Bush Pushes Oil Rigs off California – Arnie Disagrees.

Yesterday afternoon United States President George W. Bush lifted the executive ban on drilling for oil on the Outer Continental Shelf, which was signed by the first President Bush in 1990. Here's the video:

The President said that:

Failure to act is unacceptable. It's unacceptable to me and it's unacceptable to the American people. So today, I've issued a memorandum to lift the executive prohibition on oil exploration in the OCS. 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

Obviously I'm missing something here, because I got the distinct impression that last week it was the G8 leaders, George W. Bush included, that failed to act. That is unacceptable to me. What about you?

As you might expect, the idea of oil rigs off their coast is unacceptable to California Democrats. Slightly more surprisingly, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has reiterated his opposition to such plans. According to KNBC Los Angeles Arnie says that:

I know people are frustrated with the soaring price of gas, and I welcome the national debate on solutions to lower our energy costs, but in California we know offshore drilling is not the answer. We will continue to foster a market for alternative energies because choice is the only way we will ultimately bring down fuel costs.

Here's a video from a couple of days ago in which Arnie tells us his views on the Bush administration's record on global warming:

Democrats are pushing a different agenda. The Wall Street Journal MarketWatch web site reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expects "his congressional colleagues to introduce a bipartisan bill targeting oil speculators by Wednesday"

Echoing Barack Obama's comments after the OPEC meeting last month, Mr. Reid said that:

We need to crack down on excessive speculation

I wonder what the Democrats make of the Pickens Plan, and the fact that T. Boone Pickens runs an energy hedge fund eponymously entitled BP Capital?