Lamar Alexander

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans, seizing on high gas prices, unveiled on Thursday an energy plan they say will help consumers feeling pain at the pump by increasing domestic production of oil, investing in research on plug-in hybrid cars and cracking down on commodity speculators.

The Gas Price Reduction Act is co-sponsored by 44 Republicans, including all four from Tennessee and Georgia.

“It is a very narrow package,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. “The goal is to keep it narrow so we can build support and have a number of Democrats joining us.”

Sen. Corker said the bill was drafted without several measures that would be sure to garner Democratic criticism, such as opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to drilling.

The bill does promote offshore drilling, allowing states with coastlines to explore for deep sea oil and natural gas 50 miles or more from the coast, which the Republicans said could provide billions of barrels of oil.

States that choose to allow the drilling would share in the royalties from oil companies and use that revenue toward conservation measures, the senators said.

The bill also repeals a moratorium on oil exploration in oil shale reserves in Western states, which Republicans said could yield more than three times the oil in Saudi Arabia.

Many Democrats, however, have criticized similar Republican proposals in recent weeks, saying plans that involve offshore drilling would do nothing to encourage conservation and instead would harm coastal ecosystems, impacting fisheries and the tourism industry.

“Oil companies hold leases to nearly 68 million acres of federal land that are not producing oil,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., recently said on the Senate floor. “I say they should use it or lose it, and here we have people saying, give them more. This makes no sense.”

On the conservation side, the legislation would authorize $100 million for researching advanced batteries for plug-in hybrid vehicles and urge the federal government to create a marketplace for them by being a leading purchaser of the cars and trucks.

“Our bill can be summed up in four words: Find more, use less,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. “Unfortunately, most Democrats still insist on trying to repeal the law of supply and demand. It’s a new economic theory. ... When we say deep sea exploration, they say, ‘No, we can’t.’ When we say oil shale development, they say, ‘No, we can’t.’”

The Republican bill also includes $26 million in additional funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to provide greater oversight on oil speculation, which many lawmakers have blamed for the skyrocketing price of gas.

“This legislation will strengthen our energy futures markets by ensuring integrity,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who helped draft this part of the bill. “This legislation ... puts more cops on the beat policing these markets by providing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with the resources it needs to hire more employees.”

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