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No one knows yet how the contentious question of offshore drilling will be addressed when the 110th Congress returns to work in September. But during this summer of record-high gasoline prices, key Democrats — especially Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and presumptive presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) — have begun to open the door to expanding domestic drilling, an approach that until recently was heretical within Democratic circles because of decades of strong opposition by environmentalists.