This is getting ridiculus.
Todd...Your research is clouded by your ideolory.
Who is blocking the drilling in teh refuge, great lakes, florida(not eight years ago but now), midwest. pretty much every where? Not teh republicans.
Are the oil companies Shiat....yes yes yes but this deal on how you present the Dems as the great guiding light and point the fingure always at the Rep is......well for lack of a better word coming ot me B.S. The rep have done it in the past and are just as to blame now but giving no respons to teh Dem, Wow. Here are some articles from teh last two weeks and I have work so this took about two seconds.

A House subcommittee on Wednesday rejected a Republican-led effort to open up more U.S. coastal waters to oil exploration.
Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., spearheaded the effort. His proposal would open up U.S. waters between 50 and 200 miles off shore for drilling. The first 50 miles off shore would be left alone.
But the plan failed Wednesday on a 9-6, party-line vote in a House appropriations subcommittee, which was considering the proposal as part of an Interior Department spending package.
...
Most offshore oil production and exploration has been banned since a federal law passed in 1981.
"We are kidding ourselves if we think we can drill our way out of these problems," House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., said during the bill mark-up session.
For his part, Peterson said: "There is no valid reason for Congress to keep the country from energy resources it needs."
"I'm disappointed. I did not expect a partisan vote today. I felt we had a chance of winning this. A lot of Democrats have been talking favorably about my amendment. They know we have to do something. But today was an absolute show of Pelosi power, it was dealt from the top down," Peterson said later

Seattle PI
Cantwell vows Senate fight to stop oil drilling
Democrat may lead filibuster to preserve Arctic refuge


House Acts to Block New Oil Drilling in Great Lakes.
Byline: Mark Johnson

Jun. 29--The debate over oil and gas exploration under the Great Lakes intensified Thursday, as the U.S. House voted to block new drilling, while the governor's office in Michigan insisted the action would have no bearing on its plans to allow more drilling.

By a 265-157 vote, the House passed an amendment to an energy and water spending bill that would prevent the Army Corps of Engineers from issuing new permits for oil and gas drilling under the Great Lakes.

"I'm glad we won," said Dave Obey, a House Democrat from Wausau. "Lake Superior and Lake Michigan are beyond a doubt the two most...