WASHINGTON - President Bush, on a campaign to open offshore waters to oil drilling, said Wednesday that the Democratic-run Congress was letting down the American people by refusing to allow votes on the matter.
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The president again pinned the prospect of oil drilling off the coastline — considered a long-term energy solution — to today's high gas prices for consumers.
"The American people are rightly frustrated by the failure of the Democratic leaders in Congress to enact commonsense solutions," the president said.
Bush acknowledged that development of oil resources in waters off the coastlines, an area known as the Outer Continental Shelf, would take time. But he said that only creates more urgency for Congress to lift its legislative ban on drilling in these protected waters before lawmakers leave Washington for summer break.
Bush has already lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling that had stood since his father was president. But that will have no effect unless Congress acts, too.
"All the Democratic leaders have to do is to allow a vote," Bush said. "They should not leave Washington without doing so."
The president gave essentially the same message on Tuesday to an audience of employees at a welding plant in Ohio. In his latest effort, his presidential prodding came with his Cabinet members standing behind him in the Rose Garden. He had just met with them on energy and other matters.
Both Congress and the president, plenty aware of American anger about gas prices, are scrambling to show some action.
Congress has been in a stalemate over energy legislation, with daily sniping between the parties over how to respond.
House and Senate Republicans have demanded a vote on opening new offshore waters — long off limits for environmental reasons.
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has ignored calls by Republican leaders for a vote on lifting the drilling bans in Atlantic and Pacific waters, arguing that oil companies already have vast areas available for drilling but have chosen not to do so.
"The president has failed in his economic policy, and now he wants to say, 'But for drilling in protected areas offshore, our economy would be thriving and the price of gas would be lower,'" Pelosi said Wednesday. "That hoax is unworthy of the serious debate we must have to relieve the pain of consumers at the pump and to promote energy independence."
The House was expected to take up a measure to counter oil market speculation on Wednesday, but under procedures that prevent Republicans from trying to attach an oil drilling measure.
The Senate has been considering a similar market speculation bill for more than a week, but has become embroiled in a partisan dispute over GOP demands that the legislation be opened to a string of other energy proposals, including expansion of offshore oil development. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., offered to take up four Republican proposals, including a drilling provision. Republicans rejected the overture, demanding a broader debate and action on energy.
As lawmakers move toward their annual August recess at the end of the week, it has become increasingly unlikely that substantive action on energy will be taken in Congress before fall despite hours of congressional rhetoric and public outcries. Only recently have high gas prices begun to recede.
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Associated Press Writer H. Josef Hebert contributed to this story.
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Stoopid repugs--when will you ever quit blaming Clinton? He's been out of office for almost eight years now...
STUPID democrats who are you going to blame when Bush and Cheney no longer exist??? I guess it never crossed your feeble little minds that Bush has only been in office for eight years and you people want to blame the whole oil mess on just him, what a bunch of idiots you are. Brock you and a few others on here are the only people that can see the truth and you're wasting you're breath on these tree hugging fools.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like at duck, it's probably a duck, James. Meaning, Environmentalists, along with the other usual wackos, are the core base of Democrat party. Yes, even with a Republican controlled congress through the Clinton vetos, and the period of a like minded presidency that lived through the Democrats never before seen filibusters, to the present day Democrat controlled congress that won't bring off shore drilling up for a vote, it most definately is the Democrats that are dutifully cutting America off at the knees.
Brock do Dems really stand in the way? Seems like the Republicans controlled Congress through most of Clinton's tenure and it seems Republicans controlled Congress and the White House until last January. Yeah bud those dirty dems really stood in the way. Common sense would tell you that if the Republicans wanted something they would've got it while they controlled everything. Hard for you to think things fully through isn't Brock?
Jeff how many terrorist attacks on US soil before Bush? One. We caught those guys real quick. Seems we went 9 more years without an attack from foreign terrorists, but of course Clinton probably bothered to read the intel reports instead of clearing brush back at the ranch and thinking the presidency was just an honorary thing...you know be named president, get a ribbon, go back home.
