Drilling for oil a hot topic at GOP 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.