Republicans’ Calls for Offshore Drilling Have Grown Quieter

Republicans’ Calls for Offshore Drilling Have Grown Quieter
By CARL HULSE
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: May 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/us/politics/09memo.html?th&emc=th


WASHINGTON — Two years ago, feisty Republicans commandeered the darkened House chamber during the summer recess to loudly demand that oil companies be allowed to “drill here and drill now.”

Now, with an ominous oil slick threatening the Gulf Coast from a deep-well blowout, Republican cries for more offshore oil production have grown quieter. But they have not ceased.

“The American people want to see our country develop our domestic resources in an environmentally responsible way, and they know we can,” Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, the No. 3 House Republican and a ringleader of the 2008 uprising on the House floor, said Thursday.

It was a notable Republican triumph. With gas prices hitting $4 per gallon, House Republicans were able to pressure the Democratic majority in Congress to relent on a coastal drilling ban that had been routinely enacted every year since the early 1980s. But the BP spill has made the politics of oil much more slippery for Republicans, and they are treading carefully.

Republicans do not want to abandon the pro-drilling image they cultivated so successfully and probably could not be rid of it even if they wanted to since it is now so embedded in their ideological fabric. But they also do not want to risk an election-year backlash in the aftermath of the gulf crisis, particularly if the damage becomes as extensive as some experts fear it could. And they are heartened by polls showing that while public support for drilling has dropped since the accident, most Americans still support offshore oil production.

At the same time, Republicans would not mind hitting the Obama administration, which itself was pursuing expanded drilling, for what Mr. Pence characterized as a slow response to the spill — a complaint the White House says is groundless and politically motivated. But even as they zero in on the administration’s handling of the disaster, Republicans risk emphasizing the dangers of offshore drilling and alarming the public even more about the ramifications of coastal exploration.

For now, Republicans have adopted a multifaceted approach as they try to finesse the issue. First, call for an inquiry to determine what caused the accident, so as to be able to reassure the public that a recurrence can be prevented. Then, raise the possibility that the White House could have done more, a position that suggests that some of the damage could be a result of bureaucratic inertia rather than a hazardous energy operation.

And, finally, point out that Republicans have called for a broad energy program of which offshore drilling is only one element and that federal revenues generated by drilling would be put toward developing alternative fuel sources.

In discussing the BP accident in recent days, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, has called it a “reminder that America needs an all-of-the-above energy strategy to create jobs, lower energy prices and clean up our environment.”

Other Republicans, though, saw the accident as more than a gentle reminder.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California quickly backed away from an offshore oil project after the gulf blowout, and Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida, who is engaged in a difficult Senate race, came out strongly against drilling.

The situation in Florida was particularly telling. After decades of stiff resistance to any drilling that could affect Florida’s tourist-luring beaches, sentiment had been shifting toward accepting rigs. The incoming Republican leaders of the State Legislature were backing drilling in state waters just off the coast.

But after the Horizon Deepwater rig exploded on April 20, the political environment changed drastically and all bets were off. The two Republican legislative leaders said they would defer their drilling push, a state constitutional amendment to ban drilling in state waters was proposed, and Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, said he would filibuster any energy bill that expanded oil drilling in the gulf.

“It has put a fright into people the likes of which is hard to describe,” Mr. Nelson said of the oil slick, which is spreading slowly but steadily through the Gulf of Mexico

Not every Florida politician was ready to rule out rigs forever. Marco Rubio, the Republican Senate contender and former State House speaker, said that with an economy dependent on oil and petroleum products, America must decide whether to drill domestically or maintain its reliance on foreign sources.

“The question is, should the United States have access to all of its energy resources, and the answer to me is yes,” said Mr. Rubio, a favorite of conservatives, who added that the key would be to determine how the accident happened and make sure future drilling was done safely.

That sums up the challenge for Republicans as well as Democrats supportive of tapping coastal oil sources: how to persuade Americans now aghast at rust-colored oil seeping into Louisiana bayous and threatening Florida’s pristine gulf beaches that the spill was an aberration and that America’s need for domestic oil outweighs the potential for disaster.