WASHINGTON – President Bush and Republicans are angling to put the blame for high gasoline prices on the Democrats, backing Sen. Barack Obama into a corner where he can be seen as caring more about environmentalists than the millions of middle-class voters feeling the financial squeeze of $4 gas.

On July 14, President Bush rescinded an executive order signed by his father in 1990, banning exploration for oil and natural gas on the Outer Continental Shelf, or OCS.

A nationally broadcast announcement from the Rose Garden was intended to shift blame for record high gasoline prices onto Democrats.

“The time for action is now,” Bush said. “Today, I’ve taken every step within my power to allow offshore exploration of the OCS. All that remains is for the Democratic leaders in Congress to allow a vote.”

The president’s decision set the stage for a conflict with Congress, which must also revoke a congressional ban on offshore drilling before the green light can be given.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was quick to respond:

“Once again, the oilman in the White House is echoing the demands of Big Oil,” Pelosi said in a press release following Bush’s announcement.

“The Bush plan is a hoax,” she continued. “It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence. It just gives millions more acres to the same companies that are sitting on nearly 68 million acres of public lands and coastal areas.”

Republican presumptive presidential nominee Sen. John McCain was quick to see the advantage.

“I think it’s a very important signal to lift the ban on offshore drilling,” McCain said in a statement praising Bush’s decision to rescind the executive order. “I know that Sen. Obama is opposed to lifting the ban on offshore drilling.

“I hope that, as he has on several other issues, Sen. Obama will change his position and now support offshore oil drilling,” McCain continued.

According to the Washington Post, a May Gallup poll indicated 57 percent of those surveyed were willing to allow drilling in coastal and wilderness areas now off limits, provided the drilling had the potential to reduce high gas prices.

Sen. Obama has opposed offshore drilling, arguing the move would do nothing to reduce gas prices immediately.

Proponents say a decision to resume offshore drilling could convey U.S. resolve to increase oil supplies and drive prices down among speculators bidding on contracts.

The U.S. remains one of the world’s largest producers of oil, despite mainstream media reports that the nation is dependent on foreign supply because it has no more domestic oil left.

Data published by the Energy Information Administration, or EIA, of the Department of Energy still show the U.S. as the third largest producer of oil in the world, ranked right behind Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Remarkably, the U.S. still exports some 27,000 barrels of oil weekly, according to EIA data.

The problem is the nation consumes more oil than it produces and has become increasingly dependent upon foreign oil to meet demand.

Of the 20.7 million barrels of oil consumed each day in 2006 (the most recent year profiled in EIA data), approximately 12.4 million barrels, or 60 percent, comes from foreign sources.

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens of Mesa Petroleum runs spots on nationally syndicated cable TV in which he claims 70 percent of oil consumed in the U.S. comes from foreign sources, costing the nation approximately $700 billion in foreign-exchange reserves every year.

Is there enough yet unfound petroleum to make a significant impact on the price of oil on international commodity exchanges?

Truthfully, no one knows how much oil may be found offshore.

WND reported that Chevron, exploring the Jack field some 270 miles southwest of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico, discovered as much as 15 billion barrels of oil, enough to increase the estimates of U.S. reserves by 50 percent.

Brazil has recently announced the discovery of yet another huge oil field offshore in the Atlantic that could contain between 5 to 8 billion barrels of oil, enough to expand the country’s proven reserves by 40 to 50 percent.

These new finds of offshore oil have lent evidence to the abiotic theory that argues oil is created naturally and continually within the mantle of the Earth, rather than a “fossil fuel” derived from decaying ancient forests and dead dinosaurs.

The abiotic theory has argued that oil found in sedimentary rock has accumulated there after seeping upward from the Earth’s mantle through cracks in bedrock geological structures.

What is clear is that opening up the offshore continental shelf to drilling will increase the supply of oil and natural gas over time.

Even if the increase in production is not immediate, a change in policy will communicate U.S. resolve to reduce dependence on foreign oil.

T. Boone Pickens appears to be arguing for wind power on the assumption that “this is a problem we can’t drill our way out of.”

The May Gallup poll indicates most Americans disagree.

What’s clear is a no-drilling policy is going to be increasingly difficult for the Democrats to maintain, especially if Bush and presidential contender John McCain continue to press for opening up the OCS to aggressive oil and natural gas exploration.

With Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez threatening that oil prices could hit $300 a barrel, Democrats in Congress and Obama must come up with something better than switch grass and wood chips to convince voters they are serious about a solution.

Jerome R. Corsi is a staff reporter for Worth Net Daily. He received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972 and has written many books and articles, including his latest best-seller, “The Late Great USA.” a>>