Little impact seen with lifting of ban on offshore drilling

A U.S. agency has said that lifting of the ban would raise oil production 7 percent by 2030.

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Monday lifted the 18-year-old White House ban on offshore drilling, but his action is likely to have no impact on prices or supplies anytime soon, if ever.

Bush talked tough Monday, appearing in the Rose Garden and explaining, “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 in 1990 and renewed in 1998 by President Clinton. The government bans exploration and drilling on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and most of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, to protect U.S. beaches and fisheries from pollution.

There have been some signs recently that the political climate is changing, and Democratic leaders in Congress who oppose further drilling could face a tougher fight to keep the congressional moratorium in place.

Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said last week that he was open to some drilling. A June 26-29 CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll found that 73 percent of people surveyed favored more drilling.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain has made drilling a major part of his energy plan. Democratic rival Barack Obama remains opposed; spokesman Bill Burton said Monday that drilling “would merely prolong the failed energy policies we have seen from Washington for 30 years.”

Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives strongly oppose more drilling and called instead for releasing part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and expanding cleaner energy alternatives and greater efficiency. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., branded Bush’s plan a “hoax,” and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., labeled it “a political stunt.”

Republicans fired back, with Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., saying that drilling foes acted “at the behest of radical environmental groups,” and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., charging that Democrats were “inventing excuses and obscuring the issue.”

However, even if Congress, which is scheduled to begin its summer recess Aug. 8, lifted its ban on expanded drilling, consumers wouldn’t see much change in their energy bills.

The U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration reported last year that crude oil production would be 7 percent higher by 2030 if the ban were lifted on the offshore areas.

Its report also said, “Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant.”

The United States has only 2 percent of world oil reserves but uses 25 percent of the oil. And oil produced in the U.S. is sold on the international market, not reserved for domestic use.