Michael in Shawnee, that spew about Clinton not doing nothing when we were attacked is pure BS. WTC I, perps are in prison. Cole? Clinton responded with airstrikes on terror camps. He would've done more but oddly enough the Republicans started screaming it was wrong and he was only doing it to get peoples minds off the impeachment. Osama wasn't even a wanted man in the US until 1995. Clinton was unwilling to order strikes against targets that might house Osama but more likely were filled with children and women. Now, Bush has had 7 years and the full backing of the military and Congress to bring Osama in. What did he do? Skipped around and put troops in place for his already planned invasion of Iraq. Get a clue.
I blame that secret energy policy meeting with oil execs and Cheney. Right after that then the whole nation becomes all about oil, an oil war, and skyrocketing prices. Of course the Hypocrite In Chief blames the now Dem led Congress. Funny how he had all those other years to do something and didn't. Now he gets to still do nothing and blame the Dems.
It's called self sufficiency Shane and drilling for our own is most definately the answer. Currently, we import 70% of our crude because Democrats stand in the way, which in turns makes us more susceptible to world markets and speculators worrying about tensions in the Middle East. If we produced our own energy for ourselves as we did back before the 90's, we wouldn't be supporting rogue nations hell bent on our destruction. Why Democrats want to further our demise is beyond me.... Btw, Andrew Rice will only further our dependency.
Is it me, or has this whole oil thing just been one story after another. I thought the whole problem was that we could not refine the raw product (oil) fast enough. I think this was the 2nd or 3rd story they told us. Anyway, how is drilling for more oil going to solve this problem? I live near a very large tank farm. Of which, these tanks are ALL full of crude oil. Drilling is hardly the answer. And to compare this problem with what we faced in the 70's doesn't really make sense. In the 70's, gas stations were OUT OF FUEL. I have yet to see a gas station without gas, just inflated prices. It is the oil speculators that need to be lynched and strung up for this problem.
The intriguing possibility is that this is a debate about a decision that really doesn't matter in the long run. Nobody with half a brain really believes drilling will solve the problem; it will only delay the inevitable a few years. It probably won't take us back to SUV's and cheap gas, at least for long. It also probably won't ruin the environment for more than a 50 years or so (which our children will retrospectively view as foolish of us some day). We will not decide this debate on what is smart, or what is right, or what is far sighted. We are Americans. We will decide it based on what feels good and makes money right now--today. The dominant thing that will matter for driving change is the high price of oil. It will force us to do what we should have done during the oil price crisis of the Carter era. We can drill or not drill--it hardly matters. Only when prices are high, will we look to achieving real energency efficiency and alternative fuels. And, we will probably be reasonably successful. After all, its not exactly rocket science.
Shane, you would do yourself a favor by taking a basic class in economics. Gas stations ran out of fuel in the 70s because of the artificial lowering of prices and the rationing required to achieve that end result. We don't run out of fuel now because the market sets the price.
Chris, we are just chasing our tails trying to up US production. The DOE report on ANWR clearly states that even with the maximum reserve projections, it could only drop world oil prices by $1.44 (or 3.4 cents a gallon). Offshore production wouldn't be much different. It's just a ploy to help out the Seven Sisters before Bush/Cheney leave office, and nothing more. If we really want to do something that will help America, we need to go the way of Pickens and Mc Clendon - the natural gas way, and just forget about crude oil. The Arabs dominate crude now, and will even after we explore all the proerties offshore.
Wonder why Nancy Pelosi won't even allow a vote to be taken on offshore drilling? I'm sure part of it is because some members of congress don't want to be forced to show their hand on where they stand on this issue. This just demonstrates that they aren't going to deal with this issue any more that the current administration will deal with it. Also, it's not likely that anything meaningful will happen after this next election whether it's McCain or Obama.
