Bush Lifts Moratorium On Offshore Drilling, but Congress' Ban Remains
Posted on: Tuesday, 15 July 2008, 09:01 CDT
From wire reports
WASHINGTON
President Bush lifted nearly two decades of executive orders banning drilling for oil and natural gas off the country's shoreline on Monday while challenging Congress to open up more areas for exploration to address soaring energy prices.
Democrats in Congress, joined by environmentalists, criticized the step and ridiculed it as ineffectual, while most Republicans and industry representatives applauded it as long overdue.
The lifting of the moratorium - first announced by Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, in 1990 and extended by President Clinton - will have no real impact, because a congressional moratorium on drilling enacted in 1982 and renewed annually remains in force.
Congress banned exploration and drilling on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and most of the eastern Gulf of Mexico to protect U.S. beaches and fisheries from pollution.
On Monday, there appeared to be no consensus for Congress to lift the ban in tandem with Bush's action.
"For years, my administration has been calling on Congress to expand domestic oil production," Bush said in a brief Rose Garden appearance. "Unfortunately, Democrats on Capitol Hill have rejected virtually every proposal, and now Americans are paying at the pump."
Bush's critics reacted furiously, restating support for alternative legislative proposals, including releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., denounced the president's decision as "a political stunt."
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the speaker of the House, derided "the oilman in the White House" and said the plan would not address the immediate spike in energy prices.
"The Bush plan is a hoax," Pelosi said in a statement. "It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence."
A June 26-29 CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll found that 73 percent of people surveyed favored more drilling.
Since 1982, the ban on offshore oil and gas leases on the outer continental shelf - vast areas three miles to 200 miles offshore - has been renewed by Republican and Democratic presidents and Democratic and Republican Congresses.
But the price of oil has quickly changed the political contours of the debate. When Bush first called on Congress to join him in lifting the ban last month, oil was trading at $130 a barrel; on Monday it reached $145.
Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, said that if the United States had opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling a decade ago as part of a comprehensive energy plan, "we wouldn't be in this predicament today."
"But now the chickens have come home to roost," he said. "We can afford to wait no longer."
Democrats accused the White House of exploiting the issue for political purposes and said the administration could take steps to accelerate exploration of tracts already available to oil companies if it was serious about increasing domestic production.
Still, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the majority leader, faces an increasing uneasiness among his colleagues, who have signaled receptiveness to allowing more drilling.
A bipartisan group of senators is trying to develop a compromise energy plan, and the leaders of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee have scheduled a workshop for Thursday where lawmakers and other experts will offer ideas on how to respond to the climb in oil prices.
The White House, for its part, signaled little interest in other measures that would stop short of expanding offshore drilling and supporting production in Alaska and new technologies to extract oil from shale. Opening the outer continental shelf, Bush said, could eventually produce nearly 10 years' worth of the amount of oil the United States now produces.
But even if Congress lifted its ban on expanded drilling, analysts say consumers wouldn't see much change in their energy bills.
The U.S. government's Energy Information Administration reported last year that crude oil production would be 7 percent higher by 2030 if the ban were lifted on the offshore areas.
Its report also said, "Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant."
The United States has only 2 percent of world oil reserves but uses 25 percent of the oil. Also, oil produced in the United States is sold on the international market, not reserved for domestic use.
This story was compiled from reports by The New York Times and McClatchy News Service.
drilling ban
The lifting of the executive moratorium by President Bush will have no real impact because a congressional ban on drilling remains in place.
According to analysts, even if Congress lifted its ban, consumers wouldn't see much change in their energy bills. opinions
Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, had previously expressed support for opening the continental shelf for exploration and production. The campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, responded that Americans needed to concentrate on conservation and alternative sources of energy, not simply opening new oil fields.
Last month, Virginia Sens. John Warner, a Republican, and Jim Webb, a Democrat, proposed ending the ban on offshore drilling for natural gas, but not for oil. Webb called the initiative "a preliminary step toward exploration and development of one of our domestic energy sources," adding that "all options need to be on the table" to meet U.S. energy needs.
Rep. Thelma Drake, R-2nd District, also has supported lifting the moratorium. "We have got to be energy-secure and energy- independent," and offshore resources are critical to freeing the nation from its reliance on foreign oil, she has said.
Rep. Randy Forbes, R-4th District, has voted in favor of lifting the congressional moratorium, while Rep. Bobby Scott, D-3rd District, is opposed to offshore drilling.
- The Virginian-Pilot
(c) 2008 Virginian - Pilot. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: Virginian - Pilot
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