I wish those Repuglicans would get a clue.

Their boss, Gee Dubyah, has been in office for 7 years and the Repugs have been in control of Congress for most of the time since 1994. And, this whole mess goes back to the 1980's, when Reagan destroyed the solar industry in the U.S. and set us up to be slaves to the OPEC countries. Sorry guys, now it looks like we are at Peak Oil, at which point, world production hits max and begins an inexorable decline. Some say the Peak happened in 2005.

The Repugs are pandering to the fear and desperation of the public, who haven't a clue about the energy problem. Drilling these new offshore areas won't add any new oil to the pipelines for many years, thus wouldn't fix the problem even if there were gobs of oil to be found. But, there's no way to know if there even is any oil to be had on those leases until after these areas are explored. What may be found won't put a dent in the decline in world production, once it starts.

Wouldn't it be a better to face reality and fashion a serious plan to stop using oil?

Mary: Thank for your clarification. The fact that the large deer species that inhabits ANWR is actually caribou not elk is relevant to my point or indeed the issue... how? As my nuanced phrasing was clearly too subtle: I don't care about the cute fluffy things, but I personally feel strongly that the oil in ANWR is far more valuable as a resource for the future.

What makes Nancy Pelosi think she doesn’t have to listen to the American people when it comes to drilling? She said on “This Week” on ABC this morning.
...”What we have now is a failed energy policy by the Bush/Cheney two oilmen in the White House $4 a gallon gasoline at the pump”... If you will check you will see that from 2000 to 2007 the average retail price of regular gas was $1.91 per gallon http://www.eia.doe.gov/bookshelf/brochures/gasolinepricesprimer/ When the Democrat majority took control of Congress the price of regular gas was less than $2.20 per gallon http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/wrgp/mogas_home_page.html
Where I live the price is over $4 a gallon. Before President Bush lifted the executive ban on oil and gas drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, it was over $4.50 a gallon.
You tell me who is standing in the way of lower gas prices. We need a comprehensive plan that will include drilling!!!

I wonder if Obama will change his mind again by tomorrow. LOL

He has flip=flopped on so many items this week it is Hilarious, to see if he knows what he is doing.

As we all know, it is essential that we get drilling legislation passed this month so that we can get the first drops of oil 5-10 years from now. In the meantime, maybe turn up your thermostat a couple degrees, close your blinds at home, turn off the lights when you leave a room and carpool to work.

Obama talked about compromise to find a solution - if the GOP is willing to compromise then I'm all for them coming back. I'm just so tired of all the political stunts on both sides...

as usual, and im surprised its taken this long, but Obamas words are being completely misrepresented here, and by the national press.
He simply stated that he was open for any option to reduce Americas dependence on foreign oil, and if that includes offshore, than so be it.
He didnt say " everybody run out and buy a boat, a few hundred feet of pipe and a drill rig so we can go shooting holes in the ocean floor"
Talk about desparate for a story, sheesh.
Unfortunately, the position being delivered to us by our politicians and the ever present oil money in this country have us beleiving we are so dependant on foreign oil, but we arent.And we could eliminate foreign oil from our country all together, but we (by virtue of a few bad votes for BUSH 1 and 2) decided it was better to sell our oil on the world market, more profitable and ever expanding.Well, here we are, and We the People are still subsidising oil exploration, and all sorts of other crap to the oil companys, while they put their profits in their respective pockets. How would you like a FEW BILLION DOLLARS to fall into your bank account over a few months time??
We The People should follow the only sane thing ive heard of coming out of south america for some time, reclaim our oil fields, nationalize the production fields, and then let the big oil companys squabble over who gets to refine it for us.If they dont like it, get out.Its our oil, from American soil. The only purpose for offshore drilling is to avoid regulation, and by-pass what few laws the USA has on oil pumped from our space, namely how the oil is declared by where it first makes land fall.
Ever wonder why all those island east of Florida have all the oil handling equipment on them and not Florida??why ship it a few hudred miles further when florida has all kinds of shoreland to process the crude??

Obama's flip to support "drilling" is a trick.
Pelosi said today, again, there will be NO vote on drilling.
What this has done is give Obama both sides of the issue. He can SAY "drill with conditions" and appease the citizens who want drilling, then Pelosi takes it off the table so Obama doesn't have to vote and PO the environmentalists. Nod, Nod, Wink, Wink, say no more, say no more.
The problem is, it hurts the Congress Democrats come November if there's no vote before the next break 24 Sep. But it's more important to get a Dem Pres than to gain amymore seats.
The problem with THAT is that Obama isn't going to win, anyway.
I love it when a plan falls apart, and it's about to go to hell as the American People are not as stupid as the Dems think they are. LOL

Well, Patty, that shows how psychological this whole thing has become if Bush's lifting of the moratorium is what caused prices to drop. Considering that it did nothing to affect the supply-demand picture. But oil traders are probably smart enough to know that it'll be years before additional drilling makes any difference. I suspect it was a modest drop in demand, along with eased tensions with Iran, that caused prices to fall for now. Perhaps you give the recent political gyrations too much credit.

