In a largely symbolic move on Wednesday, President Bush rescinded his father's presidential ban on offshore drilling, according to the Washington Post. While lifting the presidential moratorium has no immediate effect on exploration, Bush's move escalates the confrontation with Democrats who oppose offshore drilling.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is refusing to change her stance against offshore drilling. "The president of the United States, with gas at $4 a gallon because of his failed energy policies, is now trying to say that is because I couldn’t drill offshore,” Ms. Pelosi said in the New York Times. “That is not the cause, and I am not going to let him get away with it.”Election year politics are playing a clear role in the debate over offshore drilling.

In a Rose Garden statement at the White House yesterday, Bush argued that allowing drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, including the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and off the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines would ease pressure on oil prices by increasing domestic production. Bush also urged Congress to approve other steps, such as allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, and he blamed Democratic opposition to drilling for the current run-up in gasoline prices.

Both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, counter that in a best-case scenario, offshore drilling wouldn't affect oil prices for decades but it could put the environment at risk and that a comprehensive, long-term energy plan is needed instead.