Hydrogen as a fuel is being dumped on by disinformation agents of the oil industry and untruths are spread about its expense. Here are some of my thoughts written to other people concerning water as a fuel. Americans, as well as the rest of the world, have to stand up to the profiteering elite of the world using oil to rape our economies and the environment. The Germans, in WWII, used Hydrogen, derived from water, to fuel the V-2 Rocket and their Rocket Propelled Fighter. Both of these weapons used H2O2 and Alcohol as fuel. The U S Air force has used water, as a supplemental fuel in B52 Bombers, C141 Cargo and KC 135 Tankers for over 30 years. The water is injected after the jet fuel combusts and the water is converted to hydrogen and oxygen to boost takeoff thrust. Cheap energy is a fact and water is the fuel. The Scramjet technology uses water vapor as fuel. The atmosphere is compressed and heated until the water vapor becomes hydrogen and oxygen and combusts when the temperature is above the flashpoint of hydrogen providing thrust. An endless energy supply. Zero Point Energy Generators also perform the same process at ground level. I have created inventions that use these principles. My web site is burnwaterasfuel.tripod.com
Her lies the problem:
The economy is in horrible shape, and to help alleviate some of the problems, we have to drill for oil.
There is enough oil in the gulf to supply the US; we do not need China or Russia and especially Cuba in US territory taking oil from us. I am completely aware that it will take 5-10 years to see any kind of impact drilling would have in the industry, but we have reserves, 10 to 14 years worth of reserves. Why don’t we conservatively use the reserves while we drill in Alaska and the Gulf, and in the meantime look for alternative supplies for oil (according to some it would take approx 20 years to find alt. oil). I think this might dramatically lower the gas prices and hopefully boost the economy. Your opinion????
At this point, I do not care who is to blame! JUST DO SOMETHING!!! Work together. If they can’t DO NOT elect them in November!!!! (I know bush is in his last term, I am referring to the next president). In the end, hard-working people are hurting - not the govt.
He has been a failure in everything he has done, Hitcher the movie, FAIL, Arbusto Energy, FAIL, Iraq war, FAIL, Economy, FAIL, the only thing he has succeeded in is winning two elections, and taking away Americans rights. And come on Michael don't give me this its Clinton's fault, that is just dog crap, Bush has had eight years in office, the reason we are in the state we are in is the Bush administration, we can use the same stupid argument and say it is Bush Sr's fault, or Reagan's fault. Wake up don't be the 28% of fools who still support the worst president since Richard Nixon.
We have a national debt figure of over 9 trillion dollars and Bush is responsible for the fastest and largest increase ever recorded (3 trillion). For you that do not believe, check this out: http://www.cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/usdebt.png
Don't fool yourselves, Bush never has been in charge. It's been Cheney all along, and he has run this country like a Halliburton CEO, and you and I are his employees. Bush can't even read his teleprompter for godssakes. As for this plea for OCS leases, it's a last chance power grab for Cheney's oil buds before he leaves the whitehouse, that's all it is. The production from all those leases won't make more than a 5 cent/gal difference at the pumps. ANWR would be even less. The sad thing is that they are using a national tragedy (oil prices) to justify their greed.
Michael I agree somewhat with your statements, particularly about the war for oil and it being inevitable the situation we are now on. With that being said, our country isn't the same right now, and it started when Bush took office, not immediately but relatively soon...He has made bad decision after bad decision. Most Presidents try to put people smarter than themselves around them to help with decision making. Bush did the opposite. Look at Gonzalez for christ sake, dude is an idiot. Put people in power based on qualifications, not what they believe in. Hopefully Americans have learned their lesson, but I doubt it...
Oh great, now here comes the blame game for the man who created the largest budgetary surplus in the last 40 years. The man that presided over the largest economic expansion since before Vietnam. Michael, like Bush you seem to enjoy passing the blame instead of assessing it correctly.
This mess was set in motion way befor Bush took office. Bill Clinton did nothing about bin Laden when we attacked twice by him. Bill Clinton authorized use of force to oust Saddam, and if you remember correctly, the UN and most of the world community was behind the invasion of Iraq. Drilling off the shelf will not lower prices over night, but you need to think about this harder, drilling now will keep us from fighting a real "war for oil" with China within the next twenty years. They are expanding their sphere of influence into Africa and South America. It isn't about lower prices it is about infrastructure. We need to drill now while improving alternative energy. We need a mixture of both. If we are forced by congress to use ethanol and high efficiency light bulbs while not searching for oil we will not be the same country when our kids are grown up. Look at the big picture. There was no master mind to this mess it was inevitable.
