Breaking: "Bush lifts executive ban on offshore oil drilling"

But Congress still has to follow suit for anything to happen:

President Bush lifted an executive order banning offshore oil drilling on Monday and urged Congress to follow suit.

Citing the high prices Americans are paying at the pump, Bush said from the White House Rose Garden that allowing offshore oil drilling is "one of the most important steps we can take" to reduce that burden.

However, the move is largely symbolic as there is also a federal law banning offshore drilling. (CNN)

In case anyone wonders, there's plenty of oil within the U.S.:

In his statement last month, Bush also renewed his demand that Congress allow drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, clear the way for more refineries and encourage efforts to recover oil from shale in areas such as the Green River Basin of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

The White House estimates that there are 18 billion barrels of oil offshore that have not been exploited because of state bans, 10 billion to 12 billion in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the Green River Basin.

Did you read that - 800 billion barrels. It's restrictions on getting to it that force us to import.

Ph/t: InsideCatholic.

Gas prices and popular (re)action

So, I'm sure everyone is noticing the rising gas prices that accompany summer and it got me to thinking: do they really need to be this high? See, I've read the articles [example] about Exxon Mobile (for instance) earning record profits, and I remain skeptical that they are passing those savings onto us.

The question, however, is how to do something about it. I've received chain emails calling for various grass-roots efforts. The most reasonable of them seems to be the "don't buy from Exxon Mobile" idea. With the idea being that once they notice a hit in sales they would lower gas prices. But I don't think enough people will get organized to make such action effective, and frankly, I think they could last longer than us.

What about political action? Is the big oil "interest" too much to overcome? Why isn't gas a regulated utility, like electricity and water? [related: On Profit and Pump Prices.]

(Incidentally, I don't currently own a car. In fact I probably have one of the smallest "carbon footprints" of anyone I know. I often walk to work, carpool to school, and take flights rarely. I do, however, probably need to replace some light bulbs. And to be honest, I'd really like a car, and I just bought a couple sets of plane tickets.)

Anyway, I'd be interested to hear what my readers think. So this is your chance to voice your thoughts (and/or vent your frustration if you feel so inclined).

Update: In terms of pratical short-term solutions, GasBuddy tries to help you keep track of what prices are like at the pump in your area. A nice little resource for those of us trying to stretch our pocketbooks.

According to this article, the sharp rise in prices this year [graphic] is partially explainable by a "series of refinery outages and breakdowns." And oh yeah, they're predicting that this summer will be one of the "worst-looking" ones we've seen. Goody.