LITTLE ROCK, Ark.—U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor said Wednesday he hopes a bipartisan energy bill he’s working on will end the “guerilla warfare” that breaks out among lawmakers when the topic comes up in Congress.

Pryor said the roughly 200-page bill that a group of 16 Democratic and Republican senators were working on would address the issue of high gas prices. Senators backing the bill include Pryor and fellow Arkansas Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln.

“If we’re going to solve America’s energy problems, Democrats aren’t going to solve it and Republicans aren’t going to solve it. We’re going to have to work together to solve it,” Pryor told reporters in his weekly teleconference. “That’s why it’s been frustrating for me to watch most of what’s been going on on the floor this year.”

Pryor said the debate on energy sometimes turns into “guerilla warfare” on the floor among some lawmakers.

Other members working on the legislation includes Sens. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

“We’re encouraged by this. We realize that if anything is going to be done on energy, it has to be done in a bipartisan way,” Pryor said.

The proposal would allow for more offshore drilling off the coasts of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia if those states consent to it. It also calls for a requirement that by 2020 85 percent of all new vehicles sold in the United States run on non-petroleum fuel, Pryor said.