U.S. President George W. Bush called for Congress on Friday to approve oil drilling in offshore waters and in the Alaskan wildlife refuge to push American through "tough economic times."
Bush said at a meeting at the Energy Department that one option to deal with skyrocketing oil price is to tap the vast potential crude oil reserves on offshore waters and in Alaska as well as in the western part of the country.
He noted that technological development has made it possible to recover the oil while protecting the environment.
The president urged the Democrats-dominant Congress to address the issue before they begin a recession in August.
"They have a responsibility to explain to their constituents why we should not be drilling for more oil here in America to take the pressure off of gasoline prices," he said.
The U.S. economy suffers from gasoline prices hike that has reached over 4 U.S. dollars a gallon (3.785 liter), and U.S. Congress and the White House are stressing different ways to ease the oil crisis.
"Crude oil prices are up and one reason crude oil prices are up is because demand is outstripping supply," the president said.
On the other hand, Democrats in the House of Representatives are trying to pass an energy package as early as next week aiming at increasing domestic oil production, also as a way to counter Republicans' charges that they are anti-drilling.
"Let's be clear: Democrats support increasing the domestic production of petroleum and other energy resources," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters on Wednesday.
He said the legislation would speed up development of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, and reimpose a ban on foreign export of Alaskan oil.
Earlier this week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi renewed her request to President Bush for more government-held oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to be released onto the market to check prices, which has been always resisted by the president.
"Right now the president has 700 million barrels of oil. He can release a small percent of it, less than 10 percent of it; have immediate impact on the price at the pump now, within 10 days, not within 10 years," Pelosi said.
Source:Xinhua
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