Will Congress Finally Pass an Energy Bill?

The House Democratic leadership has shifted over the past couple months on the issue of offshore drilling. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi left the issue untouched for much of the summer, even telling fellow Democrats that, during the congressional recess in August, they could blame her when confronted by frustrated constituents about high fuel costs. Now, with just two weeks left in the legislative session and renewed pressure from colleagues across the aisle, House Democrats are expected this week to introduce and debate a new energy bill. Pelosi and other leaders have called it a compromise, promising that it will include provisions for limited drilling no less than 50 miles offshore as well as incentives for alternative-energy development.

Republicans have criticized the measure even before seeing it, suspecting that it won't go far enough and that all stops should be pulled out--including drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. They have also taken issue with the term "compromise." "We've been shut out of the process completely," says one GOP aide.

Imposing a deadline on the entire debate is the federal ban on offshore drilling, which has been in place for 40 years. Failing to renew or modify the ban before the end of the month would cause all drilling to become legal within three miles of all shoreline, a prospect seen as extreme by many lawmakers in both parties. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat and vice chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, spoke to NEWSWEEK's Daniel Stone about the Democratic shift on drilling and the motivation to quickly pass the measure. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: What will this bill include?
Diana DeGette: We've been trying to refocus our energy policy more toward renewables and conservation and weaning ourselves away from foreign oil. Until the summer of 2007, all of our energy bills were backward-looking, regressive bills that rewarded traditional oil and gas companies with tax credits and other incentives, rather than focusing on energy independence. The bill we're now trying to put together will give us some incentive for drilling, which will solve some of the medium-term needs. It will have some drilling, but it'll really have an incentive on renewable energy and conservation. It will really have the renewable energy standards that we tried to pass last year.

What does that mean for things like nuclear power, coal and natural gas?
Those issues are still under discussion.

This debate is a referendum on offshore drilling. The House Democratic leadership is calling it a compromise.
It is a compromise. It allows offshore drilling if the states opt in. From my perspective, I thought that while we develop renewable energy and reliance on alternative sources, we need to have some kind of domestic supply. So I think this a good balanced policy and something we should have come up with to begin with.