America Wants Offshore Drilling, but Does Congress?

Michele Bachmann | June 17, 2008 11:52 AM

This past Saturday and Monday, I held three press events at local gas stations in Ramsey, St. Cloud, and Woodbury to present a commonsense energy plan, the "No More Excuses Act," that Congress can enact to help lower energy costs. Readers of this blog will know that part of this means exploring domestically and tapping into our offshore reserves.

Rasmussen released a new poll finding that 67% of Americans support offshore drilling and 64% expect it to lower prices at the pump. John McCain has come around to tapping into our offshore reserves and we'll all get to see what he has to say this afternoon when he unveils his more extensive energy plan.

Offshore exploration of oil and natural gas will be very helpful in the short term to resolve our energy crisis, and I also understand that alternative energy solutions are the future. But living in the here and now, we need to take all steps within reason to help drive oil costs down. Some suggest a Windfall Profits Tax, but like many of my colleagues, I believe that will only drive up costs to the consumer. That's the last thing we need.

I think it's great McCain is talking about these realistic energy solutions, and I hope Congress will finally act on some of these important measures.

Tomorrow, we may really see if Americans have turned up the heat enough on the Democrat leadership in Congress for them to take action. Rep. John Peterson (R-Pa.) will offer his amendment to allow deepwater energy exploration at an Appropriations Committee markup. This amendment failed on a party line vote in subcommittee.

Stay Tuned...