NC offshore oil drilling proposal

Earlier this week, President Bush lifted the executive ban on offshore oil drilling.

This was a way for Mr. Bush to speed the process along.

Now that the executive ban is lifted, it will force Congress to make an immediate decision whether or not to lift its ban.

Also this week, Republicans in the State House proposed a resolution to allow residents of North Carolina to decide for themselves, if drilling should happen off our coast.

Professor of Geology and Environmental Science at UNCW Roger Shew said, “President Bush has tried to get Congress to lift the ban on offshore waters for quite some time now, and this puts it squarely in the lap of Congress to act now.”

According to professor Shew, available oil and gas off our coast is minimal, compared to the west coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

If the congressional ban gets lifted, it will still take five to 10 years just to determine how much recoverable oil resources are out there.