| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 6:11:28 PM | By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Putting pressure on congressional Democrats to back more exploration for oil, President Bush on Monday lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling that has stood since his father was president. But the move, by itself, will do nothing unless Congress acts as well.
There are two prohibitions on offshore drilling, one imposed by Congress and another by executive order signed by the first President Bush in 1990. The current president, trying to ease market tensions and boost supply, called last month for Congress to lift its prohibition before he did so himself.
"The only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress," Bush said in a statement in the Rose Garden. "Now the ball is squarely in Congress' court."
Bush criticized Congress for failing to lift its own ban on offshore drilling.
"For years, my administration has been calling on Congress to expand domestic oil production," Bush said. "Unfortunately, Democrats on Capitol Hill have rejected virtually every proposal. And now Americans are paying at the pump."
Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, called Bush's move "a very important signal" and said his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, should drop his opposition to offshore drilling.
Congressional Democrats, joined by some GOP lawmakers from coastal states, have opposed lifting the prohibition that has barred energy companies from waters along both the East and West coasts and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. A succession of presidents, from Bush's father — George H.W. Bush — to Bill Clinton, have sided against drilling in these waters, as has Congress each year for 27 years. Their goal has to been to protect beaches and coastal states' tourism economies.
"Once again, the oilman in the White House is echoing the demands of Big Oil," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "The Bush plan is a hoax. It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence. It just gives millions more acres to the same companies that are sitting on nearly 68 million acres of public lands and coastal areas."
"This proposal is something you'd expect from an oil company CEO, not the president of the United States," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Environment Committee. "The president is taking special-interest government to a new level and threatening our thriving coastal economy."
Environmental groups, too, blasted Bush's move.
"President Bush has once again ignored the wise precedent set by his father and taken reckless action that has neither hope of reducing gas prices nor concern for long-term consequences," said Gene Karpinski, president of The League of Conservation Voters.
Asked if Bush's action alone will lead to more oil drilling, White House press secretary Dana Perino said, "In terms of allowing more exploration to go forward? No, it does not."
The president, in his final months of office, has turned to increased oil exploration among other options amid record gas-prices. None would have immediate impact on prices at the pump, according to White House officials, who say there is no quick fix. But starting action now would help, they say.
Bush's proposal echoes a call by Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, to open the Outer Continental Shelf for exploration. Democrat Barack Obama has opposed the idea and instead argued for helping consumers with a second economic stimulus package including energy rebates, as well as stepped up efforts to develop alternative fuels and more fuel-efficient automobiles.
"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," spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. "But most experts, even within the Bush administration, concede it would do neither. It would merely prolong the failed energy policies we have seen from Washington for thirty years."
Congressional Democrats have rejected the push to lift the drilling moratorium, accusing the president of hoping the U.S. can drill its way out a problem.
Bush says offshore drilling could yield up to 18 billion barrels of oil over time, although it would take years for production to start. Bush also says offshore drilling would take pressure off prices over time. In addition, the president has proposed opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling, lifting restrictions on oil shale leasing in the Green River Basin of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and easing the regulatory process to expand oil refining capacity.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other lawmakers have backed legislation to allow offshore exploration. Their measure would pursue other ways to expand energy sources, too.
"Now the only thing standing between consumers at the pump and the increased American energy they are demanding is the Democrat leadership in Congress," McConnell said. "We should act and act now."
How we all love to bash Bush for the price of gas..."Lets hang him!"
"No, bash him in the head!" "This country sucks cuz of him!" "The liar, the cheat, he's scum of the earth!"
It appears to me that he is fighting for Americans and their most current dilemma all by his onesies.. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 6:52:58 PM | Wow, 18 billion barrels of oil.
A little less than 2-1/2 years of current consumption at our present rate.
That would replace about 3-1/2 years of imports-
In a decade or so.
We currently use about 21 million barrels of oil a day, importing about 14 million.
Your future SUV, when gas hits $10/gallon:
http://www.stevkan.com/wildfirecar.htm
gotta wonder what the political/oil lobby shills are getting paid to post here. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 7:15:49 PM | Personally I'd like to know why he lifted the ban his daddy put in place before he thought to tap the 65 million acres that is already leased to produce oil. I'd also like to know why people think he's some kind of hero for doing this when we won't see any benefits of it for 7-10 years. I'd also like to know if we even know if there's any oil where they are going to be drilling.....too bad we won't find out till it's too late and those areas have been raked over. I hope the damage that causes is not too extensive.
I wonder too, why he told Pelosi we could not access the emergency fund, which actually would produce a decline in prices for now. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 7:29:44 PM |
Personally I'd like to know why he lifted the ban his daddy put in place before he thought to tap the 65 million acres that is already leased to produce oil. I'd also like to know why people think he's some kind of hero for doing this when we won't see any benefits of it for 7-10 years.
It a political maneuver and nothing more... It's an excutive branch attempt to make Congress look like the bad guy. His lifting of the Presidential ban has no teeth as all real power rest with Congress (Or the People)...
