Just Say No.

From the Los Angeles Times, this account of an awful idea that won't do a goddamn thing to make us energy independent and is yet another doomed attempt to get a drooling band of GOP Confederates to play nice:

President Obama, after delaying and deliberating for a year, unveiled a controversial offshore drilling plan Wednesday that was driven largely by the politics of his agenda on energy and climate change -- not by hopes of changing the nation's energy supply.
As a presidential candidate, Obama was attacked by Republicans for not supporting all-out expansion of offshore drilling. And one of his administration's first acts after he took office last year was to cancel the long-term offshore plans President George W. Bush had released at the end of his tenure.
But now, the White House sees its new drilling plan as a way to curry favor with Republicans and moderate Democrats whose support will be critical if Obama is to steer his energy and climate change legislation through Congress.

Add this to Obama's recent trial balloons regarding nuclear energy and "clean" coal and I've got to ask: what's up with that bipartisanship fetish and where's the green?

More here.

John "Bronzer" Boehner Isn't Seeing Green.

From ThinkProgress:

Responding to the most recent findings by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office indicating that the Waxman-Markey Clean Energy Bill will cost American families only a postage stamp a day, House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) is changing up his strategy on attacking the bill, with guidance by The Heritage Foundation.

With the CBO and EPA findings backing energy reform opponents into a corner on the household cost argument, Heritage is arming conservatives with a new strategy — smearing Waxman-Markey as a job killer:

An analysis of the Waxman-Markey bill (as reported out of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce) by The Heritage Foundation found that unemployment will increase by nearly 2 million in 2012, the first year of the program, and reach nearly 2.5 million in 2035, the last year of the analysis.

After Heritage’s report was issued on Thursday, GOP Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) held a press conference to push the think tank’s job killer claims:

This bill will also cost 2.3 million to 2.7 million Americans their jobs. That’s because high energy industries, like the steel- making industry, won’t be located in the United States anymore.

Yes, Boehner actually seems to pine for the lack of environmental regulations in "China, India, South Korea..."

Ah, yes! A GOP plan for the environment is what's needed! They could brand it as "Meltdown NOW!"

More from ThinkProgress:

With the House debating the American Clean Energy & Security Act today, other opponents of reform can be expected to follow Heritage’s lead. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) already spoke on the House floor this morning, saying “there’s a lot of debate about what this bill will cost the average American household, from hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars, but there actually is no debate over the fact that this legislation will cost millions of American jobs.”

A report by the Center for American Progress shows that investing $150 billion in clean energy will create an estimated 1.7 million new jobs — three times more jobs than a similar investment in fossil fuels. In Boehner’s home state alone, 67,356 new jobs would be created by a clean energy economy.

Bloomberg has more.

A New York Times editorial is here.