Finally!

The AP has a story today, Bush lifting ban on offshore drilling to combat high gas prices. It states that "President Bush on Monday lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling that has stood since his father was president."

Maybe our President is a reader of James' Thoughts and Musings. In my June 18 post, I'm Slightly Mad at President Bush, I said the following:

"Bush does not have to grovel before Congress to permit offshore drilling. It was an executive order that put the ban into place. (Bush, Sr. did this in 1990). And it's an executive order that can remove it."

Okay, I'm just kidding. I seriously doubt that I have the power to influence national energy policy. But I'm glad that Bush is actually doing something. This is the Bush I have always known and loved: the take-charge conservative ideologue.

It turns out, though, that Bush will still have to convince Congress, which has its own separate prohibition of offshore drilling. I don't understand why we needed two separate prohibitions. Wasn't one enough? Maybe they pertain to different areas, I don't know.

In my post, Biden's Bad and Good Points, I discussed Democratic Senator Joe Biden's point that a lot of oil companies don't want to drill offshore, since they like these high gas prices. Maybe he's right, but shouldn't we at least give them the chance to drill in case they want to? "We should ban offshore drilling because oil companies don't want to drill there anyway" (my paraphrase) is not a good argument, in my opinion.

Way to go, President Bush! Maybe his last year in office won't be so bad, after all.