Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is sticking to her guns, firmly rejecting the notion the House solely vote on whether or not to drill offshore.   The California Democrat will instead introduce comprehensive energy legislation which includes limiting tax breaks for oil companies and funding alternative, renewable energy with the royalties from new drilling in approved areas.   The Republican backed measures for a simple yes or no vote on offshore drilling, sidestepping or ignoring all other energy concerns in the United States for the GOP’s corporate oil sponsors, were described as “a hoax on the American people,” by the Speaker.

The Baltimore-bred, San Francisco Congresswoman went on to tell KQED television’s “This Week in Northern California“:

You want to drill? We want the royalties for the American people, and we want that to pay for renewable energy resources. We want to connect all that together.

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The US Government has placed a moratorium on all new solar projects on public lands citing (get this) environmental concerns. The Federal Bureau of Land Management says a two year study of the potential environmental impact solar plants could have on public lands is needed before any new work on production facilities can proceed.

The decision by the Bureau which came down in late May has caused much consternation in the fledgling solar power industry, where fears are growing that the government is hobbling the industry and its access to empty, sunny public lands of the West and Southwest, just when the appetite for clean, renewable alternative energy sources such as solar is taking off.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Holly Gordon, vice president for legislative and regulatory affairs for solar thermal energy company Ausra, told the New York Times, “The Bureau of Land Management land has some of the best solar resources in the world. This could completely stunt the growth of the industry.”

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