Congressional Republicans Backing Offshore Drilling Bills

Republicans who control the House are advancing three bills -- which the House leadership has dubbed the American Energy Initiative -- that would expand offshore energy production, and they insist that this will lead to relief for Americans plagued by high gas prices.

Since last year, American domestic oil production has decreased by 16 percent and gas prices are at upward of $4 per gallon, said Florida Republican U.S. Rep. David Rivera, a member of the Natural Resources Committee, on Wednesday. Consumers see the effects of rising fuel costs in their daily lives; and my constituents are being squeezed by these rising prices. The Obama administration does not seem to have a coherent plan to expand supplies and help ease price pressure, but House Republicans do.

Last week in committee, Rivera helped advance the three bills. One of the measures would force the Interior Department to start holding oil leasing sales off the coast of Virginia and in the Gulf of Mexico. Another would end the freeze of offshore drilling in the Gulf, backed by the Obama administration after the Deepwater Horizon accident. The third would expand offshore drilling in other parts of the country.