BRIAN BEAVER: You guys have had this event going on on the House floor for days and I know that you said yesterday on Limbaugh—I’m paraphrasing you—that if it took a shut down of the government to get attention, serious attention, drawn to this – so be it, if that’s how it has to be. And then last night, Speaker Pelosi says “I’m open to a vote now.” How big a step is that in this ongoing process?

REP. PENCE: Well Brian, I think that it’s a very significant statement by Speaker Nancy Pelosi last night that, to use her words, the House “can have a vote” on more domestic drilling. This represents evidence that the Democratic leadership is hearing from the American people, is hearing from many Democrats in the Congress who would like the opportunity to vote on more domestic drilling. And I welcome it. But I still believe Congress should not wait until this fall or sometime around Christmas after the elections to give American people more access to American oil. Now that the Speaker has opened up the opportunity for an up or down vote on more domestic drilling, along with conservation, along with solar, wind, alternative, renewable energies, I think Congress should come back in session immediately and [let’s]
take this opportunity we have to do something important for the American people.

...

BRIAN BEAVER: Having a vote is one thing, winning that vote is another thing. Do you have the people lined up in place to maybe win this vote if or when it takes place?

REP. PENCE: Brian, I have always believed that we have arrived at a moment—and maybe it was with the advent of $4/gallon gas earlier this year—there is a bipartisan majority in Congress today that would vote for comprehensive energy legislation that included more domestic drilling. That’s not been true in the past. I’ve said many times, in the darkened chamber of the House of Representatives surrounded by tourists, that anyone that wants to criticize Republicans for not having voted for more drilling in the past has no argument with me – we couldn’t get it done when we were in charge. But something changed in the last year and a half, and I’m pretty sure its $4/gallon gas. And the reality is that I think there are between 20 – 40 Democrats in the Congress who would join virtually every Republican in voting for a balanced bill that had a long-term strategy for energy independence and included
drilling.