Bush: Congress' Failure To Lift Offshore Ban "Unacceptable"

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - President George W. Bush issued a strongly-worded radio address over the weekend rebuking lawmakers for failing to lift the ban on coastal oil exploration before adjourning for the summer recess.

"This failure to act is unacceptable to me and unacceptable to the American people," Bush said in his weekly address from the White House. "So when they return from their summer break, Democratic leaders should show that they've heard the frustration of the American people by allowing a vote on offshore exploration. If Congress does not act, they will owe families across America an explanation for why they're ignoring their concerns."

The President argued that lifting the ban would let Americans benefit from a rich resource - 10 years worth of the nation's current oil production - as well as increase employment and create new businesses. He repeated his proposal to tap oil shales in the Green River Basin of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming as well as strengthening the nation's refining capacity.

In a speech last week, Bush warned lawmakers not to adjourn without passing legislation lifting the 1981 moratorium on drilling in 80 percent of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). He lifted a 1990 executive order prohibiting coastal oil exploration early last month to increase pressure on Democrats to follow suit.

He admitted that the effects of lifting the ban "will take time," a frequent argument by critics, but said, "the sooner Congress lifts the ban, the sooner we can get this oil from beneath the ocean floor to your gas tank."

The President also made sure to emphasize that the record rise in oil prices was not the result of his "failed economic policies," as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has repeatedly said.

"It is important to remember that these high prices were not inevitable. They are partially the result of policy choices that have been made over the years by the United States Congress. Now Congress has an opportunity to begin reversing that damage," Bush said.

Democratic and Republican debate about an energy bill reached a gridlock just before going on recess on Friday. Democrats have argued that that oil companies should first drill on the 68 million acres of land already leased to them and that excessive speculation in oil markets is the root cause of rising oil prices. Pelosi has also been pushing for a drawdown from the nation's oil stockpile, which Bush has said will only be done in emergencies.

Pelosi was firm in statement that she would not let a vote on drilling reach the floor even in the face of a floor protest by House Republican. "We're sitting on 700 million barrels of oil. That would have an immediate effect in 10 days. What our colleagues are talking about is something that won't have an effect for 10 years and it will be two cents at the time... to single-shoot on something that won't work, and mislead the American people as to thinking it's going to reduce the price at the pump -- I'm just not going to be a party to it," she told ABC on Sunday.