The bipartisan duo who authored a compromise on offshore oil drilling say their plan may be the best way to avoid a government shutdown now that Republican leaders have flatly rejected Democrats’ first effort to allow exploration off the coasts.

Reps. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and John Peterson (R-Pa.) led a group of more than two dozen lawmakers from both parties in drafting legislation to allow drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The key selling point of their plan is diverting one-third of the royalties to support alternative and renewable energy.

The plan has 130 co-sponsors, but more than half are Republican, which may be due to the fact that the essence of the bill is closer to the GOP’s pro-drilling platform. It doesn’t include Democratic priorities like a mandate for renewable electricity, nor a plan to force energy companies to “use or lose” the leases they currently have on federal lands.

But the bill’s sponsors say they are picking up more Democratic support, including that of Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), who led the Democratic leadership’s efforts to curtail excessive oil market speculation.

And Abercrombie and Peterson have the support of at least 36 Democratic sponsors, which could be enough to get to a majority of the House if even more Republicans sign on in the coming days.

There are also signs of high-level interest in the bill. House Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), sought out Abercrombie for discussions in the last week, but it isn’t known what they said.

But Democratic leaders are still vying for their own victory in the form of a leadership-driven drilling bill that can successfully find its way out of the House, and will again try to accomplish just that as early as this week. Democratic aides say they are hoping to win the votes of vulnerable Republicans, who might not want to face charges of obstructionism in the fall campaigns.

Over the weekend, Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman John Larson of Connecticut laid out the Democratic drilling and energy plan in broad strokes. He said Democrats want to allow a handful of East Coast states to “opt in” to drilling off their coasts.