By Coral Davenport, CQ Staff

Energy and gasoline prices will be hot topics of debate in the final weeks of the 110th Congress. But the partisan rift over offshore drilling that stalled movement all summer on energy legislation shows no sign of having softened during the August recess.

If anything, the intense politicizing of the drilling issue — most potently realized in the calls of “Drill, baby, drill!” that met Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin ’s speech at the Republican National Convention — only seems to have heightened partisan rancor.

House Republicans were particularly active on the drilling issue, staging an unusual protest on the floor throughout the August recess. Members returned to Washington from their home districts to demand that Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., return the chamber to session and have an up-or-down vote on whether to lift the moratorium on drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

And although Democratic leaders still appear unlikely to allow such a vote, it seems clear they can no longer avoid the issue. Democratic leaders in both chambers will bring to their respective floors possibly as early as this week legislative packages that will offer limited offshore drilling, opening up a handful of states on the Southeast coast. But both also will come bundled with provisions unpalatable to most Republicans.

In the House, Pelosi is expected to bring to the floor as early as Sept. 11 a proposal to allow drilling off the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, but it also includes a provision known as “use it or lose it,” which would strip oil companies of oil leases on which they are not drilling. It also will include a requirement that 15 percent to 20 percent of the nation’s electricity be generated by renewable sources such as wind and solar.

Democrats appear to be aiming to bring their bill up for a vote in order to say they’ve held a vote on drilling, and then slamming Republicans who vote against it. During the summer, Democrats brought several energy bills up for a vote under an expedited procedure that requires a two-thirds majority but bars amendments, effectively blocking GOP lawmakers from offering their plans as amendments. Democratic lawmakers have not said whether they would bring up this package under that procedure, known as suspension of the rules, but it would likely be the only way to continue to stave off a vote on a full repeal of the drilling ban.

“This sounds like yet another Democrat sham: a transparent and increasingly pathetic attempt to provide cover for their politically vulnerable members while not alienating the constituents who want energy prices to go even higher,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Republican Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio.

Bipartisan Senate Plan

In the Senate, the package will not come from the office of Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., or from Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman , D-N.M. Instead, it will come from a bipartisan gang of 16 lawmakers that would lift a ban on offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and would allow the four southeastern states to opt in to expanded drilling. The package also will include an estimated $84 billion in investments in conservation and efficiency offset by cutting tax breaks to oil and gas companies which many Republicans strongly oppose.

“I might be willing to pay [$84 billion] if Democrats would let us drill wherever we want to drill because that’s the only sound energy policy you can have,” said Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. “It’s ridiculous to think Republicans will go along with $84 billion with the limited amount of drilling that the group . . . allows us to have.”

Of the Republicans involved in writing the package, Grassley said, “they haven’t talked to the rest of the Republican caucus.”

Reid is expected to bring the bill up for a vote during the second or third week of September, but it’s not clear if Senate Democratic leaders will offer their own measure. A Senate energy summit is planned for Sept. 12, at which leaders of both parties are expected to discuss energy issues. But staffers say that event is aimed at laying out a plan for the next administration rather than yielding a bill to be rushed through in the last weeks of this Congress.

Reid’s strongest hope of moving energy legislation this month may be pinned on passage of a long-stalled $57.2 billion tax-credit measure (S 3335) which includes extensions of tax breaks for renewable energy — but lawmakers still disagree over how and whether to offset the credits.