United States President George W. Bush said he plans to lift the interdiction to drill for oil in the Outer Continental Shelf on Monday as one of the first steps in an effort to ease record high oil prices, according to a White House statement.

According to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, the President chose to make this move as the Democratic-led Congress didn’t do it despite the fact that Bush urged lawmakers last month to lift the restrictions on offshore oil exploration.

The move comes after presidential candidate John McCain underlined the fact that he would do the same were he to be elected president. The Republican asserted that states should be allowed to authorize exploration off their coasts in order to solve the nation’s energy crisis. Sen. Barack Obama wants to keep the ban in place.

The White House said Bush will make public his decision in a statement on energy needs at 1:30 p.m. EDT. The surging gasoline prices have annoyed consumers in a presidential election year when the Republicans are making efforts to keep the presidency.

Perino said Bush will announce in his statement that he has decided to lift the executive ban on oil exploration in America's Outer Continental Shelf.

"He'll again call on Congress to lift its legislative ban.”  "There is no excuse for delay," Bush said last month in a Rose Garden-released statement.

Bush will lift the executive order banning offshore oil drilling, but the move is mainly symbolic due to the fact that there is also a federal law which was passed in 1981 banning offshore drilling. The executive order was signed by Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, in 1990.

According to a recent poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News, nearly 80 percent said rising pump prices are causing them financial hardship. If the Republicans don’t change that, Barack Obama might get his chance to do it.