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http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=why+the+democrats+will+not+allow+off+shore+drilling&btnG=Google+Search

Even some Democrats are getting antsy, fearing the party's stance could hurt them in the fall elections. But Pelosi, who has opposed offshore drilling throughout her two decades in Congress, insists opening new areas to drilling won't lower gas prices in the short term. She believes a vote would only help the GOP blame Democrats for high gas prices.

"I will not ... give the administration an excuse for its failure," Pelosi said at an end-of-session roundtable interview Thursday.

Republicans have put a bull's-eye on the federal moratorium on coastal drilling, which has kept most of the East and West coasts off limits to new oil rigs since 1982. Bush announced earlier this month that he would lift the presidential moratorium on drilling, and the GOP is now seeking to lift the congressional ban.
Pelosi drew derision from her critics for telling the Web site Politico this week that she was blocking a vote on offshore drilling because "I'm trying to save the planet." But she elaborated on that theme Thursday, saying she sees energy independence and fighting global warming as "my flagship issue." She said she will use her power to resist a policy that could increase the country's oil dependency.

"I'm not going to be diverted for a political tactic from a course of action that has a big-picture view - a vision about an energy-independent future that reduces our dependence on fossil fuels ... and focuses on those renewables that are protective of the environment," she said.

Republicans are quietly gleeful at Pelosi's tactics, which have only breathed more life into an issue the GOP is clinging to as a lifeline in an otherwise grim year for the party. Some House Republicans said Thursday that they will ask Bush to order a special session of Congress in August if lawmakers adjourn this week, as expected, without voting on drilling.

While a special session is unlikely, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, made clear that his party plans to use the issue as a bludgeon against Democrats throughout the five-week August recess.

"A solid majority of Americans want us to have more drilling for more American-made energy, and they aren't going to take no for an answer," Boehner said Thursday. "Speaker Pelosi, Senators (Harry) Reid and (Barack) Obama are defying the will of the American people, and they're doing so at their own risk."

Some Democrats have already started to shift their views. Rep. Tim Holden, D-Pa., who voted two years ago against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and for a federal ban on offshore drilling, told a hometown paper last weekend he now wants to "drill everywhere."

A new CNN/Opinion Research poll released this week found that 69 percent of Americans favor more offshore drilling, while 30 percent oppose it. But the poll found the public was split over whether more coastal drilling would lower gas prices, with 51 percent saying yes and 49 percent saying no.

But the poll's more interesting finding was about who Americans blame for $4-a-gallon gas prices: About two-thirds said oil companies and foreign countries that produce energy were the major causes. Just over half blamed the Bush administration, the war in Iraq and the moratorium on offshore drilling. But only about 1 in 3 - 31 percent - blamed Democrats in Congress for high gas prices.
A GOP opening in the fall?

"Republicans feel like they have an opening because of the gas price issue (to push for) domestic drilling, but we haven't seen any empirical evidence or tangible evidence that it's hurting Democrats," said Nathan Gonzales, political editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Report, which tracks House and Senate races.

"Maybe this fall the issue will develop into a Republican advantage, but I don't see that we're there yet," he said. "It's a battle of messages between the two parties more than an anvil around the necks of Democrats."

Pelosi has been holding votes on measures aimed at addressing gas prices, such as legislation to crack down on speculators in energy commodity markets and a measure to force Bush to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But here's the catch: The bills have won majority support, but failed to get the two-thirds backing needed to pass under special rules Pelosi has used to keep Republicans from offering a drilling measure on the House floor. Democratic leaders fear such a measure might draw enough support to pass.

The issue is likely to heat up again this fall. Republicans are debating whether to shut down the federal government - by blocking a continuing resolution to keep the government funded beyond Sept. 30 - if Democrats don't allow a vote on offshore drilling.

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Just exactly what is this wacked out bitch trying to prove. She is managing to block vital drilling .
She makes about as much sence as this double post.

even if they passed the vote to drill in these places as was stated that would not solve the problem of oil dependency and we would not see any fall in gas prices for a long while~ i think it has been voted against for years, so it is maybe a good thing~ i don't particularly like to vacation where there is all those oil rigs and such` spoiling the beauty of the shorelines.

who can afford to vacation until the reserves and new drilling are released and started...I find the oil wells facinating to watch, they are confined in a small fenced area for the most on land and the offshore rigs are so far out you would have to be on a cruise to pass close to them. Not an eye sore.

even if they passed the vote to drill in these places as was stated that would not solve the problem of oil dependency and we would not see any fall in gas prices for a long while~ i think it has been voted against for years, so it is maybe a good thing~ i don't particularly like to vacation where there is all those oil rigs and such` spoiling the beauty of the shorelines.

as was stated new drilling will not solve the problem for the long haul
I think it is equally important to save our pristine country side and environment
let them discover a new alternative,till then we will just have to tough it out, and it will not bring gas prices down maybe ten years then what will we be in a crunch again?

Well I am not a tree hugger I am for what ever it takes for lowering the prices .

"found the public was split over whether more coastal drilling would lower gas ". it was just public opinion that passing it would not cause a drop in price or not,, well it droped just the president opening it up, to sway the specualtors, we will not be using anything to take the place of oil in any near future, small cars as we are using less gas than we have been is going to help,, the dems were shaking in their boots over a vote on drilling in now areas they cant, where the big oil is, because they know some dems, would vote for it.like i posted some oil they cant drill for now next to places they are getting good oil that oil could come to market in 6 ot 12 months, all that crap she said , she said because its an election year, ole nancy is a bitch,lol,but ole nancy got them out of washington, ppl know why,, thats why even as obama seem popular, macain is still close in the polls and it baffles the dems, as to how and why,those oil rigs also produce great paying jobs, but there is more oil in the shale oil rocks in the rockies than in saudi arabia, and we now have the technology, and the rockies are a big place, and would not get it anywhere close to any parks or public place, we have strip mining here, i pass it every time i go to the lake many farmers have their land striped, then it has to be reclaimed and top soil put back on and the coal companies contour the land pretty adn will plant either grass or pine trees whichever u choose, my uncle had 2 farms near teh lake striped, they look better after they are striped than they did before, the coal companies will even put it back so u have ponds, plus u get rich,,