Monday, June 21, 2010

Just How Phoney is Pallone?

Everybody knows Frank Pallone is a protector of the environment and New Jersey's beaches. Right?

As the news out of Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico keeps getting worse smart politicos seem to think that Pallone is going to hang his hat on his environmental record in the hopes that pictures of pelicans covered in oil will turn back the Tea Party tide on the Jersey Shore.

Pallone is holding hearings on the health effects of the oil spill. That's important. But the real question is, "What could Pallone have done to prevent the spill?"

BP was drilling in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the Outer Continental Shelf Deep Water Royalty Relief Act of 1995 which was signed into law by President Clinton on November 28, 1995.

In an effort to promote the exploration and production of natural gas and crude oil in deep water, the Outer Continental Shelf Deep Water Royalty Relief Act (DWRRA) implemented a royalty-relief program that relieves eligible leases from paying royalties on defined amounts of deep-water production.


Pallone must have voted against that law, right? Wrong. Frank Pallone voted for DWRRA. It took some drilling, but I finally found it.

DWRRA was Senate Bill 395 in the 104th Congress (1995-1996). It passed the Senate on March 16, 1995. The House Bill was HR 70 which passed in the House on with a roll call vote of 324 ayes to 77 nays on July 24, 1995. Pallone voted AYE. The bill passed the House again on July 25, WITHOUT OBJECTION.

Pallone voted NO on the bill that came out of conference committee. He was FOR IT twice before he was against it.

So Frank has it both ways. Phoney Palloney.

I'm not saying Pallone caused the Gulf oil spill. Until today, I would not have even suggested he could have prevented. He could have.

Bloomberg broke the news today that BP "was struggling to seal cracks in its Macondo well as far back as February, more than two months before an explosion killed 11 and spewed oil into the Gulf of Mexico."

The government, through the Minerals Management Service was informed of the cracks on February 13.

Where was Frank? Where was the Energy and Commerce Committee? They're doing investigations now, but the horse is out of the barn. Instead of providing congressional oversight, Pallone, Pelosi and Waxman are providing aftersight. Oh it was an oversight all right.

Just like with the BRACing of Fort Monmouth and just like the new FEMA maps, Pallone has a lot to say after the damage is done. Where was he when he could have made a difference? In February he was busy working on ObamaCare.

Remember that when you see his commercials featuring oily pelicans and when he tries to define Anna Little as dangerous to New Jersey's beaches.

By the way, Pallone issued a statement today condemning the attacks on soldiers of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. That's really important to the people of New Jersey's 6th congressional district.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another pallone failure

ambrosiajr said...

Are you saying that Anna Little would NOT have voted for this bill if she was in there. So, if you extrapolate, than Anna Little would have done nothing to prevent this from happening. What a bunch of shit Art. I would bet you $100 that the republicans voted en masse on this bill. ACtually, only 4 republicans out of 233 voted FOR this bill. So again, the republicans could have done something, but they didn't.

You're usually not this mean spirited and you usually don't stretch the facts this much.

Anonymous said...

I bet she would have voted for the bill.
Here is the difference between her and phoney palloney she would't be a hypocite about it now and if she had been on that committee there would have been appropriate regulatory oversight.

Did you know BP had over 700 hundred safety violations at its Gulf oil rigs.
Shell and citgo had 10 combined.

Somebody dropped the ball and the congressmen with oversight functions for this industry share the blame.

Anonymous said...

AND THAT GOES DOUBLE FOR HOLT

Joe Hadden said...

Rick,

I think Art's point is that Frank Pallone tries to sell himself as an experienced environmental voice in Congress when he really is nothing more than an environmental ambulance chaser.

For a guy who's been in Congress for twenty two years, he lacks foresight into issues that affect not only his espoused areas of concern, but those issues that affect his district as well. I think a rookie Congressman could have decided to look into what happened AFTER the fact.

As for your speculation about whether Anna Little would have voted for that bill, we don't know. But, if a similar bill comes up in 2011, I'd love to find out.

Anonymous said...

anyone check to see if and how much BP/their lobbyists/ execs may have ever given to Frank's elections kitty?.. we already know the Pres. received over $1 million from BP, among other Dems, and, typically, they are again touting the misnomer that it's the GOP that's "cozy" with "big oil", which has come to be totally untrue over the years, and baloney, as in "phoney-Palloney"!! these people are disgusting and ridiculous, and will NOT get away with this usual lying tripe, this time!!