Pelosi: If Democrats relent on drilling, “then we might as well pack it up and go home.” [View All]

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Democrats Dig In as G.O.P. Presses for Oil Exploration in Protected Areas
By CARL HULSE
Published: July 11, 2008

WASHINGTON — House Democratic leaders took a hard line Thursday against opening up restricted areas to oil production as Republicans threatened to try to keep Congress in session this summer unless they got a vote on new drilling opportunities....

Even as some Democratic lawmakers called on Congress to open up restricted areas to drilling, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House speaker, said the government must first press oil companies to explore the federal land they have already leased. She dismissed the push to lift the ban on drilling as a Republican effort to shift blame for price increases that occurred during the Bush administration. “This call for drilling in areas that are protected is a hoax,” Ms. Pelosi said. “It’s an absolute hoax on the part of the Republicans and this Bush administration.”

The cost of gasoline has become a dominant election-year topic, and both Democrats and Republicans returned to Capitol Hill from a one-week break pushing for a legislative response to a problem that has the public up in arms....

House Democrats plan to push ahead with their own legislation that would prohibit oil companies from seeking rights to drill on new public land unless they can demonstrate they are actively exploring existing holdings. They also intend to call on the Bush administration to speed up leasing in a part of Alaska that has already been set aside as a petroleum reserve. The measures are an effort by Democrats to show they are focused on oil production, an emphasis highlighted by less talk about conservation and new technologies as a quick fix for high energy prices.

But with public anxiety growing over gasoline prices, some Democrats say their party has to move beyond encouraging exploration on tracts already owned by oil companies and open new, potentially productive areas to exploration. Leaders of a coalition of moderate and conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dogs have stepped up their push for drilling both in the Arctic refuge and offshore, saying the oil royalties produced could pay for research into new energy technologies....

But Ms. Pelosi, who considers energy legislation a personal priority, does not appear ready to shift her view, based on discussions in a private meeting with members of the leadership on Thursday. According to accounts from those present, Ms. Pelosi said that if Democrats relented on drilling, “then we might as well pack it up and go home.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/washington/11energy.html