According to Barrons, Bush made an agreement with Jeb not to drill off the coast of Florida.  He also said he would support any state that didn't want drilling.

Barrons May 12, 2008 pg 45

President Bush doesn't support revoking lease sales moratoriums first imposed by his father in the 1990s and later extended to 2012 by Bill Clinton. " Prsident Bush has made it clear that he will give great weight to the desires of States that do not want new oil and gas development off their coasts....". an energy department official wrote last December.

Bush during the 2000 presidential contest, promised his brother Jeb, Florida's governor at the time that he'd maintain the drilling ban.  It just so happened we recall that Florida and the US Supreme Court gave him the election.

So now with few other winning issues, Bush is all for drilling and the spin is to blame the Democrats for the lack of drilling.  Just as with most things, Bush did the politically expedient thing to win elections by stopping drilling.  It would take years to develop this resourse and since oil is fungible and priced globally it is very doubtful that production in the US would impact world oil prices.  I do think we should develop these off shore resources but the fault lies with the current administration on why it hasn't been done over the last eight years.