WASHINGTON (AP) - Riding a wave of concern over high energy prices triggered by Hurricane Katrina, congressional Republicans are rushing to ease environmental rules on refineries and looking for ways to open new coastal waters to oil and gas development.

I really think that House Republicans are going to ruin this opportunity to change some things in America for the better. They should be pushing the refinery and distribution agendas, but lay off the oil drilling. That won’t affect any of our current problems, and is in effect nothing more than trying to give further opportunity to the domestic oil drilling commercial interests.

Even if we maxed out our drilling in US waters and territories, we still could not supply our nation’s needs. Right now our crisis is over refined fuels capacity. Address this first before you try and push the agenda too far… lest you may loose support you is now gaining.