Environmentalists have feared that Bush would try to use his last year in office to push for opening up areas for drilling, and that is exactly his plan:

The Bush administration has proposed allowing oil and gas drilling in an area of the Bering Sea considered important for the recovery of the world’s most endangered whale.

The proposal opening up 5.6 million acres off the Alaska coast to energy development was published Tuesday in the Federal Register by the Minerals Management Service.

Under the leasing proposal, the North Aleutian Basin lease sale would be held in 2011. Exploratory drilling could begin the next year.

Bush has been a disaster on the environment, and he will leave with a bang. Hopefully Congress has the ability to hold up his plans until we get a new President.