 Bush lifts ban on offshore drilling
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-16 07:33 WASHINGTON: US President George W. Bush has lifted an executive ban on offshore oil drilling and challenged Congress to do the same, a gambit to turn the enormous public frustration over gasoline prices into political leverage. The move will have no practical effect unless the Democratic Party-controlled Congress acts too. Both executive and legislative bans must be lifted before offshore exploration can be carried out. Moreover, Bush's effort to directly link record gas prices and offshore drilling glossed over a key point. Even if Congress agrees, the exploration for oil would take a decade or more to produce real results. It is not projected to reduce gas prices in the short term. Democratic lawmakers reacted by rejecting his plan as a symbolic stunt. By lifting the executive prohibition against coastal drilling on Monday, Bush rescinded a White House policy that his father, former US president George H.W. Bush, put in place in 1990. The president had urged Congress a month ago to go first, but he reversed himself on Monday saying the country could no longer afford to wait. "Democratic leaders can show that they have finally heard the frustrations of the American people by matching the action I've taken today, repealing the congressional ban, and passing legislation to facilitate responsible offshore exploration," Bush said. Both presidential campaigns weighed in on the hot political topic. John McCain, the presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee, called Bush's move "a very important signal" and prodded his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, to drop his opposition to offshore drilling. "If offshore drilling would provide short-term relief at the pump or a long-term strategy for energy independence, it would be worthy of our consideration, regardless of the risks," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. "But most experts, even within the Bush administration, concede it would do neither." Other Democrats also were unmoved by the presidential action. "The Bush plan is a hoax," responded House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence." Agencies (China Daily 07/16/2008 page1) |
