Democrats consider new energy strategy

House Democrats looking to score a legislative victory on lowering gas prices are mulling a new approach this week to siphon off Republican votes.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) plan to press President Bush into releasing up to 70 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) may take over this week as the backbone of the House Democrats’ energy agenda, according to Democratic members and aides.

{mosads}The specifics of the SPR proposal are still being put together, but last week Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), a member of both the Energy and Commerce and the Natural Resources committees, said the preliminary plan is to request that nearly a tenth of the 700 million barrels be released into the market over a period of five to six months.

That approach could gain more support than the Democrats’ other plan: to force energy companies to either “diligently” work toward producing oil or gas on their leased federal lands or give it back — the so-called “use it or lose it” legislation.

“I think there’s far more support across the board for SPR than anything else,” a senior aide said.

Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have not said what the final SPR bill would look like, nor have they said what energy measures — which could also include a speculation bill — will be brought to the floor this week or under what rules.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) last week said Democrats may continue to use the suspension calendar to bring up energy bills. That strategy prevents Republicans from offering alternative measures as amendments, but requires a two-thirds vote for passage.

Democrats have twice fallen short of that magic number on “use it or lose it.” At the end of last week, though, they were able to pick up 15 additional Republicans while gaining back eight of their own defectors, thanks to political pressure and “sweeteners” added to the original bill.

But no one in leadership would say if Democrats intend to try to pass “use it or lose it” a third time.

Even though Republican leaders have derided any plans to release oil from the reserve, Democrats say they hold the advantage of having had only 25 Republicans vote against a previous bill requiring the president to suspend shipments into the SPR. Bush signed that into law in May just days after the House vote.

The White House and congressional Republicans have maintained that suspending shipments into the reserve, which is 97 percent full, is not the same as releasing its oil during non-emergency periods.

As was the case with “use it or lose it,” not all Democrats are in agreement with their leadership on releasing oil from the SPR. Those who feel the former unfairly punishes the energy industry may determine that tapping the SPR doesn’t allow oil companies to swap “heavy crude” oil for the light, more easily refined crude that’s packed into the reserve and likely to be released first.

And some Democratic aides said Pelosi may have a larger problem in the form of Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.), who was instrumental in creating the reserve and who may object to a non-emergency release.

A spokeswoman for Dingell — who in May supported a suspension of oil deliveries into the reserve — said the chairman is reviewing the proposal and would not comment further.