GOP brushes off Pelosi’s openness to drilling

House Republicans on Tuesday quickly brushed aside Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s apparent willingness to allow a vote on offshore oil drilling.

The rhetoric of the lawmakers, who have remained in Washington to protest Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) decision to not allow a vote on oil exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), signals that the GOP does not plan on letting go of its message that the Speaker should immediately return to Washington to reconvene the House.

{mosads}“If Speaker Pelosi is truly sincere about having a vote on deep-ocean oil and gas drilling to help bring down fuel costs, she should use her power as Speaker to call Congress back into session immediately and schedule a vote on the American Energy Act,” Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement released Tuesday morning.

“I was certainly encouraged to hear the Speaker last night suggest a willingness to allow the House to have an up-or-down vote on the merits of unlocking the potential of America’s abundant energy resources. But the proof will be in the proverbial pudding,” Republican Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) stated.

Both Boehner and Blunt said their party’s protest would go on.

During a Monday night appearance on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” Pelosi said she would be open to a vote on OCS drilling if it were part of a broader energy package.

“[Republicans] have this thing that says, Drill offshore in the protected areas,” Pelosi said. “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 is not just a hoax on them.”

But Republicans, who have turned the House floor into a GOP stage since Congress went into recess earlier this month, continued to pound away at Pelosi for adjourning the lower chamber, and said they will continue their protest until Pelosi returns to gavel the House back into session. GOP protesters and their leaders have been demanding a vote on the entire Republican energy plan, which includes drilling in the OCS and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

“We are asking that she bring our American Energy Act up for a vote,” said Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), who on Tuesday morning led nine Republicans to the House floor for their 10th day of protests. “If she brings it up under regular order then amendments will be allowed and we’ll have that debated. What we want is a chance to have that debate and have a vote.”