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Bush Lifts Drilling Ban

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In keeping with his image, the president made a lot of noise on Monday while accomplishing absolutely nothing. In keeping with theirs, the Democrats condemned the president while making plans to roll over. George W. Bush lifted an executive oil drilling ban, but a national moratorium remains in place. The hot air, meanwhile, is getting to the Democrats, some of whom chastised the president while others worked up one of their famous compromises.

New York Times:

“We want oil and gas companies to drill for oil on the leases they have been given,” said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader.

But Mr. Reid is facing an increasing uneasiness among his own senators who have talked more receptively about increased drilling in recent weeks as a result of public anger over rising gas prices. A bipartisan group of senators is trying to develop a compromise energy plan and the leaders of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee have scheduled a workshop for Thursday for lawmakers and other experts to appear and offer their ideas about how to respond to the climb in oil prices.Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus who was a prominent figure in the White House of President Bill Clinton, called Mr. Bush’s action “a political stunt.”

“If the president wants to lower gas prices, he should stop hosting press conferences and start taking action,” Mr. Emanuel said. “Releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and forcing oil companies to drill on the 68 million acres they already control would be a good place to start.”

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By hippy pam, July 15, 2008 at 3:29 pm #

I remember-20 years ago-when the gubmint P.T.Bs-said ALTERNATIVE ENERGIES[i.e.solar etc.]WAS JUST TO COST PROHIBITIVE TO PURSUE.If we would have made them do it THEN we would not be here NOW…..

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By Jim Yell, July 15, 2008 at 11:25 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

When I was young I lived in oil country in Texas. The streams ran opaquely black with discarded oil waste. Animals were embedded in waste lagoons and carbon black floated across the prairies turning grass and cattle black, not to mention the women’s clean laundry hung out to dry.

This did not change because petroleum decide that producing the oil included the costs of containing and limiting the polution, but because the public began to understand and the government showed signs of being a responsible custodian of the peoples rights and the need to set rules for industry to follow.

The Republican’s want to throw the baby out with the bath water, because all they think about are short term profits and the people and environment be damned and the Democratic Leadership seem to be in a contest to prove that they can betray the public interest and ignore the concerns of the voters. Corporate money is killing this country.

Petroleum is not the answer, a different use and different sources of energy are. More oil is just more of death and distruction.

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By Jaded Prole, July 15, 2008 at 7:50 am #

With a change in administration pending this is meaningless and could be undone long before the fist offshore oilrigs appear.

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