Pelosi indicates openness to offshore drilling vote David Edwards and Nick Juliano

Published: Tuesday August 12, 2008





Print This Email This A week after House Republicans began daily demonstrations to demand expanded oil drilling, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is showing signs she might be willing to reverse her longstanding opposition to giving oil companies more access to America's coastlines. Pelosi told CNN's Larry King that she would consider including expanded offshore drilling in energy legislation that also would include provisions to increase investment in renewable energy and release oil from the US strategic reserve. The San Francisco Democrat maintained that oil drilling alone would do little on its own to lower gas prices. She urged oil companies to drill on the 68 million offshore acres they already have access to and accused Republicans of perpetrating a "hoax" in their push for expanded drilling. "They have this thing that says, 'Drill offshore in the protected areas.' Well 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 not just a hoax on them," Pelosi said on Larry King Live Monday night. Offshore drilling "is not excluded, let me say it that way," Pelosi told the CNN host. "It depends on how that is proposed, if the safeguards are there." Angry Republicans have taken to an empty House floor every weekday since Aug. 1, when the chamber formally adjourned for its five-week summer recess. Accusing Democrats of ignoring the plight of consumers to go on vacation, the conservative members have called on Pelosi and President Bush to call Congress back into session to vote for what they're calling an "all of the above" solution that would expand offshore drilling while simultaneously upping investments in technologies like wind, solar and hybrid fuels. Pelosi accused the GOP of simply acting on behalf of their Big Oil benefactors -- "they rule" the Republicans, Pelosi said of the oil companies -- but she predicted a compromise was possible between when Congress returns next month and before it adjourns at year's end. This video is from CNN's Larry King Live, broadcast August 11, 2008.

Download video