And I seriously hope Brock was joking, because that is almost the most moronic statement I've heard this year. I have to say almost because I subjected myself to the Bush video earlier. The only people who do not want lower gas prices are oil companies and those who are benefitted by those oil companies (i.e. Bush and Chaney).
Didn't British Petroleum get caught earlier this year shipping Alaskan oil to Asia and therefore creating an 'artificial shortage' of oil on the West Coast, resulting in higher gas prices? Doesn't it only cost oil companies between $5 and $6 to pump a barrel of oil out of the ground? Didn't Exxon help the Nazis extend WWII by about two years by providing them with coal-to-oil technology that the US currently ignores? Don't our president, vice-president, and secretary of state have past connections with oil companies? Oh no, it CAN'T be Big Oil at fault or at least complicit here!
Ahh its everyone's favorite moron/president de facto. Is this all he was "elected" for? To pass blame rather than actually fix a problem, one that he and his conservative buddies created--this seems to be his only skill. If you honestly think that drilling will curb gas prices in this country, why don't you go ask the Mexicans or Canadians what they are paying? Millions of ordinary citizens are having to go broke to get to work, all while the portion of what we pay for gas that goes to the actual oil company is even more than the total cost of what we were paying a mere four years ago. These companies continue to rake in record profits, but our president does not see that as the problem. It would be nice if we had a president that does not subscribe to this same old tired rhetoric that making the rich richer will ultimately benefit this country. We have had 8 years of this farce of an economic policy, and all it has done is plunge our country into a depression, put millions out of work and push those of who are lucky enough to still be employed to the point of destitution
Bush has never accepted the blame for anything during his eight years of dismal leadership. Not the war, our military woes, not the cost of fuel, the economy, torturing prisoners, nothing. Nothing in his feeble eight years of leadership has he ever accepted fault. Play the blame game a little more but your time is running out. Own up to it George, you were the mastermind creating all this mess handed on a silver platter to the next president.
if anyone thinks that this action of allowing offshore drilling will lower prices in the long run they are kidding themselves. I guess China and India's demand for oil will suddenly go down after they start drilling? I think that was one of the republicans demands. All this is, is big oil with deep pockets lobbying Bush and the rest of the republicans so they can get richer. It's true, don't be naive...
Outlaw, read the fine print. Most of the land they are allowed to drill on they cannont produce on. Most of the land they can produce on they cannot drill on. Some areas they have leased they can explore, but neither prduce or drill. Nancy Pelosi is full of it and she knows it. Oh and look at the percentages on how much oil American companies actually produce compared to the rest of the world. It is squat compared to what it used to be. Outlaw you need to use your brain.
Oil companies haven't drilled on 90% or more of the land that they already own, so this is just a ploy to have one more land grab before the Republicans lose power for the next 4-8 years. Without building new refineries there won't be any more gasoline so supply will stay the same. Who's in charge of building refineries? Oh yeah, big oil.
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Thank you for joining our conversations on NewsOK.com. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Leave a comment. Log in below or sign up (it's free).Editor's note: It is not our intent to offer comments on crime or fatality stories.
The economy is in horrible shape, and to help alleviate some of the problems, we have to drill for oil.
There is enough oil in the gulf to supply the US; we do not need China or Russia and especially Cuba in US territory taking oil from us. I am completely aware that it will take 5-10 years to see any kind of impact drilling would have in the industry, but we have reserves, 10 to 14 years worth of reserves. Why don’t we conservatively use the reserves while we drill in Alaska and the Gulf, and in the meantime look for alternative supplies for oil (according to some it would take approx 20 years to find alt. oil). I think this might dramatically lower the gas prices and hopefully boost the economy. Your opinion????
At this point, I do not care who is to blame! JUST DO SOMETHING!!! Work together. If they can’t DO NOT elect them in November!!!! (I know bush is in his last term, I am referring to the next president). In the end, hard-working people are hurting - not the govt.