WASHINGTON — Both political parties sought to capitalize on populist anger at surging gasoline prices Tuesday, as Senate Democrats unveiled a plan to slash a suite of tax deductions for the nation’s five biggest oil companies and Republicans pushed legislation to speed up offshore drilling.

The Senate launched debate on the Democrats’ proposal to raise $21 billion over the next 10 years — and dedicate that money to cutting the federal deficit — by barring major oil companies from claiming several tax deductions and credits.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives moved in a different direction by beginning deliberations on legislation that would give federal regulators a 60-day window to decide whether to grant offshore drilling permits.

Democrats pitched their plan to slash big oil companies’ tax breaks as a common-sense way to trim the federal deficit, which Republicans are eager to accomplish by paring government spending.

The bill takes aim at BP, Exxon Mobil Corp., Shell Oil Co., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips.

“It’s time for the Big Five to do the right thing for a change and pay their fair share,” said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., the lead sponsor. “We all need to tighten our belts, including oil companies.”

Republicans and some oil-patch Democrats argued that the bill would curb domestic oil and gas development and ultimately hike energy costs for consumers.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said that instead of focusing on oil and gas tax deductions, Congress and the Obama administration should increase domestic energy production.

“You’re not going to reduce the price of gas at the pump by further taxing the oil industry,” Inhofe said.

Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, called the Democrats’ plan a “vindictive money grab” that could cost jobs, reduce energy security and raise energy costs.

“We should be putting more people to work producing more of the oil and natural gas we use,” Gerard said.

While the Senate focused on the oil industry tax breaks, the House began debate on legislation that would require applications for offshore drilling permits to be approved or rejected.

The Senate could vote on the legislation within a week, but it’s unclear whether the new measure can attract the 60 votes necessary to overcome a possible Republican filibuster.

Even so, Democrats can use votes on the measure to portray Republicans as out of touch with Americans on rising gasoline prices.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was already employing that strategy Tuesday, by emphasizing one Republican proposal to cut the deficit by overhauling Medicare and Medicaid.

“Seniors are struggling,” Reid said. “Oil companies are not, yet Republicans want to keep handing billions of dollars to oil companies while ending Medicare as we know it.”

The Senate Democrats’ bill would block the top five major integrated oil companies from claiming:

• Tax credits on payments to foreign governments —including petroleum income taxes — that they pay in exchange for some economic benefit. While ending the tax credits, the bill would allow the five to deduct the foreign payments.

• Domestic manufacturing deductions, which have generally been available to a broad range of U.S. firms.

• Deductions for intangible drilling costs, such as the cost of repairs, site preparation and hauling supplies. Currently, integrated oil companies can expense 70 percent of the cost of these intangible drilling costs.

• A depletion deduction for oil and natural gas wells, computed using a portion of the revenue from the sale of those hydrocarbons.

While the Senate focused on the oil industry tax breaks, the Republican-controlled House began debate on legislation that would require federal regulators to decide within 60 days whether to approve or reject applications for offshore drilling permits.

Any permit application not acted on during the 60-day window would be deemed approved, regardless of whether required safety and environmental reviews had been completed.

The legislation also would require the government to grant a one-year extension to Gulf of Mexico drilling leases because of the delays in offshore oil and gas development prompted by last year’s lethal deep-water well blowout and the moratorium on some exploration.

The administration has already granted 10 such lease extensions and is currently assessing other requests.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement has approved 52 shallow-water wells since new safety requirements were imposed last June, and it has issued permits for 13 deep-water wells that had been blocked by the moratorium.

That is still too slow, said Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., who argued that the administration was engaged in an “intentional slow walking of drilling permits (that) has cost 12,000 jobs, according to their own estimates.”

Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., said the bill’s backers were acting as if they had “amnesia” about last year’s Gulf spill by trying to “grease the skids” for offshore drilling.

jennifer.dlouhy@chron.com