House Republicans dust off energy bills

It’s “drill, baby, drill” all over again.

House Republicans are dusting off their long-standing energy messaging for a summertime floor debate on oil and natural gas drilling.

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If that sounds familiar, that’s because it is.The House Energy and Commerce and the Natural Resources committees are crafting a series of energy bills that GOP leadership hopes to bring to the floor before the August recess, including legislation to dramatically expand onshore and offshore drilling, block expensive Environmental Protection Agency regulations and speed up pipeline permitting.

The House approved similar — and in some cases, nearly identical — bills last Congress. But they nonetheless hope to hammer their message home this summer, when the public is generally more conscious of gas prices.

“It’s probably going to look a lot like it’s looked in the last four or five years,” one Republican energy adviser said, adding that even if that drilling push is familiar, it nonetheless helps lawmakers in their districts.

“No matter how you cut the survey question, it’s still a winner,” the strategist said.

But this time around, Republicans may not have sky-high gas prices to buoy their quest for more drilling.

Pump prices in the Midwest had spiked in recent weeks because of refinery outages and low gasoline reserves reaching $4.29 per gallon in Minnesota heading into Memorial Day weekend. But AAA says the gasoline market will stabilize over the next month as refineries resume production, a move that most likely will push prices down to a national average of $3.50 per gallon or lower. On Monday, the national average was $3.62 per gallon, according to AAA.

That’s a far cry from the summer of 2008, when prices surged past the $4 a gallon mark, and the infamous “drill, baby, drill” rallying cry was born.

Mike McKenna, a GOP energy strategist, said this time around, he expects the floor debate on the GOP energy bills to include “a little less gas price talk.” Republicans will instead spend more time calling for fewer federal barriers in order to take advantage of unconventional oil and gas reserves.

“Technology is getting so good; we’re having real trouble drilling a dry hole now,” McKenna said. “If you let us go, we’ll bring you energy self-sufficiency.”

It’s unclear exactly which bills House GOP leadership will bring to the floor and when.

“The committee has a number of pieces of legislation that could fit the bill, but at this time, we are not aware what the leader will consider moving,” Michael Tadeo, a spokesman for House Natural