Your correct even if it was opened up to exlporation today we wouldn't see any of it until 5- 7 years down the road at the earliest, and by then it wouldn't do anything to curb the oil situation then or now. We must move ahead and free ourselves from this dependency upon oil... | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 7:33:13 PM | boy, I hate to say this but I don't think the emergency is here yet. just wait. we're gonna want to have that oil around. lets not continue to make the same mistakes we've been making about oil. if we take it out of reserve, sooner or later we have to pay for its replacement, probably for a lot more money.
I hate Bush with a passion, but I think he's right on this one. what made me wonder was why he had suddenly gotten so smart. makes me nervous.
and I think we'll do a lot dumber things than drill in all these places thats its pretty dumb to drill in before this is all over. oil starts hitting $200 a barrel and gas hits $6 a gallon, we'll be drilling aunt hattie's back molars. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 7:35:07 PM | I read that Pickens Plan (well most of it-quite technical)...it looks like a wonderful idea. I hope one or both of the candidates takes a serious look at this and possibly adopts it as one of their platforms.
http://www.pickensplan.com/
**edit** I read an article earlier today that talked about what we have in the reserves, how much we'd use, and how that would benefit us, but I'll be danged if I can find it now. There are something like 77 thousand barrels going into the reserve each day. We use I think it said 84 thousand per day. Why not circumvent that, and just keep what we have in place....there were millions of barrels there...and sell the 77 thousand per day to us now? I think this might be the answer:
Once again, the oilman in the White House is echoing the demands of Big Oil," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "The Bush plan is a hoax. It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence. It just gives millions more acres to the same companies that are sitting on nearly 68 million acres of public lands and coastal areas."
"This proposal is something you'd expect from an oil company CEO, not the president of the United States," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Environment Committee. "The president is taking special-interest government to a new level and threatening our thriving coastal economy."
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 7:46:06 PM | It appears to me that he is fighting for Americans and their most current dilemma all by his onesies..
Just like the bushie tax breaks he only considers the wealthiest of us as real americans.
Just like the oil companies bushie owned and ran into bankruptcy, he's just letting cheney's companies suck our economy dry before they sell all their shares.
I won't be surprised if they all move to a country that has no extradition treaties with the US when Obama is president. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 7:56:16 PM | Nice....very nice...it's about damn time too. However you have to question why his father put an executive ban on it in the first place.
I doubt this congress will do the same... | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 7:59:53 PM | There are varying views on this and way too many 'citations' on both sides of the coin for me to pull any and put here.
-=
It is thought that on the already leased acres, tests have been done and there isn't enough oil on those specific acres to warrant drilling anymore than has been done.
Also, testing has been done on the acres and off shore areas which are wanted and those show to be rich in deposits. I've heard that the oil industry would agree to a swap out. But, Congress,... Democrats specifically... are shooting down all offers/all alternatives. They keep going back to alternatives. Well, the alternatives will take time also.
And, there's plenty of citations online which show that production could take place easily within 1-3 years with new oil. The technology is there to speed up the process safely. And, the 'oil spill' excuse the Left uses has been debunked in that it is more risky to transport via tankers across the waters as it is being done now...than to drill in our waters with a much shorter span to transport.
Yes, it was part political... Bush doing what he did...but, it is a fact that Republicans have wanted to drill for a long time. The Democrats have blocked every single move. As for Citations, one would have to do research over the years on the bills. Easy enough to prove or disprove for one's self.
Also, why not put it right back on Congress? It's their job to make these type of decisions. Bush made his stand. Now, we shall see what Congress will do. Any further delays is nonsense. Start now and that's that much shorter a time we have to suffer with this pricing.
Taking the reserves right now is dumb... because any foreign maneuver scare and with our reserves gone, the pricing would be out of sight. The reserves must stay there till we are actually producing more here. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 8:00:07 PM | The oilcos already have 38M acres on and off shore that they AREN'T drilling.
My guess is Congress will kill dubya on this. The ban stays in force, and the oilcos continue to refuse to drill on their permitted 38M acres.
There is no oil shortage, and in the next couple months, oil production will ramp up to exceed demand by 3%. The Saudis say they have oil they can't sell. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 8:04:32 PM | can someone explain how drilling for more oil will help?
did anyone notice that we don't have an oil shortage?
in 1970's we had an oil shortage. you could only buy gas on odd or even days and or stations were out of gas. but there's plenty of gas to go around now.
so how will increasing global oil production by 1% in 10 to 20 years lower the price of gas? | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 8:05:22 PM | The Strategic Reserve would last 30 days at our present rate of consumption. It can't be pumped that fast.
Most of it was purchased for less than $20/barrel.
No, it won't be sold that cheap. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 8:07:55 PM |
Also, why not put it right back on Congress? It's their job to make these type of decisions. Bush made his stand. Now, we shall see what Congress will do. Any further delays is nonsense. Start now and that's that much shorter a time we have to suffer with this pricing.
In the article I read, Bush pushed congress to lift this ban or he will. Yay for Bush, going right ahead with what no one wants him to do....at least he's consistent.
Taking the reserves right now is dumb... because any foreign maneuver scare and with our reserves gone, the pricing would be out of sight. The reserves must stay there till we are actually producing more here.
