Nancy Pelosi was vigorously lauded in this space when she became the first woman in American history to serve as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. We have mostly disagreed with her philosophically, but her management of the House has for the most part been efficient and effective on behalf of her agenda. Her party won the last election, so that’s as it should be. But Pelosi has stumbled badly on the energy issue by refusing to even allow a vote on whether to lift the congressional ban on drilling for new oil and natural gas resources in America’s outer continental shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

She made a bad political situation even worse by tersely adjourning the House for its traditional August recess just when most American families are cutting back their vacations because of $4-per-gallon gas. By turning off the lights on the House floor and the C-SPAN cameras, Pelosi in an effort to muzzle her Republican critics handed them a golden opportunity. And her stubborn insistence that “saving the planet” trumps drilling more and using less put the final egregious touch on an extraordinarily ill-advised sequence of decisions.

Regardless of her subsequent damage control in quietly allowing Democrats to break with her publicly on the energy issue, it is not turning out well for Pelosi or her party. The time has come for her to cut her losses and announce that the first order of business when the House returns after Labor Day will be an up-or-down vote on lifting the drilling ban. And when the House votes overwhelmingly to do so -- conservative estimates see at least 230 votes now for lifting the ban and there will be even more when the electronic roll is called -- Pelosi should gracefully acknowledge that she was wrong. To do less risks insuring that her historic speakership is permanently marred.

A new Rasmussen national survey of 1,000 likely voters provides the latest evidence of how strongly the American public favors drilling in the shelf and ANWR, and doing everything possible to increase American energy production from all domestic resources. “With energy issues taking center stage in the presidential campaign, 81 percent of Americans see development of new energy sources as an urgent priority. Only 9 percent disagree,” Rasmussen said. Numbers like that make clear that a seismic shift has taken place in American public opinion. To continue to resist recognizing and honoring the public would be foolhardy.