Energy & Environment

Even with Congress out of session, Democrats holding their convention in Denver and John McCain on the campaign trail, House Republicans are still holding their weekday protests for a vote on domestic oil drilling.

Seven GOP House members held a news conference at the Capitol Tuesday before taking the House floor, as they have done every weekday since Congress went into recess during the first week of August.

At the conference, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) again knocked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for failing to call a special session to consider lifting the ban on domestic offshore drilling, which Republicans have argued would help lower oil prices.

"Last night, in a hyper-partisan speech, the speaker of the House in Denver did not mention increasing supply of gasoline, answering the number-one question of the American people," Price said. "We are here on the 18th day of this speak-in, America's town hall, to address and challenge the speaker and demand of the speaker that she call the House of Representatives back in so that we can have an up-or-down vote."

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said that he believes a majority of House members would support a debate on drilling. He suggested that the protests on the House floor will go on through the conventions of both parties and beyond.

"That's why we insist, as party conventions are underway in Denver, as our own party convention is preparing to be underway, we're prepared to be here," he said. "We're on the Hill. We call on Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Bring this Congress back."

Days after House Republican leaders released their own poll on offshore drilling, Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) has followed suit, releasing a poll that says 77 percent of central Michigan favoring of more oil and gas exploration on the Outer Continental Shelf.

"Clearly people are frustrated that this Congress is not getting the job done," Camp said. "Congress should immediately return to work and vote to increase our domestic energy supply," which Camp said included drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and investing in new nuclear facilities.

Central Michigan voters are more pro-drilling than the national average, Camp's poll showed, as 64 percent of Americans favor more drilling according to the GOP House leaders' survey.

Camp conducted his poll online, surveying more than 2,800 Central Michigan residents, according to Camp's office. Read more...

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) slammed President Bush for failing to call Congress back into session so House Republicans could get a vote on lifting the ban on domestic offshore oil drilling.

McCotter criticized the president in a blog post entitled, "House GOP Fights on Alone for American Energy Security - Bush Throws Them under the Bone-Dry Bus on Way to Beijing Games."

McCotter has been part of the House Republican protest this week that has called on Democrats to end the August recess and debate whether to allow more domestic drilling, which Republicans have argued could help lower gas prices.

The blog post was particularly harsh on Bush's decision to attend the Beijing Olympics.

"On his part, perhaps our Compassionate Conservative-in-Chief will bring our absent Democrat Congress some 'Made in (communist) China' souvenir t-shirts: 'Bush went to Beijing and all I got was this lousy five week, paid vacation,'" McCotter wrote. "Bon Voyage, Mr. Bush! House Republicans will fight on for America!"

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) called on President Bush today to call Congress back into session to work on energy legislation, a recently emphasized project by congressional Republicans.

Specter blamed Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for playing politics when he dismissed the Senate over Republican objections last week without passing energy legislation.

The Hill's House Republican reporter Jackie Kucinich sends in this update of the Republicans' Friday mock House session:

"At 5:05 the protest ended, with remaining members and staff singing "God Bless, America" and chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!"

The Hill's Manu Raju reports:

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Friday he will give an address on energy issues later this month at the Democratic National Convention.

The Senate majority leader told reporters that he would attend events with the Nevada delegation at the convention and will speak on Aug. 27.

"I'm going to talk about energy, which I've practiced up a lot the last few weeks," Reid quipped, referring to the stalemate over energy that has brought the Senate to a near standstill.

He said it would be "easier" getting around in Denver than previous conventions.

"I'm looking forward to it, I think it will be fun," said Reid, who was in a light mood right before the Senate recessed for the month of August.

The teetotaler Reid also joked that he would do "heavy drinking" over the month-long recess.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blasted Republicans today for Chevron's $6 billion second-quarter profits, which the company announced this morning.

Her office put out a fact sheet claiming that oil companies are doing just fine without GOP legislation to open new land for drilling.

"Does the oil and gas industry really need tax breaks and more public land?" the fact sheet asked. Read more...

A group of four senators led by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) are calling for the resignation of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, saying that he gave misleading testimony to a Senate committee.

Johnson told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in January that he had denied a waiver to California that would have allowed it to enact its own fuel efficiency standards because the state failed to meet necessary criteria. But Boxer and three other senators said Wednesday that Johnson's testimony conflicted with that of an aide, who said that the waiver was denied partly because President Bush opposed it.

Boxer, chairwoman of the Senate Envionment and Public Works Committee, had supported the California standards, which are stricter than federal ones. She again chastised Johnson Tuesday for his decision.

"He has become a secretive and dangerous ally of polluters, and we cannot stand by and allow more damage to be done," she said in a statement. "We have lost all confidence in Stephen Johnson's ability to carry out EPA's mission in accordance with the law. I call on Administrator Johnson to immediately resign his position."

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) joined Boxer's call for Johnson to step down.

The four Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have also asked for a federal probe into whether Johnson's testimony was false or misleading. Download their letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey here.

Offering an interesting solution to the nation's energy crisis, President Bush joked that a wind farm should be set up around Washington, D.C. to catch all the "hot air" coming from the nation's capital.

"I believe we're in a transition period from an era of hydrocarbons to new technologies," Bush explained during a speech at a welding plant in Euclid, Ohio Tuesday.

"Part of the mix has got to be solar and wind power," Bush said. "There's a lot of wind -- they ought to have the biggest turbine farm in Washington, D.C., where there's not only a lot of wind there's a lot of hot air."

The line was met with loud laughter and applause before Bush turned to advocating for clean coal and expanded drilling.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) scolded Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday for wanting to hold off on energy legislation until Barack Obama is in the White House.

McConnell criticized Schumer for not wanting to immediately deal with "the most important issue in the country."

"He basically wants to put this whole issue off," McConnell said during the conference call with reporters. "In the meantime, consumers are paying the price."

Schumer told the Washington Post last week that Congress may pass smaller legislative energy items, but that no comprehensive energy bill will be in the works until until after the election.

The New York senator said that if Obama is elected and anticipated House and Senate margins are realized, "you will get, for the first time, a real energy policy."

- Beth Sussman