Pelosi blinks on drilling

The Hill:

House Republicans on Tuesday quickly brushed aside Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s apparent willingness to allow a vote on offshore oil drilling.

The rhetoric of the lawmakers, who have remained in Washington to protest Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) decision to not allow a vote on oil exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), signals that the GOP does not plan on letting go of its message that the Speaker should immediately return to Washington to reconvene the House.

“If Speaker Pelosi is truly sincere about having a vote on deep-ocean oil and gas drilling to help bring down fuel costs, she should use her power as Speaker to call Congress back into session immediately and schedule a vote on the American Energy Act,” Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement released Tuesday morning.

“I was certainly encouraged to hear the Speaker last night suggest a willingness to allow the House to have an up-or-down vote on the merits of unlocking the potential of America’s abundant energy resources. But the proof will be in the proverbial pudding,” Republican Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) stated.

Both Boehner and Blunt said their party’s protest would go on.

During a Monday night appearance on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” Pelosi said she would be open to a vote on OCS drilling if it were part of a broader energy package.

“[Republicans] have this thing that says, Drill offshore in the protected areas,” Pelosi said. “We can do that. We can have a vote on that ... But it has to be part of something that says we want to bring immediate relief to the public and is not just a hoax on them.”

...

She wants it as part of a comprehensive package so that she can include some poison pills.

Meanwhile Sen. Jim DeMint has lined up 36 senators to oppose extension of the offshore drilling ban when it expires on October 1, 2008. That could be the reason why Pelosi blinked. If they do not renew the ban it will go away.

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