Republicans are behind the push

Feb 5, 2009 09:04 GMT  ·  By
Obama stopped all of Bush's "last-minute" legislation, pending a full review
   Obama stopped all of Bush's "last-minute" legislation, pending a full review

Former President Bush apparently left office before he could do “right” by all his supporters, as proven by the fact that only yesterday Republican senators urged President Barack Obama to resume the proceedings on an offshore drilling plan, meant to last for the next few years. The politicians also asked the President not to close several areas of the Pacific and the Atlantic to the exploitations, as this would be bad for the economy. However, certain regions are being seriously endangered, and the President will hopefully not heed the voices of these people.

The 5-year plan the Bush administration passed in its last weeks, similar to a Soviet development one, was fortunately halted by the new President, along with other “midnight” decisions the former commander-in-chief made while at the White House. Most of these regulations refer to environmental issues, and a great number of them is against nature, allowing various types of companies to exploit gas, oil and coal at full speed, without having to go through the normal channels in order to get approval.

“We respectfully urge that you allow the five-year offshore drilling plan to continue, because it is vital to our economy. Our country needs to remain on the path to American energy independence, and we believe this is a critical and achievable goal,” House Republican Leader John Boehner said in a letter to Obama, on Tuesday. Boehner is the leader of the Republican lawmaker group behind the message.

Obama halted the original policy in order to re-assess its impacts on the environment, and to ensure that the exploitations did not cause more harm than good. It's currently estimated that millions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of gas are located in the area off the coast of the United States, but opening spots up in public auctions can cause irreversible damage, and the current presidency is looking at addressing the nations' energy security issue in a responsible manner.