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Drilling for oil a hot topic at GOP
By JULIET WILLIAMS
Associated Press
September 5, 2008

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- It may have been in vogue in Alaska forever, but drilling for oil has never been so hot with Republicans as it was on the floor during the final night of the Republican National Convention.

Stickers advocating "Drill Alaska. Drill Now. Pay Less" were everywhere, and not just on the lapels of delegates from traditional oil states like Texas and Alabama.

The skyrocketing cost of a tank of gas is surely a factor. But the issue shot to prominence this week when GOP presidential nominee John McCain named Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. She's an aggressive advocate of expanded drilling, including in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

McCain opposes that, but that didn't matter to delegates.

They chanted "Drill, baby, drill!" during Palin's speech a night earlier.

By Thursday morning, former Alaska lawmaker Nick Stepovich bought a shirt on a St. Paul street corner with the same slogan splashed in pink lettering over a stylized map of Alaska. He waved it on the convention floor as he handed out thousands of stickers pushing to expand drilling in his home state.

Alaska delegates, some of them wearing fluorescent yellow work vests, waved hard hats emblazoned with images of oil derricks and a picture of another oilfield site on the back.

"You could call it the choir here. But in talking to people out there, on the street, they're feeling it too," Stepovich said.

Palin won praise for taking on big oil at home, where surging oil prices have led to multibillion-dollar budget surpluses. Still, Stepovich said gas was selling for $4.35 a gallon there last week.

For many, the buzz about drilling is long overdue.

"It should have been done a long time ago," said Ginny Marschman of Waukesha, Wis., who wore one of the newly minted "Drill Alaska. Drill Now. Pay Less" stickers.

Lee Davis, of Hartfield, Va., grabbed "20 or 30" of the stickers to pass out to her friends.

"I wouldn't say it's cool," she said. "We cannot continue to depend on the Arabic nations. We need to be independent."

And many were eager to point out that they're open to other ideas to ease fuel prices.

Cheryl Grossman, of Grove City, Ohio, wore a button that said "Support Ethanol. Declare Your Energy Independence."

"It's incumbent upon us to explore every alternate fuel that we can," Grossman said.

As for drilling in Alaska's wildlife refuge, she initially said she was "not a huge supporter," but later called back to clarify, saying "I do support drilling."

While McCain has raised concern about depleting that source of oil, he's been advocating strongly this year for an end to the federal moratorium on offshore drilling.

In California, where a 1969 oil spill dumped an estimated 3 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, offshore drilling is still a sensitive issue.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who endorsed McCain, opposes it.

California was the odd delegation out when it came to the oil-friendly fervor on the floor Thursday. Not a single Californian was spotted wearing the popular pro-drilling sticker.

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