House GOP files discharge petition on ANWR

House Republicans filed a discharge petition Tuesday that would force a floor vote on legislation on oil drilling in Alaska.

The move continues the GOP offensive on soaring gas prices, which have reached a national average of over $4 a gallon. Democrats have countered that Republicans and the Bush administration are to blame, noting they oppose windfall profit tax measures on oil companies.

{mosads}The Republican discharge petition, the No More Excuses Energy Act, at press time had 60 of the 218 signatures needed to force the vote on the U.S. refining capacity and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling.

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) predicted that as fuel prices become higher over the summer months, momentum for drilling in ANWR will build.

“Finally the side I have been on for 10 years will prevail,” he said.

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), citing high gas prices, recently changed his position on ANWR and now supports drilling.

Democrats argue that drilling is a shortsighted and temporary solution to a long-term, complex problem.

“More drilling. More drilling. More drilling. That is the Johnny One Note policy of the Republican Party, of the president, of this Republican leadership in the House, and the Republican leadership in the Senate,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

Hoyer said that in the last three years conservation efforts and alternative technology have drastically reduced the projected need for oil in the future.

“So conservation and alternative use of energy sources [have] made a very dramatic impact,” Hoyer said. “Those alternatives have consistently been rejected by the Republican Party, and they have been in charge exclusively for the previous 6 years” — meaning 2001 through 2006.

Lowering gas prices is a key item in the Republican economic agenda set to be unveiled on Wednesday.

In addition to the fuel cost issue, the Republican agenda items that they say will help grow the economy include eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax, replacing the tax code with a one-page, two-tier flat tax and imposing a federal spending limit.

“One of the things I have often asked our members since Election Day 2006 is what we would do differently if we had the majority in the House of Representatives again,” Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement. “This agenda we’re unveiling today is a big part of the answer.”