President Bush on Monday lifted an executive ban on offshore oil drilling and challenged Congress to follow suit, aiming to turn the enormous public frustration about gasoline prices into political leverage.

Democrats rejected Bush's move as a symbolic stunt.

With gas prices continuing to rise, Bush made his most assertive move to extend oil exploration, an energy priority of his presidency. By lifting the executive prohibition against coastal drilling, Bush rescinded a White House policy that his father put in place in 1990.

The move has no practical effect unless Congress acts, too. Both executive and legislative bans must be lifted before offshore exploration can happen.

Bush had called on Congress a month ago to go first, then reversed himself on Monday. He said the country could no longer afford to wait.

"Failure to act is unacceptable. It's unacceptable to me and it's unacceptable to the American people," he said. "Democratic leaders can show that they have finally heard the frustrations of the American people by matching the action I've taken today."

Even if Congress agreed, the exploration would take years to produce results. It is not projected to reduce gas prices in the short term, and the White House routinely emphasizes that there is no quick fix.

If Congress does move to lift the ban, reserves off San Diego County could be among the first tapped.

The U.S. Interior Department's Minerals Management Service says about 11 billion barrels of oil could be mined from the sea along the West Coast, including 1 billion barrels off the North County coast.

Local waters, however, also contain fault lines that some environmentalists caution could result in earthquakes that could lead to oil spills from offshore derricks.

At least three faults cross the North County offshore basin, including the Rose Canyon fault nearest the coastline. That fault runs in a northwestward track parallel to the coast at Oceanside, Carlsbad and Encinitas, migrating offshore at La Jolla and swinging back onshore at Newport Beach.

Running parallel, the Coronado Bank fault is a little farther out and the San Diego Trough fault is farther still. Just beyond the oil basin lies the San Clemente fault that runs to the west of Santa Catalina Island.

The faults are capable of generating an earthquake of magnitude-7 or greater. That is a huge amount of shaking capable of toppling buildings and freeways.

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, hailed Bush's action.

"This decision is a step in the right direction for American consumers and our economy, but a defeat for the environmental lobby that has spent tens of millions of dollars in Washington over the years to place our nation's energy reserves off-limits," Issa said in a written statement. "The decision between using America's own energy reserves or continuing to send our dollars to Venezuela and the Middle East now rests squarely on the shoulders of (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic Congressional leadership."

Issa has endorsed legislation that would lift federal barriers to new drilling and allow states to decide if drilling would be permitted within 50 miles of their coast.

A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, said the congressman opposes offshore drilling in California waters but would not object to other states allowing it.

If Congress follows Bush's action, the California Coastal Commission would have a role in deciding if and where drilling could take place.

The commission has authority over only three miles of state water, but it does have a say in leasing rights farther out. The Federal Coastal Zone Management Act gives the commission the authority to review any proposed leasing agreements and explorations off the coast.

The panel can make recommendations to the Interior Department, which grants the leases, and it can sue the federal government if the recommendations are rejected.