President Bush to Lift Executive Ban on Offshore Drilling

[StarnetGypsy]

(whatta joke, when he invaded Iraq gas was about $1.50/gal, and now he's blaming Congress for being irresponsible, and laying off the burden of high gas prices on them? i was reading a newspaper in the paper box the other day, and murmured "what an idiot" about his shooting down solar power, and an older man walking behind me said "you must be talking about Bush")

The White House announced today that President Bush will lift an executive order banning offshore oil drilling, a move aimed at stepping up pressure on Congress to end the prohibition it imposed in 1981.

Bush "has decided to lift the executive ban on oil exploration in America's Outer Continental Shelf," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told a news briefing. She said Bush would explain the move in a Rose Garden statement at 1:30 p.m..

Perino acknowledged that the president's action by itself will not allow more oil drilling. Instead, she said, Bush hopes to prompt Congress to act on his call last month to lift its moratorium.

In a speech at the White House June 18, Bush urged lawmakers to lift a 27-year-old ban on drilling for oil and gas on the outer continental shelf, arguing that the country needs more domestic energy production to help reduce dependence on foreign oil and ease upward pressure on gasoline prices.

Bush said that if Congress removed its ban, he would lift an executive order that also prohibits drilling for oil and gas on the outer continental shelf. That executive order was issued in 1990 by Bush's father.

But Perino said today that Bush no longer wants to wait for Congress to act. "They haven't even held a single hearing," she told reporters. "So we are going to move forward, and hopefully that will spur action by the Congress."

The White House hopes that record crude oil prices and a national average price for regular unleaded gasoline of nearly $4.11 a gallon will weaken opposition to new drilling off the Pacific and Atlantic coastlines and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Among the opponents of offshore drilling are environmental groups, tourism interests, commercial fishermen and most Democrats in Congress.

The issue has seeped into the presidential race between Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). McCain last month reversed his position by calling for the ban to be lifted, saying that new drilling is needed in view of current high gasoline prices. Obama remains strongly opposed, arguing that ending the ban would have negligible impact.

The congressional moratorium was imposed in 1981, when lawmakers from coastal states sought to block leases for oil and gas drilling off the coasts of Massachusetts and California. Congress has approved the moratorium every year since then.

A decade later, President George H.W. Bush issued a separate executive order banning offshore oil drilling. That prohibition was initially set to expire in 2002, but in 1998 President Bill Clinton extended it to 2012.