Bush greenlights drilling offshore, pressures Congress to follow suit

Look out Florida beachgoers -- President Bush is announcing today that he's lifting a longstanding executive order first imposed by his father in 1990 banning offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere along the nation's coast.

The move won't lead directly to new rigs sprouting off Caladesi Island, of course. Instead it's "aimed at stepping up pressure on Congress to end the prohibition it imposed in 1981," the Washington Post reports.

In a speech last month, Bush called for ending the 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," the Post reports. Congress disdained his advice, so now he's charging ahead and hoping Congress will follow, his press secretary explained.

"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, told the Associated Press. "The president is taking special-interest government to a new level and threatening our thriving coastal economy."

Of course, with gas topping $4 a gallon, Floridians may disagree. As one Louisiana resident told USA Today recently, ""It's OK to have an ugly spot in your backyard if that spot has oil coming out of it."

[Photo of Caladesi Island by Jim Damaske, St. Petersburg Times]

--Craig Pittman

Comments

[Don in St. Pete]

Bush will never give up trying to sell out the American people to Big Oil as long as there is a fetid breath left in him

[chris in FL]

The majority of this country is not enjoying Florida beaches, why should they care. Let's just enjoy our white sand while we still can!