Speaker Nancy Pelosi has given a lukewarm reaction to President Barack Obama's oil drilling proposal.

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Republicans offered differing responses Wednesday to new Obama administration plans to expand offshore oil-and-gas drilling.

GOP members generally called the plans too limited. But from there the GOP lawmakers’ reactions ranged from strong attacks to qualified praise.

The Obama administration is proposing to expand leasing in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, sell leases off the Virginia coast and potentially allow development off the coasts of other southeastern and mid-Atlantic states.

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Some Republicans have jumped on the Obama administration for not opening up more areas offshore to drilling in the plan announced Wednesday. But the industry response was generally more positive, which could weaken the ability of the minority party to score political points if gas prices rise as expected this summer.

Jack Gerard, the president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, called the administration’s move to expand drilling off the Southeastern coastline, parts of the eastern Gulf of Mexico and areas off of Alaska a “positive development.”

“We appreciate the administration’s recognition of the importance of developing our nation’s oil and natural gas resources to create jobs, generate revenues and fuel our nation’s economy,” Gerard said.

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Sen. John Kerry, who is leading the effort to craft a climate bill in the Senate, said Wednesday that he would consider supporting President Barack Obama's decision to expand offshore oil and gas drilling.

Kerry's (D-Mass.) spokesperson Whitney Smith said that the move could help him attract the 60 votes necessary to move climate legislation through the Senate. 

“In the difficult work of putting together a 60 vote coalition to price carbon, Senator Kerry has put aside his own long-time policy objections and been willing to explore potential energy sources off our coasts as part of a suite of alternative solutions," Smith said in a statement supplied to The Plum Line. "He and his colleagues are committed to find acceptable compromises on onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration."

Kerry has been working with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to craft a climate bill that could get enough support to overcome a GOP filibuster while not alienating liberals and environmental groups.

Republicans favor more drilling but their leaders have said that the plan does not open up enough areas for drilling because it excludes Pacific coast and some areas of Alaska.

Obama's plan would expand drilling areas to include areas off the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico. 

10 coastal Democratic senators recently wrote Kerry to say they would oppose a bill if it greatly expands offshore oil and gas drilling, citing environmental concerns.

Kerry's office said the drilling under Obama's plan would be "conducted in an environmentally sensitive manner that protects the interests of the coastal states."

Click here to see a map that describes the Alaska offshore drilling strategy.

Click here to see a map that describes the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico drilling strategies.

Cross-posted to the Briefing Room

Administration officials described President Barack Obama's decision to expand offshore drilling as something less than an embrace of the "Drill, Baby, Drill" philosophy Republicans pushed in the summer of 2008 when gas prices shot up to more than $4 a gallon.

“America cannot drill its way to energy independence,” Carol Browner, the administration’s climate czar, told reporters in a conference call Wednesday.

She said the drilling should be viewed in the context of increasing fuel efficiency standards and requiring federal agencies to purchase cleaner vehicles, other components of the broader administration strategy that focuses on conservation in addition to energy production. The Transportation Department and the Environmental Protection Agency are expected to release final fuel economy standards on Thursday.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the offshore plan was part of a “new direction” in energy policy that balances conservation and development of the nation's oceans.

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Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) on Wednesday cheered Interior Department plans to allow expanded offshore oil-and-gas drilling, and used the occasion to press for floor action on his committee’s plan that eases limits in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico.

The Interior Department will allow a lease sale of tracts 50 miles off Virginia’s coast to proceed by 2012, and the plan also paves the way for potential lease sales off the coast of other mid-Atlantic and southeastern states.

It calls for wider development in the eastern Gulf, but much of that area remains off-limits under a 2006 law. The committee passed a bill last June that would greatly shrink the size of the no-drilling buffer off Florida's shores.

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Rep. Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, said Wednesday he is upset with President Barack Obama's plan to open areas off the East Coast to offshore oil and gas drilling.

Pallone represent the Garden State's sixth district, which occupies a long stretch of the Jersey shore just south of New York City.

"Allowing any offshore drilling on the Atlantic Coast is an invitation to an environmental catastrophe that would have severe economic consequences for New Jersey," he said in a statement. "The coastal beaches and ocean waters of the Jersey Shore are environmental treasures that anchor the state's tourism industry and possess special meaning as a part of New Jersey's identity."

Pallone's objection to Obama's plan is notable because it drives a wedge between a Democrat and the White House, but is also to be expected.

Ten Senate Democrats who represent coastal states recently wrote a letter to Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), the architects of the Senate's climate bill, saying they will oppose it if it greatly expands offshore drilling. 

Pallone expressed concern about the potential environmental damage that could be caused by an oil spill.

The drilling plan has won over several centrist Democrats and some Republicans, but earned the rebuke of House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), who said Wednesday it did not go far enough in opening up areas of the Pacific and some parts of Alaska to drilling. 

Cross-posted to the Briefing Room

President Barack Obama on Wednesday called for expanded oil and gas drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

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President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced that his administration will open oil and gas drilling off the East Coast.

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