Election-year jitters over high gasoline prices prompted House Democrats on Tuesday to push through a broad energy plan that for the first time in more than a quarter of a century would allow oil and gas drilling off the East and West coasts.

The fate of the legislation, which Republican members contended would produce little new domestic oil, remains uncertain. The politically sensitive issue of offshore drilling may only be resolved as part of a budget bill that Congress must approve before it adjourns at month’s end.

The measure, which was approved 236-189, would allow states to authorize drilling 50 to 100 miles from their coasts. The federal government would be allowed to approve drilling 100 to 200 miles from shore.

But rising voter concern over high prices at the pump, relentless Republican criticism and pressure from vulnerable oil patch Democrats forced Pelosi to reconsider her position. She fashioned a package that included more drilling as well as $19 billion in tax incentives for alternative energy.

The measure now goes to the Senate, where a bipartisan group of 20 lawmakers has been working on a compromise that would lift a drilling ban in the eastern Gulf near Florida, and allow Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia to approve offshore drilling.

It is not clear that House Republicans will go along with such a Senate compromise or whether President Bush would sign such legislation.