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WASHINGTON — Rep. Don Young joined his Republican colleagues in the House on Wednesday in announcing plans to roll out a package of proposals in the coming days to address soaring energy prices.

With gasoline at the pump hovering around $4 a gallon, Republicans have been sparring with Democrats over how best to deliver relief to consumers worried about the impact of high energy prices on their pocketbooks.

House Republicans insist the best solution is to boost domestic energy supplies by opening federal areas where drilling for oil and natural gas is banned, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Democrats disagree. And, since they hold a majority in Congress, they’ve been able to block previous attempts by Republicans to push a pro-development agenda.

Young, ranking Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, introduced a measure Wednesday to allow development in the coastal plain of ANWR.

“The way you address high gasoline prices is to increase supply,” he said.

Rolling out legislation to open ANWR has become Young’s personal never-ending task in the House, but this time he’s hoping consumer anger over record prices at the pump will spur moderate members of both parties to support the measure.

“If we passed ANWR, it would drop $10 to $15 off the price of a barrel of oil because speculators would see that we’re serious about increasing domestic production,” he said.

Since the early 1990s, Young has succeeded in passing an ANWR bill out of the House 12 times only to see it blocked in the Senate or by presidential veto.

Sens. Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski, Alaska’s Republican senators, failed earlier this month in an attempt to open ANWR. Young acknowledged that his bill also faces an uphill battle at becoming law.

“Realistically, they probably won’t act on this because the speaker (of the House) doesn’t believe in increasing supply,” he said.

The Bush administration supports drilling in ANWR. Environmental groups oppose development in the refuge, however, and have a long track record of defeating legislation that attempts to do otherwise.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., blasted Young and his fellow Republicans for offering the “same failed plans and stale rhetoric” as they’ve done in the past.

The Republican proposals are similar to an energy package put out last week by Senate GOP members but that Democrats killed on the floor.

Since then, oil prices have increased by $5 a barrel. On Wednesday, the price of crude oil surpassed $135 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, setting a new record.

Democrats have instead blamed rising crude prices on the oil industry, which has raked in record profits as oil has doubled in price over the past year. Democrats are backing legislation that would smack the oil industry with a windfall tax on excessive profits and repeal billions of dollars in tax incentives.

“In contrast to a Democratic energy platform that attempts to sue foreign governments for locking away their energy supply from us, the plan Republicans offered today will increase the energy supply right here at home,” House Republican Whip Roy Blunt said in a prepared statement.

Allowing more development offshore and in Alaska, as well as increasing refinery capacity, would cut the price of gasoline by nearly $2 a gallon, Blunt said.

The national average price of regular unleaded gasoline was $3.81 a gallon on Wednesday, an increase of 30 cents in the past month, according to AAA’s Fuelguagereport.com.

In Fairbanks, the price of regular unleaded ranged between $3.90 and $4.09 a gallon, according to the Web site Alaskagasprices.com. Statewide, AAA reported the average price of gasoline was $4.10.

Young said Democrats are just plain wrongheaded in opposing more production.

“It’s all about supply, supply, supply,” he said. “And Democrats are all about no, no, no.”

Young believes opening ANWR could contribute 1 million barrels of oil a day to domestic supplies as soon as 2011.

“ANWR is the quickest possible production because we already have infrastructure in place on the North Slope,” Young said.

Richard Ranger of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s leading trade group and a supporter of opening the refuge, said it will more likely take around 10 years to see oil from ANWR.

Young says oil from the refuge and other domestic sources would give the nation time to transition to a renewable energy economy

Under Young’s plan, the state would receive 50 percent of the royalties from oil production in the refuge, with another 30 percent of the money going toward development of renewable sources of energy, including geothermal, hydro, cellulosic ethanol, wind and solar energy. The remaining 20 percent would be dedicated to developing clean-coal technology.

“All of these new energy programs have been authorized by Congress in previous energy bills, but none have ever been fully funded,” Young said.

The energy debate has become a major political issue for both parties as the November elections approach.

Rep. Joe Barton, ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is expected to introduce several pieces of legislation as early as today focussing on increasing production offshore and in the oil shale plays in the Rocky Mountain states.

Republicans have also proposed dropping the 18 cent federal gasoline tax during the summer driving season. They’ve offered to impose a moratorium on congressional earmarks to pay for any lost revenue caused by the tax holiday.

Young said he supports any measure that would boost production of domestic energy. But Young opposes attempts to suspend the gasoline tax, which he says will only increase demand, and he thinks anti-earmark proposals would hurt the state.