By NANCY VORIS
Indiana Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Only House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stands in the way of lower gas prices, according to Republican Indiana Congressmen Dan Burton, Steve Buyer and Mike Pence.
The trio hosted a press conference last week to urge Americans to contact their representatives and show support for President Bush’s decision to lift the executive ban on domestic offshore energy development and allow drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

Since Bush’s announcement earlier this month, the decision to lift the ban has been in Congress’ court.

But Pelosi has been resistant to bring legislation to the House floor and allow a vote on offshore drilling, though a bipartisan uprising in favor of drilling is gaining momentum. Former Democratic resistance on the proposal is dissolving.

“We’re calling on our Speaker of the House for an up-or-down vote for energy development in the continental shelf,” Pence said. “The only thing standing in the way of drilling in the OCS is one vote in the House.”

The country needs to drill and gain access to our known energy supplies, Buyer said, and stop outsourcing American energy jobs. He called for an end to the “silliness” in Washington.

“We need Congress to come together and ask the Speaker of the House to put a vote on the floor. I believe it will pass,” Buyer said.
“When the world sees that America is serious about our own energy crisis … the prices will come down.”

If drilling is allowed in the OCS, it would be three to five years before oil would be available. But Burton said a comprehensive energy plan would send the message to Saudi Arabia and other countries that we are in the energy business, and energy costs would drop “the minute we say we’re going to start drilling.”
In lifting the ban on Jan. 14, Bush said that access to offshore exploration on the OCS is one the most important steps in expanding American oil production and reducing dependence on foreign energy.

But Congress has restricted access to key parts of the OCS since the early 1980s. Experts believe that those restricted areas could eventually produce nearly 10 years worth of America’s current annual oil production.

Bush said that new technology makes it possible to conduct oil exploration in the OCS that is out of sight, protects coral reefs and habitats, and protects against oil spills.

“It’s been almost a month since I urged Congress to act, and they’ve done nothing,” Bush said. “They’ve not moved any legislation. And as the Democratically-controlled Congress has sat idle, gas prices have continued to increase.”

Burton has developed an energy plan that touts drilling in the OCS, which could potentially provide 17 billion barrels of oil, as well as a coal-to-liquid fuel program and wind, nuclear and biofuel energy development.

He said he was encouraged by the emergence of bipartisan “energy solution groups” in the House and Senate and that he hoped for some legislation to move this month.

“I’ve been saying for months now that both sides will have to bend,” said Burton, “and while some of the energy reforms we put forth will take years to develop, I believe this kind of movement by Congress to increase domestic oil supply, while providing incentives to use alternative energy, will have an immediate effect on the market in terms of lowering gas prices.”

Burton reserved his strongest words for the Pelosi-led effort recently to impose more regulations on the oil industry, calling the legislation a “farce” and “the kind of political game-playing that disappoints Americans.”

“You can’t force companies to drill for oil if they haven’t discovered it yet,” he said. “We have the tools to create a practical energy solution for America, and this will happen when these political game-players are finally silenced or see the light.”