum engineers -- the commission unanimously approved by the Natural Resources committee would be comprised of technical experts to study the actual events leading up to the Deepwater Horizon disaster....

“By deleting the bipartisan, independent oil spill commission that’s received bipartisan support in both House and Senate committees, Democrats have shown they are more interested in protecting the President than getting independent answers to what caused this tragic Gulf spill.  Some of the biggest failures that contributed to the Gulf disaster are the direct responsibility of the federal government... 

The CLEAR Act  is expected to be voted on Friday. The highlights:

1) Creates over $30 billion in new mandatory spending for two programs that have nothing to do with the oil spill 

2) Raises taxes by over $22 billion in ten years – with the taxes eventually climbing to nearly $3 billion per year.

3) Requires the federal takeover of state authority to permit in state waters, which reverses sixty years of precedent.

4) Allows 10% of all offshore revenues – an amount possibly as high as $500 million per year – to be spent on a new fund controlled by the Interior Secretary to issue ocean research grants (ORCA fund).

 The lesson is, the BP oil spill will be blamed for all energy and environmental woes in the future. Read an update from the MarineLog.