In a morning statement given from the Rose Garden, the White House indicated it plans on lifting the executive ban on offshore oil drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf.
The move by itself does not clear the way to drilling, but steps up pressure on Congress to lift its legislative ban on offshore drilling in place since the 1980’s.
Through all this debate about clearing new areas for drilling, little is mentioned of the 68 million acres of federal leases Big Oil already have for development, but remain untouched.
Thus far Congress has shown little interest to allow offshore drilling in areas currently protected, but with increasing pressure from Bush and mounting hysteria and disinformation about oil reserves, combined with Congress’ past record in effectively countering Bush’s policies, all bets are off on what happens next.
