Hutchison: Obama’s not doing enough on domestic drilling

A week after President Obama laid out a plan designed to show his administration is serious about expanding domestic drilling, a top Senate Republican said the administration is not doing enough to encourage production.

“It is not enough for the president to talk about producing energy in America,” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas) said in the Republican weekly address. “We call on him to put policies in place that cut the bureaucratic red tape and put Americans to work doing it.”

Hutchison’s comments underscore the bitter partisan divides between Democrats and Republicans on drilling and the major hurdles policymakers face in coming to a compromise on the issue.

{mosads}In his weekly address last Saturday, Obama extended an olive branch to Republicans by outlining a multi-step plan aimed at expanding domestic oil production. The plan incorporated some of the more moderate proposals included in drilling legislation offered by key Republicans and drill-state Democrats.

While the plan – which included expediting drilling plans on government lands in Alaska and forming a task force to coordinate offshore Alaska permitting – won some praise from Republicans, others in the GOP say it’s not enough.

Saturday’s GOP address is an indication that Republicans plan to continue bashing the White House and Democrats in Congress over their energy policies amid high gas prices.

Hutchison slammed a Democratic proposal to slash tax breaks for ‘Big Oil’ that failed in the Senate this week.

“Unfortunately, rather than work to increase domestic energy production and help bring down gas prices, the Obama Administration is seeking to impose more regulations and taxes on oil and gas companies,” Hutchison said. 

And she criticized Democrats for rejecting this week a Republican bill to expand domestic drilling.

“Earlier this week, Republicans put a modest bill to increase production on the floor, and Democrats couldn’t even support that with gas hovering around $4 a gallon,” Hutchison said.

Hutchison said the Senate must pass a bill she introduced to extend by one year Gulf of Mexico oil leases affected by President Obama’s post-oil-spill moratorium on deepwater drilling.

Obama, in the drilling plan he announced last week, said his administration would extend leases affected by the moratorium. But administration officials have not offered details on the plan.

Hutchison told The Hill earlier this week that she will continue to push for passage of her legislation in order to ensure that the leases are extended for one year.

But she praised Obama for offering to extend the leases.

“I think it’s a move in the right direction because what he’s saying is, ‘I now understand there has been a real devaluation of the lease because you haven’t had the ability to use it,’” she said.