Bush applies pressure on offshore drilling, offers GOP election help

A war of words broke out on Capitol Hill after President Bush lifted the executive order that prevents oil and gas drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

And Republicans found themselves with new ammunition against Democrats in an election year where the price of gas hovers near $4 a gallon.

{mosads}Bush made it clear in a Rose Garden statement Monday that the move was designed to put pressure on congressional Democrats. Republicans on the Hill, advocates of Bush’s decision, quickly backed up the White House with harsh language aimed at forcing Democrats’ hands on the issue.

Bush said last month he wanted to lift the executive order, but noted he wanted to do so in concert with Congress because permission to drill requires what the White House calls a “two-key system,” meaning both the president and Congress had independent drilling moratoria that needed to be lifted.

The president said Monday that because Democrats have “done nothing” to join him in removing the ban, he was acting on his own, meaning “that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress.”

“Failure to act is unacceptable,” Bush said. “It’s unacceptable to me and it’s unacceptable to the American people.”

Senate and House Democrats were quick to decry Bush’s move as an election-year trick, and the issue provided for yet another contrast in the race between presidential candidates Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the move a “hoax,” while House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said, “It’s clear [the president] wants political ads, not answers.”

In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made it clear he will not allow a vote on an amendment that would do what Bush is advocating. Reid’s declaration drew a sharp rebuke from Senate Republicans.

Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), ranking member on the Senate Energy Committee, called Reid “chicken” for not allowing a vote. Domenici said Reid’s refusal to allow a vote means Congress will be forced to revisit the issue during debate over the Interior Department’s appropriations bill, which usually includes annual renewal of the congressional ban because it automatically expires every year.

Democrats, however, held firm, challenging the president to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and stepping up their efforts to pass the “Use it or lose it” legislation that would require oil companies to drill on lands where they currently hold a federal lease or risk losing that lease.

The White House has insisted that such a statute is already in place, and White House press secretary Dana Perino said Monday morning that the current state of the market renders absurd the notion “that anyone would be sitting on oil they could be selling.”

On the Hill, Republicans embraced the White House’s decision as an important internal victory for congressional Republicans who have been quietly urging the action for weeks, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

The announcement gives GOP lawmakers leverage and ratchets up the pressure on Democrats on an issue that has steadily gained public support as gas prices have continued to rise.

“House Republicans have been privately urging the White House to make this move for weeks,” said a House GOP leadership aide. “A key moment came last week when Rep. Boustany announced in [the House Republican] conference that he was circulating a letter urging the president to take this action unilaterally.”

 Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. (R-La.) and 93 other Republicans signed on to the letter.

 “We believe the time is right for you to take the first step,” the letter said, adding that a resolution had been filed in the House to repeal the executive order. “Accordingly, we urge you to proactively revoke the executive memorandum banning energy production on the United States Outer Continental Shelf and ask that you continue to work with Congress to increase American-made energy production.”

“I asked [Minority] Leader [John] Boehner [Ohio] why the president hadn’t acted on it yet, and he said he had spoken to him,” Boustany said. “I think with Leader Boehner’s prodding and the full force on the conference behind him, it helped [push] the president to lift the executive moratorium on the OCS. “

On July 10, several House Republicans met with Vice President Dick Cheney and asked him to encourage the president to do whatever he could to push the drilling issue.

Democratic leadership has opposed drilling in coastal areas, calling it a “hoax” that would not lower gas prices or create energy independence. Last week, Pelosi suggested Bush release 700 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a way to relieve growing energy costs.

In recent weeks, House Republicans have made energy the centerpiece of their agenda, using floor tactics and legislative maneuvering to push the issue to the front of the debate — despite Democratic efforts to shift onto other topics.

However, not all Democrats have shunned the drilling option. Rep Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) announced last week that he and Rep. John Peterson (R-Pa.) will form a bipartisan working group of 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans to discuss energy issues including drilling. The members will be announced Tuesday.

On the campaign trail, Obama and McCain reiterated their party’s positions, with Obama restating the Democratic-held position that opening up the OCS would not provide any relief for 10 years and such a move “would merely prolong the failed energy policies we have seen from Washington for 30 years.”

Obama is proposing another economic stimulus package that includes “energy rebates for working families.”

“If offshore drilling would provide short-term relief at the pump or a long-term strategy for energy independence, it would be worthy of our consideration, regardless of the risks,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said. “But most experts, even within the Bush administration, concede it would do neither.”

McCain, who until recently opposed drilling in the OCS, hailed Bush’s decision and criticized Obama for coming out against it.

“John McCain and Barack Obama agree that serious steps must be taken to pursue renewable energies and alternative fuels to combat our dependence on foreign oil,” said McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds. “But the truth is, Barack Obama is the only candidate who opposes deep-water oil exploration, and every other near- and mid-term measure that could reduce skyrocketing prices at the pump.”

Manu Raju contributed to this article.