Thursday, July 31, 2008

President Bush Lifts Executive Ban On Offshore Oil Drilling

President Bush has lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling signed by his father in 1990, but that has no effect until Congress lifts its prohibitions as well. Some of the moratoria along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico have been in place for 27 years. Congressional Democrats are maintaining that oil companies already have vast areas available [68 million acres] for drilling but have chosen not to develop the federal leases they already hold. AAEA opposes lifting the ban on offshore drilling.

It does not appear that Congress will pass any energy legislation before its August recess.

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