Well, after wasting a few weeks in a failed effort to hike taxes on domestic oil and gas production, now Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) says he doesn’t even want the extra tax revenues that would flow thanks to increased domestic oil and gas drilling.
Apparently his response to “drill, baby, drill” is “no, baby, no.”
CNN has this:
The Senate rejected a Republican measure Wednesday to expand offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. coastal waters, signaling a continued partisan stalemate over energy policy and, more specifically, how to respond to rising gas prices.
One Democrat, Montana’s Max Baucus, didn’t vote.
The Hill notes that every Democrat in the US Senate voted against the effort to increase domestic oil and gas production:
The Senate on Wednesday rejected Republican-backed legislation intended to speed up and expand offshore oil and gas drilling.
Every Senate Democrat voted against the motion to proceed along with five Republicans: Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.), Mike Lee (Utah), Richard Shelby (Ala.), Olympia Snowe (Maine) and David Vitter (La.).
The legislation – which is similar to bills the House approved in recent weeks – would set deadlines for several upcoming Gulf of Mexico lease sales.