Sandy What are you possibly talking about? McCain follows Obama's lead on drilling? McCain has the comprehensive energy plan not Obama.
Even though McCain I guess did leave out tune-ups and inflating our tires in his plan. I suppose Obama is responsible for the success of the surge too? And Bush, who has been quite clear he could care what any of us think about his foreign policy decisions, I suppose is following Obama's lead now on foreign policy?
The more Obama changes positions on drilling, FISA, NAFTA, gun control, death penalty, public campaign financing and so on, the more ridiculous the Obama supporters look while trying to justify his decisions or actions while compromising their own principles. Those Democrats opposed to off shore drilling want leadership not compromise unless of course they're looking at the polls as Obama clearly did in this case.

It is VERY sad and disappointing that they adjourned without even a vote, and even more so that the dems are not coming back as well. From the price of gas, to the price of everything that is shipped, we need this NOW not later, or never in the dems case. We need all of the above, but drilling should be the first step until we come up with new widespread alternatives! Thank you GOP for trying, shame on the dems!

glad to see they repubs wasting even more energy all flying back into washington for a PR stunt but it doesn't matter to them since the US taxpayers are the ones footing the bill for their transportation costs

Obama flip flopping again. Is there any policy this guy hasn't change position on?

Flip flopping is an issue for you? Well - McCain was against off shore drilling before he was for it. He was for comprehensive immigration reform before he was against it. He was against the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy before he was for them. He was for a civil campaign on the issues before he was for the Britney ad - he was against lobbyists before he had them on his campaign committee - The straight talk express indeed.

Isn'y it amazing how the Republican minority can whine when they have to. If you guys ever had to get a real job, you'd be in deep . . . .! You may want to polish up the resume. I'm thinking that you bums need to consider America first, not yourselves. We're intelligent enough to see through you.

T
The GOP House representatives are showing they care about the energy issue enough to stay and fight for us all. Speaker Pelosi should be ashamed of her power outage on this issue.

Stand your ground.Drill for oil NOW.
How dare anyone in cogress go on vacation when your average person can't afford to go to the Zoo.
Pelosi and the gang are waiting for their socialist dream to come true(Obama) so they have a free pass to tax us into oblivion.Do we really want to turn the middle class into the worker class.

Do our politicians know anything about the economy? Who advises them? When Bush authorized drilling for oil the price dropped $20 a barrel in a week. If the house voted yes, the price would have dropped by $50 this week and not one drop of oil would have ever been taken from our offshore fields. Oil prices come from speculators and we need to give them something to speculate about. A yes vote could give us gas for under $3 a gallon by Fall even though it would take 5 years to actually get any oil. In that 5 years we could do a lot to reduce our dependence which would lower the price even more. Where is the House leadership? Oh thats right they went on a vacation because they can afford the gas. I say call them back or get rid of them.

I am very concerned about the Democratic leadership not allowing debate or votes on crucial issues. These are tactics of dictators, not elected representatives. We need to hold these people accountable and remind them that they work for US not the other way around.

Congress voted for domestic drilling in 1992. Had we done so, we would have had more domestic oil flowing by 2002. President Clinton vetoed that law. Now the democrats insist on keeping us hostage to dictators sending more that $700 billion a year to other countries, many who are our enemies. This is more than the cost of the Iraq/Afghanistan war against terrorists who have vowed to do additional attacks against the U.S that will be worse than 9-11. Instead of allowing a vote, Nancy P. and Harry Reid gave congress on a 5 week vacation while we Americans struggle with high energy costs, loss of jobs, with airlines, retailers and car manufacturers incurring billions in losses big enough to put them out of business. It seems that the democrat energy strategy is to turn out the lights of congress and turn off the sound to silence dialogue and debate. They are in the "dark" on what is critical to our country and what is important to Americans. Replace them for playing politics or showing incompetence regarding our economy, national security and our future.

From reading all these opinions, i have come to realize why i am not a Democrat. Most of them do not seem to be real intelligent and it starts from the top such as Nancy. Most of the left are looking for a handout somewhere and not wanting to work for it. It is scary what the Democrats are trying to do to this country.