Bush slams Dems for ‘obstructing’ new oil production

President Bush on Saturday addressed the country to make the case for increasing domestic oil production and blasted Democrats for standing in the way of his plans.

“My administration has repeatedly called on Congress to open access to new oil exploration here in the United States,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. “Unfortunately, Democrats on Capitol Hill have rejected virtually every proposal. Now Americans are paying the price at the pump for this obstruction.”

{mosads}Bush has proposed drilling in Alaska, exploring oil shale reserves in the Rocky Mountains and the Green River Basin, expanding stateside oil refineries, and granting access to currently protected offshore drilling sites.

With oil prices close to $140 a barrel and Americans having to pay an average of more than $4 a gallon for gasoline, the issue has become one of the major campaign topics this year, with each side trying to blame the other for the price explosion.

While the GOP has been pushing measures to open up new areas for exploration, Democrats said they agreed that America’s oil supply should be increased but argued that oil companies have enough existing opportunities to do so.

The Republican initiative plays in the favor of oil companies, which already have access to 68 million acres of public land for drilling purposes, said Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) in Saturday’s Democratic radio address.

“Big Oil does not need to be coddled,” said the chairman of the House Natural Resources committee. “It needs a kick in the backside.”

Opening offshore drilling to oil companies could reap as much as 18 million additional barrels of oil, Bush has argued. But critics say such a venture would not affect gas prices in the immediate future because it would take several years for such oil to make it to the market.

Rahall said renewable fuels and reduced energy consumption is the long-term solution that Democrats will continue to pursue to fulfill the country’s energy needs.

In the meantime House Democrats said four energy-related bills are expected to reach the floor next week, including a measure that pushes oil companies to use the drilling and exploration leases they currently hold and legislation that would reduce consumer public transit fares. Democrats also want to tackle that commodity speculation is partially to blame for the high gas prices and want Congress to act on the issue.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) criticized the Democrats’ effort to bring the four measures to the floor, calling it a “charade.”

“None of the bills the Democratic leaders reportedly plan to bring up next week will lower gas prices or increase production of American energy, and they know it,” Boehner said in a statement Friday night.

Presidential candidates Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) have battled over the issue in recent weeks.

McCain reversed his opposition to ending the moratorium against offshore drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf – the sloping edges of America’s coasts – earlier in the week, aligning himself with Bush and fellow GOP members.

Meanwhile Obama has continued to support the ban passed by Congress in 1981 in an effort to protect the coastal regions from further deterioration.