This week, Texas Congressman Ted Poe gave what he thought was a very clever little speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Representative Poe blasted progressives who seek to defend the wilderness of a few protected ares from oil drilling operations, saying,

“Madam Speaker, the anti-crude oil crowd has an ethical dilemma. You see, they don’t want to drill for crude in Alaska, they don’t want to drill offshore, especially off that sacred west coast. They don’t want any refineries to produce that crude into products. They are just against all this nonsense. After all, they say, crude is the demon of the Earth.

However, they don’t have a problem with using everything that comes from crude, like gasoline that comes from crude off the Texas east coast, refined in American refineries. And it seems to me that the irrational non-drillers should lead by example, rather than being hypocritical by preaching damnation to crude oil, but using its by-products every day. So no more plastic water bottles, no using insecticides, no more fertilizer, medicine, candles, nylon, paint, makeup, perfume, computers or detergents. No more car rides or plane rides, and no more home heating oil come winter. After all, all of these things come from crude oil.

The radical don’t-drill folks should literally walk the walk, instead of talking the big talk about how they are going to save us all from that demon crude oil, but sanctimoniously use its products every day. And that’s just the way it is.”

Of course, that’s not quite the way it is. Progressives don’t say that there should be no oil drilling. They just say that there should a few small protected areas of wilderness where oil drilling does not take place.

What Ted Poe is calling for in this speech, although he does it sarcastically, is energy conservation. If Congressman Poe had bothered to think before he spoke, he would have realized that the progressives he criticizes with actually do exactly what he suggests they should do. Progressives support energy conservation.

Conservation is not the radical scheme Ted Poe describes. Instead, Conservation is the definition of moderation. Conservation means using fewer resources, finding an efficient and sustainable manner of living. Conservation does not mean using no resources at all, as would take place in Representative Poe’s radical vision.

Progressives have supported energy conservation for generations, and for generations, Republican politicians like Ted Poe have blocked conservation.

Congressman Ted Poe accuses progressive conservationists of not walking the walk, but what about Ted Poe himself? Does Poe walk the walk? Does Poe support conservation?

Nope. Even as he yells at other Americans for not conserving enough, Congressman Poe himself has voted against conservation over and over again.

In recent votes, Ted Poe:
- voted against conservation in transportation
- voted against energy conservation in public schools
- voted against energy conserving light bulbs

That’s just a sampling of Ted Poe’s votes against the conservation he says people ought to be taking place. Progressives are trying to enact conservation measures in Congress, but Ted Poe keeps trying to block them.

It’s Ted Poe who doesn’t walk the walk when it comes to energy.

Besides that, Congressman Poe isn’t even accurate what he says about the need to open more federal lands for oil drilling. Congressman David Wu points out that oil companies have failed to use 71.5 percent of the oil drilling leases already available to them on federal lands.

If Big Oil isn’t even using the federal lands already open to drilling, why should we open up even more tracts of wilderness to them?