“This call for drilling in areas that are protected is a hoax, it’s an absolute hoax on the part of the Republicans and this administration” Pelosi said at her weekly press conference. “It’s a decoy to punt your attention away from the fact that their policies have produced $4-a-gallon gasoline.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday told reporters that expanded offshore drilling is not off the table, and that Democrats will take a look at whether states should be able to choose to drill off their coasts. “I’m not knee-jerk-opposed to anything,” Reid said.

Pelosi and other Democratic leaders also unveiled another series of proposals to deal with the energy and gas price crisis, and renewed their calls for immediate drilling on nearly 100 million domestic acres already approved for exploration. They also called for Bush to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Democrats are renewing their push for energy companies to “use or lose” the lands they already have leased. New proposals include requiring the Bureau of Land Management to speed up the leasing of approved areas; to reconstitute the ban on the export of American oil; and to urge the completion of the Alaskan oil and gas pipelines.

Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) also said committee work is being completed on bills to curtail excessive speculation in the oil commodity markets.

Democrats would not say when these bills would be ready for floor consideration.

Within minutes of the completion of the press conference, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) took to the floor to again criticize Democrats for dodging votes on energy bills, charging that Democrats are avoiding votes on the opening up of the Artic National Wildlife Refuge and the OCS.

Hoyer soon followed to retort, saying he and Democratic leaders have for weeks been urging for drilling on approved acres, only to have those efforts blocked by Republicans.

He blamed Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney – the “two oil men in the White House” – and Republicans for setting an energy policy that has driven up gas prices and steered record profits to the energy companies.

Republicans accused the Democrats of playing a political game.

“As every serious person who has studied this issue knows, the proposals that Democrats are producing are shams and hoaxes designed to provide political cover and not to produce more American energy and lower gas prices,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said.