Californians Accuse Bush of Tilting Towards Florida on Oil Policy for Political Gain:
nytimes.com
California officials, who have been locked in a legal battle with the Bush administration to halt offshore oil drilling, responded angrily today to what they described as President Bush's highly political announcement that the federal government was seeking to buy out oil drilling leases in Florida but not California.
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In Washington on Wednesday, President Bush sat next to his brother Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida, and vowed to spend $235 million to buy a number of highly unpopular oil leases in a state where his brother is running for re-election and that handed him the presidency in 2000 by the slimmest of margins.
Jeb Bush acknowledged that he would probably gain politically from the plan. But he and the president insisted that it was also sound policy because the move would protect beaches and wetlands.
All of this has prompted officials in California, a heavily Democratic state that President Bush lost by a lopsided margin, to ask why saving their beaches and sensitive environment was not as high a priority, particularly since many here have been fighting offshore oil leases in the Santa Barbara area for decades.
"We've been asking the federal government for a long time, not just this administration, for buybacks, and we think we should have equal time and equal rights," said Representative Lois Capps, a Democrat who represents the Santa Barbara area. "People here see right through this decision. It's an important step in the right direction, but we should get equal treatment."
The Florida plan, which still must be approved by Congress, contrasts sharply with the Bush administration's actions in California. Ever since a disastrous oil spill off the Santa Barbara coast in 1969, Californians have been bitterly opposed to new offshore drilling, and state officials have urged the federal government to halt the sale of any new leases and to stop new drilling under 36 leases held by oil companies.
But when many of the old leases were set to expire, the Bush administration decided to extend them. That prompted the state and environmental groups to file a lawsuit, arguing that the extensions should not have taken place before state authorities could review the leases to see if they complied with existing laws.
When the state won the case in federal court, the Bush administration appealed. Oral arguments are set to be heard in the case in San Francisco on June 10. |
