Offshore Drilling

WASHINGTON - President Bush lifted the 18-year-old White House ban on offshore drilling yesterday, but his action is likely to have no impact on prices or supplies anytime soon, if ever. Bush talked tough yesterday, appearing in the Rose Garden and saying, "With this action, the executive branch's restrictions on this exploration have been cleared away. "This means that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress." There are two bars to offshore drilling, one first imposed by Congress in 1981 and another signed by Bush's father, President George Bush, in 1990 and renewed in 1998 by President Bill Clinton.

President Obama's State of the Union speech to Congress last night focused largely on jobs, taxes and income inequality, but it had plenty of red meat in it for those concerned about energy and the environment. He vowed to continue to push for "clean energy" while touting the economic potential of shale gas and defending environmental regulations.  He defended government incentives for developing solar, wind and high-tech battery industries, but called for an end to longstanding subsidies for the oil and gas industry.  "It's time to end the taxpayer giveaways to an industry that rarely has been more profitable and double down on a clean energy industry that never has been more promising," he said.  But he renewed his call for an "all-out, all-of-the-above strategy" to develop every available source of American energy, and said he was directing his administration to open up more than 75 percent of potential offshore oil and gas resources for drilling.

WASHINGTON - President Bush called on Congress yesterday to clear the way for offshore oil drilling, saying that it could match current production for 10 years and that new methods allow drilling that protects habitats against spills. With Democrats in Congress opposed to drilling, Bush said that their opposition is "outdated and counterproductive" and that it "helped drive gas prices to their current level." Saying that $4-a-gallon gasoline prices should be "enough incentive" for Democrats to act, Bush asked, "How high do gas prices have to rise before the Democratic Congress will do something about it?"

First, there was Katrina, then Haiti, and now the oil spill. The world has been hit with many disasters; this being a huge man-made mistake, and it could have been prevented. In many ways, I believe the spill is the fault of BP. They should have better prepared themselves for this. Yet again, I also believe this issue is in the hands of President Barack Obama. Since it has happened under his watch, it should partially be his responsibility to clean this mess up. The ban on expanding offshore drilling was the right policy.

WASHINGTON -- In the latest sign of the political jitters on Capitol Hill over high gasoline prices, a House panel voted yesterday to relax a long-standing federal ban on new oil and gas drilling off most of the U.S. coast and to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration. The action by the House Committee on Resources improved the prospects for drilling in the Alaskan refuge, a long-sought Bush administration goal that is bitterly opposed by environmentalists. The measure will be packaged into an omnibus spending-cut bill before going to the House floor.

WASHINGTON -- Spurred in part by higher energy prices, the House of Representatives voted yesterday to effectively rescind a decades-old federal moratorium on offshore drilling for oil and gas, a vote proponents hope will be the first step toward opening the outer continental shelf to more fuel exploration. The bill, which passed 232-187, would permit states that agree to offshore drilling to share in the royalties from the leases, which would create a financial incentive to spur development.

WASHINGTON -The Obama administration put the brakes yesterday on a push to expand oil and gas drilling off the U.S. coastline and promised to speed development of offshore wind farms. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that he will extend public comments for six months on a last-minute proposal by the Bush administration to open swaths of the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf coasts for drilling. He also ordered Interior Department staff to compile data on the potential benefits from oil, gas and renewable development offshore, and he pledged public hearings on drilling, including one to be held on the West Coast.

WASHINGTON - Get Kathy Phillips talking about oil exploration off the Mid-Atlantic, and she conjures a scene right out of the Gulf of Mexico, with drilling platforms, pipelines and pumping stations overwhelming the shoreline. "People here on the East Coast don't have a clue what it means to have offshore drilling," said Phillips, an environmental activist with the Assateague Coastal Trust. "It's dirty business. The water is dirty, and your beaches end up being dirty, and you're dealing with globules of oil and globs of tar. "I'm not even talking about oil spills.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's proposal to include expanded offshore drilling in a Democratic energy bill has nothing to do with reducing the cost of gas and everything to do with increasing votes for Democrats in November. Voters should listen carefully to what candidates are saying about energy policy between now and Election Day and favor those pushing aggressive efforts to develop alternative energy resources and conservation - two keys to a brighter energy future. Continued reliance on oil is not a long-term solution.

