By: Kris Alingod - AHN News Writer

Washington, DC -- (AHN) - A handful of House Republicans continued the GOP drilling protest on Tuesday, keeping the frontlines at the Capitol guarded while colleagues, including House Minority Leader John Boehner (D-OH), held the first full day of convention activities in Minnesota.

Reps. John Carter (R-TX), Vern Ehlers (R-MI), Charlie Dent (R-PA), Kenny Marchant (R-TX), Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) and Steven La Tourette (R-OH) all delivered speeches before an empty House chamber, capping off the protest's 23rd day.

"I have never seen the people in my district become so involved in an issue as they are with this one," Marchant (R-TX) said. "They want to know why Congress is not engaged in a solution, why it isn't working. And the fact is the leadership of the Democrats think it was more important to go on vacation."

McCotter, chair of the House Policy Committee, added, "This is the People's House; 435 people are elected and paid to serve you. We are asking the Speaker to call your employees back to work. At your job, you would never take a five week vacation while you have a major problem lingering."

Republicans are protesting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) hard line against lifting a a 27-year-old legislative ban on offshore drilling and refusal to hold a vote on their bill, the American Energy Act (HR 6566). The measure calls for greater coastal exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the use of oil shales and the promotion of renewable fuels. Republicans have dubbed it an "all of the above" approach.

Pelosi, who had made a mantra out of her argument that drilling will "save Americans only 2 cents 10 years from now," indicated a softening of her opposition to drilling last month. In the weekly Democratic radio address, she said Democrats will introduce legislation allowing drilling in some portions of the OCS after Congress resumes session Sept. 8. The bill will have " appropriate safeguards" and no "taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil,'' she said.

But Boehner rejected her gesture, the second one made in the span of a week, and said Pelosi should convene an emergency session if she sincerely wants to address the energy crisis.

The pressure from the GOP and increasing public support for drilling in polls has not swayed some Democrats. Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), chair of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, has stood firm in his opposition to lifting the ban and asked the White House to end all exports of U.S. oil in order to stem rising gas prices.