Capps rips Bush on drilling
Rep.
Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, ripped President Bush’s repeal of the moratorium
on coastal oil and gas leasing this week as “disappointing, but not
particularly surprising.”
The
president, on July 14, announced that he is lifting the White House embargo on
oil and gas leasing in U.S. coastal waters, tossing the issue into Congress’s
court.
“The
executive branch’s restrictions on this exploration have been cleared away,” he
said. “This means that the only thing standing between the American people and
these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress.”
Capps
immediately issued a statement condemning Bush’s decision: “President Bush has
been pushing a failed energy strategy, focused primarily on increasing domestic
drilling, for 7½ years, and America is suffering from the results.”
After
pointing out that the oil and gas industry “already has access to 68 million
acres of public land, both offshore and onshore, where it is not drilling,”
Capps declared: “This looks like another Bush Administration gift to a much
favored special interest, in this case big oil and gas companies that are
gouging American consumers already. Congress can and should reject this bad
idea.”