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House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Congress is ready to lift the ban on offshore drilling but is being blocked by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “Nancy Pelosi and the liberals here in the Congress, they worship at the altar radical environmentalism. The last thing that that group wants is more drilling,” said Boehner in an interview with Bloomberg TV Saturday. The Ohio Republican argued that lawmakers are ready to sign off on lifting the ban in order to increase fuel supplies to lower record high gas prices. “There’s a majority of the House and Senate who are for more drilling. We have to produce more supply if we’re going to bring down the price,” Boehner said. Pelosi’s office, however, sought to depict the GOP as unresponsive to Americans’ energy concerns. A press release Saturday from the Pelosi highlighted key votes against energy legislation by Republicans, including Boehner, who are heading to Alaska this weekend for an Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) fact-finding trip. The issue of high gas prices was also again at the forefront of the two parties’ weekly radio addresses. President Bush said Capitol Hill lawmakers should lift the ban on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The president rescinded an executive order this week that banned exploration by oil companies in the OCS. Lawmakers should follow his lead and lift their own ban on drilling there as well, according to the president. “The sooner Congress lifts the ban, the sooner we can get these resources from the ocean floor to the gas pump. Democratic leaders need to show that they have finally heard the frustrations of the American people,” said Bush. Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill rejected those calls and are pushing Bush to tap into America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve. In the Democratic Party’s weekly radio address, Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.) said doing so would immediately lower gas prices. “I don’t know what President Bush thinks, but four and half dollar-a-gallon gas is an emergency for America’s families. When was the last time the president filled his own tank?” said Murray. The senator also stated that energy companies need to take advantage of under-utilized federal leases they own, drilling there instead. Despite their disagreement over drilling, both Bush and Murray reiterated support for renewable and alternative fuels, such as wind and solar power. |
