In Reversal, Dems to Allow Drilling Vote

House Democrats said Wednesday that they were open to a vote on a Republican oil drilling measure, reversing their stand against the legislation. Republicans called that a victory in their summer-long efforts to get the House to vote on increased domestic production of oil as a means of lowering gasoline prices. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi steadfastly refused to bring up the Republicans' American Energy Act throughout June and July. But after an August recess in which many Republicans remained in Washington holding informal sessions on the House floor highlighting what they called Democrats' inaction on the energy front, and receiving good press for their efforts, Pelosi agreed to allow the vote under the regular order. In other words, the bill will be offered as a substitute to the Democrats' own energy legislation and will only need a majority to pass.

In her statement announcing the decision, Pelosi credited Republicans with forcing her hand.

"If [Republicans] want to drill offshore, we'll say, 'OK, You want to drill in the outer continental shelf? Let's have a discussion and a change of the relationship between our oil, which is owned by the American people, the desire of Big Oil for us to subsidize their drilling, and...the American people not getting the benefit of the profits.'"

Republicans call the Democrats' proposal on drilling a gimmick, noting that it would limit offshore to only those areas of the coast off of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and the Gulf Coast of Florida more than 50 miles offshore. The Democrats' bill also would not open up access to the oil shale deposits in the Rocky Mountains and oil fields in the North Slope of Alaska. "Speaker Pelosi's so-called 'energy' bill will do nothing to help our energy crisis," said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) "It will multiply red tape and make it almost impossible to lower already skyrocketing oil costs."

The irony here for Democrats is that unless they do something to prevent it, the Congressional prohibition on offshore oil drilling will expire in less than three weeks on September 30th, at the end of the current fiscal year. Democrats want to address the issue of rising gas prices, but are loathe to cross their environmentalist base. They could accomplish both ends by simply doing nothing and allowing the ban to quietly expire. Republicans, however, have skillfully drawn Democrats into a debate on their ground, more domestic production. Now Democrats will have to explain why they propose to expand drilling as a solution to high gas prices, and why more drilling is not more of a solution.