It's time it pitches in a bit, so thinks Bush. After everything he has screwed up, does he really deserve to have any say in anything beyond ordering a box of pencils for the White House? I used to not understand people here who liked Chirac because "he does nothing" but it all makes so much more sense now.
President Bush is deciding whether to lift a ban on oil and gas drilling in federal waters off Alaska's Bristol Bay, home to endangered whales and sea lions and the world's largest sockeye salmon run.Sorry, but prices will need to be a hell of a lot higher for this to make sense and as production goes up, prices will surely fall. Outside of more corporate welfare, this is another plan to nowhere. Think Iraq, or think Katrina, except it will be the environment paying the price. Can't he just do nothing?
Leasing in a portion of the area rich in oil and natural gas ended nearly two decades ago while Bush's father was president in the outcry after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.
But with natural gas prices higher, the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service proposed reopening up the North Aleutian Basin. That includes Bristol Bay and part of southeastern Bering Sea.
