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Bush urges Congress to end offshore oil drill ban
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-19 07:19 WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush on Wednesday urged Congress to end a ban on offshore oil drilling, responding to consumer anxiety over record-high gasoline prices with a plan sure to anger environmentalists.
"Every American who drives to work, purchases food or ships a product has felt the effect. And families across our country are looking to Washington for a response," Bush said. As average U.S. pump prices pierced the $4-a-gallon level for the first time this month, up more than $1 from a year ago, energy policy has become a key issue in the presidential race ahead of November elections. Bush said opening federal lands off the U.S. coast -- where oil drilling has been banned by both a presidential executive order and a congressional moratorium -- could yield about 18 billion barrels of oil. That would meet current U.S. consumption for about 2 1/2 years, but it would likely take a decade or more to find the oil and produce it. The short-term impact on oil prices is open to debate. The prospect of more energy supply down the road could calm nervous traders who see a looming global oil crunch, but any actual supply would be years away even if Congress acted quickly. The U.S. Congress banned most offshore drilling in 1981. Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush, followed suit with an executive order banning drilling in the wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska -- the worst tanker spill in U.S. history. The White House said Congress should lift the moratorium first and then Bush would end the executive order because presidential action alone would not lead to new offshore drilling. Bush's latest energy plan adds intensity to a war of words that has been waged on Capitol Hill for weeks over who is to blame. If lawmakers leave for their July 4 holiday without action, they will face the wrath of their constituents, Bush said. |
