GOP sees advantage in offshore oil drilling

In response, environmental groups are stepping up grass-roots and advertising campaigns to derail moves to lift a congressional ban on offshore drilling when Congress returns in September. Recent full-page ads in The Washington Post by the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund urge supporters to "stop the giveaway of our coasts." With just 3 percent of the world's oil reserves, the US doesn't have enough oil to "drill our way to lower prices at the pump."

"There's clearly a lot at play right now, and it's hard to predict what votes we actually may see in the fall, but what we're focused on in August is having our folks in districts talking to their members of Congress about why drilling is not a useful enterprise," says David Willett, a spokesman for the Sierra Club.

When voters are given a choice of plans to lower energy costs, 83 percent of Americans opt to "end America's addiction to oil" and to invest in wind, solar, and the next generation of biofuel technology.

That's 20 percent more than support increased offshore drilling, Mr. Willett says, citing a poll released this week by the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund. The July 24-29 poll was conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research.

"People are so scared right now that they're not really seeing a choice. They want to do anything that might have an impact on gas prices," says Tim Greeff, deputy legislative director of the League of Conservation Voters.

Meanwhile, bipartisan groups in both the House and Senate are moving forward on drafting legislative language for bills offering a comprehensive solution to high energy costs, including a partial lifting of a ban on offshore drilling.

The so-called Gang of 10 senators unveiled a plan on Aug. 1 to develop comprehensive energy legislation. At the heart of the plan is a $20 billion "Apollo Project-like effort" to transition 85 percent of America's new motor vehicles to non-petroleum-based fuels within 20 years.

The plan also proposes extending renewable energy, carbon mitigation, and energy conservation incentives through 2012, currently held hostage in a partisan stalemate over offshore drilling.

The most controversial element of the plan involves opening new areas for exploration and drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coasts of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. The plan retains an environmental buffer zone extending 50 miles offshore where new oil production will not be allowed and requires all new production to be used domestically.

"Congress needs to take immediate action. This is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, it is an issue that affects all of us," said the bipartisan coalition in a joint statement on Aug. 1. The group is led by Sens. Kent Conrad (D) of North Carolina and Saxby Chambliss (R) of Georgia.

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