Editorials

In this time of extremely high fuel prices, when $150-a-barrel oil threatens to push the economy into deep recession, when global warming is a real threat to our future, our president has chosen to play a round of politics.

President Bush assembled in the Rose Garden at the White House earlier this week for a big to-do, where he announced he was lifting the two-decades-old moratorium on offshore drilling. He proceeded to blame congressional Democrats for $4-a-gallon gasoline.

Of course, lifting the executive ban on drilling was meaningless because Congress also has a ban on offshore drilling. The president also didn't bother to mention that even if the United States started drilling today, it would be years before any of that oil started to flow.

In other words, the major Rose Garden photo-op was a shot at the Democrats. It did nothing — absolutely nothing — to solve the immediate problem.

That is this administration's usual procedure, however. Emphasis on drilling and the importation of foreign oil have been priority No. 1 from the beginning.

Developing alternative and renewable forms of energy has been a low priority. Yes, there has been a lot of talk recently from the president about developing alternatives, but there has been very little action and practically no money dedicated.

It is the same old, same old, and it is dished out with the usual take-it-or-leave-it attitude that has been the hallmark of this administration.

Meeting in the middle seems out of the question.

Even the president's ardent allies on Capitol Hill agree that he should compromise with congressional Democrats, something a growing number of them appear to be advocating.

Even our own Rep. Mike Rogers recently suggested that our nation's current energy problem is not something the United States can drill its way out of.

But it is something that calls for an holistic approach.

A certain amount of drilling may be in order, but there should also be a real and sustained effort to develop alternatives. For example, what would the president say to the proposal of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling if all of that tax revenue were used to develop alternative forms of energy?

That answer may never be known, for this is a stubborn man in a stubborn administration who seems more interested in wasting time with political cheap shots at the majority party in Congress than in solving the problem.