Mark Warner

Including its two Democratic Senators:

Virginia could become the first state on the Eastern Seaboard to open its coast to energy exploration since a decades-old federal drilling ban expired more than a year ago.

The new Republican governor, Robert McDonnell, pledged to make Virginia the "energy capital of the East Coast" at his swearing-in last month. The state's Democratic senators, Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner, are also urging the Obama administration to begin selling leases next year for drilling 50 miles offshore.