Democrats and Republicans have been distressingly ready in recent days to provide some comic relief for Americans looking for a distraction from the one-two punch of costly energy and devalued homes. But their campaign exchanges on the high price of oil are painfully far removed from the heart of the problem. Sen. John McCain and congressional Republicans are demanding that Congress return from its summer recess and act immediately on a bill favoring offshore drilling. (They've seen the polls showing Americans favor it.)

WASHINGTON -The Obama administration put the brakes yesterday on a push to expand oil and gas drilling off the U.S. coastline and promised to speed development of offshore wind farms. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that he will extend public comments for six months on a last-minute proposal by the Bush administration to open swaths of the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf coasts for drilling. He also ordered Interior Department staff to compile data on the potential benefits from oil, gas and renewable development offshore, and he pledged public hearings on drilling, including one to be held on the West Coast.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's proposal to include expanded offshore drilling in a Democratic energy bill has nothing to do with reducing the cost of gas and everything to do with increasing votes for Democrats in November. Voters should listen carefully to what candidates are saying about energy policy between now and Election Day and favor those pushing aggressive efforts to develop alternative energy resources and conservation - two keys to a brighter energy future. Continued reliance on oil is not a long-term solution.

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is considering legislation that would permit new offshore drilling as part of a broad energy bill, a response to growing anxiety within her party that Republicans are gaining traction in election-year attacks that Democrats aren't doing enough to address high gasoline prices. One proposal being considered would let states decide whether to permit new energy exploration off their coasts while possibly maintaining the drilling ban off the Pacific coast, according to a House leadership aide who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of negotiations.

Democrats and Republicans have been distressingly ready in recent days to provide some comic relief for Americans looking for a distraction from the one-two punch of costly energy and devalued homes. But their campaign exchanges on the high price of oil are painfully far removed from the heart of the problem. Sen. John McCain and congressional Republicans are demanding that Congress return from its summer recess and act immediately on a bill favoring offshore drilling. (They've seen the polls showing Americans favor it.)

LANSING, Mich. - With the politics of energy shifting as rapidly as gasoline prices, Democrats, led by Barack Obama, are retreating from long-held positions and scrambling to offer distressed voters more immediate relief from spiraling costs. The change has been most striking on the campaign trail, where Obama said in a speech yesterday that he would abandon his past position and support tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to quickly cut prices at the gasoline pump. His presidential campaign later released a statement warning that the "doubling of oil prices in the past year is a crisis for millions of Americans."

WASHINGTON - Get Kathy Phillips talking about oil exploration off the Mid-Atlantic, and she conjures a scene right out of the Gulf of Mexico, with drilling platforms, pipelines and pumping stations overwhelming the shoreline. "People here on the East Coast don't have a clue what it means to have offshore drilling," said Phillips, an environmental activist with the Assateague Coastal Trust. "It's dirty business. The water is dirty, and your beaches end up being dirty, and you're dealing with globules of oil and globs of tar. "I'm not even talking about oil spills.

Hernando Santos Castillo, 76, chairman of El Tiempo newspaper and a political power broker who was perhaps the most influential Colombian journalist of his generation, died Tuesday from complications of a cerebral hemorrhage suffered April 7 in Bogota, Colombia. John Broome, 85, a DC Comics writer whose 25-year career included work on the superheroes Green Lantern and Flash, died of a heart attack March 14 while traveling in Thailand. Mr. Broome wrote under his name and the pseudonyms John Osgood and Edgar Ray Merritt.

WASHINGTON - President Bush lifted the 18-year-old White House ban on offshore drilling yesterday, but his action is likely to have no impact on prices or supplies anytime soon, if ever. Bush talked tough yesterday, appearing in the Rose Garden and saying, "With this action, the executive branch's restrictions on this exploration have been cleared away. "This means that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress." There are two bars to offshore drilling, one first imposed by Congress in 1981 and another signed by Bush's father, President George Bush, in 1990 and renewed in 1998 by President Bill Clinton.

WASHINGTON - President Bush called on Congress yesterday to clear the way for offshore oil drilling, saying that it could match current production for 10 years and that new methods allow drilling that protects habitats against spills. With Democrats in Congress opposed to drilling, Bush said that their opposition is "outdated and counterproductive" and that it "helped drive gas prices to their current level." Saying that $4-a-gallon gasoline prices should be "enough incentive" for Democrats to act, Bush asked, "How high do gas prices have to rise before the Democratic Congress will do something about it?"