We wouldn't even have to dip into the reserves if we took the barrels that are going in there on a daily basis off the top. We could use those and what we're using now, and not even touch what's in there already. That article also said they used some of that reserve during Katrina. But not much at all, it's been replenished already. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 8:11:50 PM |
It a political maneuver and nothing more... It's an excutive branch attempt to make Congress look like the bad guy. His lifting of the Presidential ban has no teeth as all real power rest with Congress (Or the People)...
Everything is political.
Oil is a world commodity. Sold to the highest bidder, pure and simple. Oil pumped here has a better chance of winding up in Japan or China than in American cars. To think that the oil companies will forgo obscene profits to give American drivers a break is being naive.
There is no shortage, the price increase is through speculation. You are being lied to by your president, yet again. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 8:48:45 PM | | i am confuse. Do we want to be dependant on other countries for our oil or not. And knowing that drilling ofshore would only help us after years and years and years then why in God's name would we procrastinate. Someone said in this thread that we would only be producing a certain percentage of what we actually already consume so it would be some sort of pathetic attempt to satisfy our oil and gas consumption. But infact its 16 billion barrels we didn't have before and it jobs we didn't have before. Alot of the cities in my state were boom towns and they thrive off of the oil and natural gas. How many jobs have been out sourced to the middle east because we are prohibited from drilling in this country? People have to live here. We need corn to be a food on our plates and oil to be what keeps us warm and pays our bills and keeps us mobile. If this the country is depressed now continue take food out of peoples mouths and money out of there pockets and you see real depression. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 9:01:55 PM |
prohibited from drilling in this country
Supply and demand. The less oil on the world market, the more that can be charged for it.
Ever seen Bush holding hands with the Saudi King? Hand in hand. Less oil, more profit. It's simple. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 9:32:58 PM | | This trivial amount of oil will not make us independent or less dependent on foreign oil. It will make little or no difference in prices. The benifits of the oil and the few jobs that would maybe come from it would be temporary. Do you think a temporary shot in the arm is worth the environmental risks? | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 9:33:27 PM |
Putting pressure on congressional Democrats to back more exploration for oil, President Bush on Monday lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling that has stood since his father was president. But the move, by itself, will do nothing unless Congress acts as well. The Democrats are NOT going to like that ban lifted... they will fight tooth and nail to be dependent on foreign oil. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 9:44:54 PM | panda said it.
we don't have enough oil in america to make a dent.
you guys think oil companies are going to save you?
what about a couple of years ago when the congress asked american oil companies to offer low cost heating oil for the poor and elderly during the winter?
they all declined!! that's how much they care about poor americans.
the only oil company to answer the call was venezuelas citgo which provided cheap heating oil to hundreds of thousands of poor americans.
you think george bush really cares about the high price of fuel?
it was Bush who cut funding for the LIHEAP program which provides low cost heating oil for the poor, mainly the elderly. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 9:50:12 PM |
you think george bush really cares about the high price of fuel? He cares alot more than the Democratic Leadership.. speaking of which.. where has Pelosi been lately.. she didn't return after the 4th of July Holiday..only seen for one photo op last week.. perhaps getting more cosmetic surgery done? or planning a protest for offshore drilling.. I don't know. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 9:59:52 PM |
He cares alot more than the Democratic Leadership
How, examples? How did you come to this opinion. Besides citing the illegal invasion of Iraq and no bid contracts to American oil companies, I don't see much help. | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 10:04:37 PM | ok glamour, i'm not sure what your post meant. it's just your unqualified sentiment.
my post is a fact.
Bush has cut funding for the LIHEAP (Low Income Home EnergyAssistance Program)program, which is a federal program to help the poor, the overwhelming majority which are elderly poor, to pay their heating bills.
Bush cut this program regularly with the approval of the Republican Congress:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/11/national/main532737.shtml
So if Bush doesn't care for the elderly poor, what makes you think he cares about your SUV? | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/14/2008 10:31:37 PM | WAIT...
More drilling won't help...
Remember the first excuse/reason for the price increase...
A refining capability shortage...
That seemed to have went away as people can still purchase all the gas they want at any pump in the country that their wallet will allow...
And it is all an attempt to blame the dems when the repubs had a 6 year run in charge, yet nothing was done...
Bush continues to show he so sucks... | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/15/2008 12:19:39 AM | This is a political stunt, nothing more nothing less.
He and Cheney are about devious enough to use this to benefit themselves and their oil buddies but aside from that I don't see him doing it for any other reason. Hell if he did he would be doing something completely out of character from the last 7+ years. He has sold us down the river time and time again, why do we expect anything else now? | |
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| Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling
Posted: 7/15/2008 12:47:41 AM | The oil companies don’t want to drill. They want to lock up the leases so no one else can drill. The oil companies already control millions of acres of land across the United States that they are not developing, because increasing supply lowers prices, and low prices are not what they want. Bought gasoline lately?
As for the rising price of oil, blame the Bush administration’s economic policies for that. Massive deficits and tax give-aways to the rich and corporations, war spending, and failure to combat unprecedented and ever-larger trade deficits, have been causing the dollar to plunge in value.
Oil is a commodity, and it is priced in dollars. | |
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