Jeff Miller: "Drill, Baby, Drill" on Pensacola Beach

Northwest Florida's ineffectual congressman, Jeff Miller (R-Chucklhead), in effect voted last night to authorize oil and gas drilling rigs off Pensacola Beach. The House of Representatives bill he voted against would have continued the protection against drilling rigs in the near-shore of Pensacola Beach and other eastern Gulf sugar-white sandy beaches.

Miller voted "No."

As Bryan Dumka from Miller's hometown Cinco Bayou implies, undoubtedly the House bill was politically inspired. Republicans -- including Miller -- have embraced "drill, baby, dill" as their mantra. Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, are afraid that voters are so stupid they can be suckered into thinking that expanded drilling might be a solution to the current price of gasoline or America's dependency on foreign oil.

Plainly, it is not.

Bryan gives Pelosi a hard time about her support for the compromise drilling bill. We have, too. Everyone needs to remember, however, that it's Republicans like Miller who falsely urged "both parties to drop the partisan bickering" over energy policy and work out a compromise. When offered the chance, Republican House members cynically refused.

Not a single Republican voted for the bill which would open the rest of the nation's coastlines to drilling, even though they're the ones who have been calling for it all along.

At a minimum, it's time for the Pensacola News Journal to acknowledge that Jeff Miller has been lying all along when he claimed to be protecting our beaches from close-in drilling rigs.

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