Both the president’s decision to eliminate the executive order banning offshore exploration and the “severe energy price crisis facing millions of Americans,” mentioned in Speaker Pelosi’s recent letter envision congressional action to do something about the price of gasoline. So, what do we do? Here are eight ways that Democrats and Republicans can get the job done:

1. Access OCS – (HR 6108; HR 3089; HR 6001)
2. Access ANWR – (HR 6107; HR 3089; HR 6001)
3. Alternative Fuels for Defense and Aviation – (HR 6131)
4. Boutique Fuels – (HR 2493)
5. Coal-to-Liquids – (HR 2208; HR 6001)
6. Develop Oil Shale Resources – (HR 6138)
7. Repeal Section 526 of EISA 2007 - (HR 5656)
8. Refineries – (HR 6139; HR 2279; HR 3089; HR 6001)

I hope that the speaker’s request to the president urging him to release some of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve signals her recognition that supply really does affect the price consumers pay at the pump, but I also know that releasing “a small portion” of SPR would not noticeably affect either world oil markets or the price of a gallon of gasoline.

A better first step for Congress would be to eliminate the congressional moratorium on drilling in the same Gulf that’s open to Venezuelans, Indians, Vietnamese and Cubans. It never made much sense except as a political barricade erected by anti-oil environmentalists in and out of Congress. Now that the president is voiding the old executive order, let’s hope the Democratic leadership can figure out a way not to automatically talk themselves into a frenzy of opposition or try to drill where the oil is not instead of where it is.

Even the most environmentally conscientious countries in the world have no qualms about developing their own energy resources, including in the waters off their own coasts. People are telling us they want more energy production here in America, and the speaker might now choose to let the will of the American people prevail by permitting the House to vote on whether we will find more American energy or continue paying $4 a gallon for gasoline.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 2:52 pm and is filed under Politics .